Vasega 3- Tainasoa

E te manatua le taimi na e feiloai ma se tainasoa?

No Fefe: E fiafia Carmine (2) i le tainasoa.... ae e leai ni ata o la'u tama o Tanifatea ana tasi ana vaai i tainasoa ae tagi "Ou te fia alu i le fale"

Talofa tamaiti ma matua,

Ua fai sina leva. Ia faamalie atu, na sa ova le pisi o lenei tagata vaivai i la'u ia galuga ma la'u ia fanau na le maua se taimi e fai le blog.

Sorry it's been a while folks. I hope many of you already know that it's often easier for me to put up quick updates from my phone on facebook so even where you're not seeing much activity on this blog something will be happening there so like the page! https://www.facebook.com/funsamoanforkids

 I've made an executive decision to skip the second part of our Vateatea class (I hope to update it at a later stage) and go straight to vasega 3 Tainasoa so I can catch up. Particularly given we have another vasega today at 4pm (meet at around 3pm at Rocket Park) :)

The whole idea behind our classes is to make learning both fun and accessible and to provide an opportunity for the community of people who are committed to teaching their children Samoan to get their kids together in a setting that will appeal to kids. So one of the things we love doing is checking out what is on in Auckland (a great site is https://www.facebook.com/AKLforKids/ ) and then tailoring our Samoan lessons to that. So it was great to find that Auckland Council were doing Dinosaur in the Gardens (this is running until January and comes highly recommended by me- http://www.aucklandbotanicgardens.co.nz/whats-on/events/dinosaurs-in-the-gardens/ ). This gave us a chance to do the ever popular topic among children of all ages Tainasoa.

Now the only issue with this topic is that there are really limited Samoan books and ready resources on Tainasoa in Samoan (somewhat surprising given that my children have well over 40 books about dinosaurs (fiction and non-fiction) in English (ok that is a lot of dinosaur books but we love books and dinosaurs).

A study in contrast: just a few of the many English books we have about Dinos vs the trusty laptop where we wrote our own resources on Tainasoa!
 

So of course we decided to make some resources.

I wrote a Lima Tainasoa which is based on the 5 little ducks song- "5 little ducks went out to play, over the hill and far away, mummy duck said quack, quack, quack, quack, but only 4 little ducks came back."

My version is

Lima  tainiasoa na o tafafao

i luga o le aega, ma o mamao

Na valaau latou tina ROA ROA ROA

Ae toe fo'i mai na o le fa  tainasoa.

Fa tainasoa na o tafafao

i luga o le aega, ma o mamao

Na valaau latou tina ROA ROA ROA

Ae toe fo'i mai na o le tolu tainasoa.

 Tolu tainiasoa na o tafafao

i luga o le aega, ma o mamao

Na valaau latou tina ROA ROA ROA

Ae toe fo'i mai na o le lua tainasoa.

Lua tainasoa na o tafafao

i luga o le aega, ma o mamao

Na valaau la tina ROA ROA ROA

Ae toe fo'i mai na o le tasi  tainasoa.

Tasi tainasoa na alu tafao

i luga o le aega, ma alu mamao

Na valaau lana tina ROA ROA ROA

AUE! Ua le'i toe fo'i mai se tainasoa.

 

Na faanoanoa le tina tainasoa

Ua le'i toe foi mai lana fanau

Na alu i luga o le aega ma toe vaalaau.

Na valaau atu ROA ROA ROA

Ae fo'i mai uma le lima tainasoa.

We are happy to send free pdf resources with pictures (sourced from the internet) to others who are keen to teach their kids Samoan.  If you are interested in this please like the facebook page and get in touch by emailing me on sisiliaeteuati@gmail.com.

I am off now as I have to take my kids to the Santa parade in town because there is no rest for the wicked particularly wicked fun parents (bad pun I know)

I will try to write a second part of this Tainasoa class later.

The last thing I want to leave you with though is the importance of play.  The kids favourite thing by far in this class was playing "Ua ta le fia tainasoa?" which we modelled on "What''s the time Mister Wolf."

The kids stood far away from the "Tainasoa" and shouted "Ua ta le fia tainasoa" and the tainasoa (me at first) replied "Ua ta le lima (5)" and then the kids would take 5 steps forward. We kept on doing this until the kids looked close... and then the tainasoa would say "O le taimi o le ai"....  and chase them until they took over someone who would be the next Tainasoa.

This gives you an idea of how you can change simple games into Samoan to reenforce and encourage Samoan. To extend and confirm learning this week (and help teach the time) I am asking my kids and encouuraging them to ask me "ua ta le fia?" and saying "O le lima tele la e faasino atu i le sefulu lua, o le lima laititi la e faasino atu i le valu, o le uiga la.... (and hope they sing out) ua ta le valu"

 

Vasega 2- Vateatea Part 1

O le mataupu o le matou vasega lona lua o le Vateatea. Na o'u manao e fai le mataupu lea aua e fiafia tele la'u tama o Lagi i paneta. Na matou feiloai i tafatafa o le fale paneta (planeterium) e fai le matou vasega i luga o se fala lanumoana i le malu o le laau tele.

The topic of our second class was Space. I wanted to do this topic as my son Lagi loves planets. We met next to the Planetarium to have our class on a blue mat under the shade of a large tree.

I luga o le fala lanu moana

Na matou amata ma le faitauga o le tusi Vateatea e faamatala a Brian ma Jill Cutting, ae e faaliuliuina e Ainslie Chu Ling So'o. Na fa'ateleina le tusi lea ana na matou manao e faaaoga e faitau faatasi le tusi ma tamaiti. Na le pu'e se matou ata i le taima na faitau ai le tusi, ae o le ata lea o Lagi ma le tusi e faailoaatu le lapoa o le tusi.

We started by reading the Sunshine book Vateatea, told by Brian and Jill Cutting, and translated by Ainslie Chu Ling So'o. We turned this into a big book for shared reading purposes.  Again I don't have a photo of me reading but here is Lagi with the book to give you an idea of size.

"Ua tulaueleele tagata i luga o le masina. E mafai ona o latou iloa le Lalolagi mai o."
People have sood on the moon. They can see the Earth from there.

I think this book is at an appropriate level for younger kids (2-6). For my 2 year old I think these kind of books are great for reading to her and asking her simple questions like "Ofea le masina?" O a isi mea lae i luga o le vateatea?". For my 5 year old this is the level I think he should be reading at (and it is the level he is reading at at home but I notice his faiaoga are giving him slightly simpler books).

The book uses the repetitive phrase "Tatou te va'aia...." As seen in the photo immediately below.

"Tatou te va'aia fetufaisiusiu ma fetulele i le po"
"We see comets and shooting stars at night."

Extending and Consolidating Learning

If you came to class and want to reaffirm learning at home think about using "Tatou te vaaia... " and "Ta te va'aia....". For example if you had the kids in the car and you were travelling to work and there are more than two of you, you could ask "E te manatua tatou tusi na faitau i le Aso Sa? Vateatea? Aia pe tatou ta'alo "tatou te va'aia"? O a mea tatou te va'aia i le taimi nei?" (If you are still working on your Samoan perhaps just practice and use that last sentence in bold. It translates as "What can we (more than two of us and inclusive of the person being addressed) see at the present time?") If there are only two of you in the car you could use "O a mea ta te va'aia i le taimi nei?") Then encourage your little one(s) to use that sentence structure to describe what you are seeing. For example:

Tatou te va'aia taavale. We see cars.

Tatou te va'aia la'au. We see trees.

Tatou te va'aia timuga. We see rain.

Tatou te va'aia le nofoafi. We see the train.

or if there are just two of you

Ta te va'aia le loli. We see the truck.

Ta te va'aia le alalaupapa. We see the bridge.

Ta te va'aia moli. We see traffic lights.

You could also have kids come up with stories by asking them to start a story with a sentence beginning "Tatou te va'aia...."

For example they may writie "Tatou te va'aia fetu i le po, ae ua le'i o'o muamua seisi i se fetu. O te manao e fao so'u roketi e fa'aaoga e ave a'u i se fetu....".

It may also be useful to check your child knows the difference between

Tatou (inclusive of the addressee when there are more than 2 people)

Ta (inclusive of the adressee when there are only two people, exclusive of others who are not being addressed. Lagi loves this one as he likes using "ta" to me to exclude his sister e.g. "Mummy, ta o i Rainbow's End?")

Matou (exclusive of the addressee when you are talking about more than 2 people)

Ma (exclusive of the addressee when you are talking about 2 people- i.e. you and one other.

I luga o le fala lanu moana

Next we asked the kids "E iai seisi e iloa se pese ia mea i luga o le Vateatea? Se pese ia fetu?" I was sure someone would volunteer twinkle twinkle little star but it didn't happen. "Pe o se pese ia le masina?" Lagi chirped in with "Masina, Masina e" though he may have had the inside running as this is one of my most loved nursery rhymes! So we sang Masina Masina e. I had a puppet show of sorts (a yellow cardboard moon and a green cardboard mountain, and a toy cat, dog, chick (standing in for a rooster which I couldn't find at short notice among my kids toys) and a bat. If you are familiar with the nursery rhyme you'll know why.

The lyrics for this nursery rhyme go

Masina Masina e

Ofea e te alu i ai?

Ou te alu i tua o le mauga

Ou te lafi lilo ai.

O le pusi e soso mai

O le maile e taufeai

O le moa e kokoea

ma o le pe'a e ai ulu pe.

I translate this in English (not exactly but more so it fits with the tune)

Moon, Mr Moon,

Where are you going?

I am going behind the mountain

To hide, to hide.

The cat is creeping closer

the dog is very fierce

the rooster he crows

and the fruit bat eats rotten fruit.

Extending and Consolidating Learning

If you came to class and want to extend learning based on this nursery rhyme think about whether you want to talk about positioning with your child. That is sing the nursery rhyme in Samoan and then ask "Ofea na alu ai le masina?" If they are a little older (around 5) they will probably answer confidently "I tua o le mauga." If they are younger you may have to prompt. Then you could play a game where you gave simple instructions and let them position themselves e.g.

"Alu i tua o mummy. Go to the back of mummy.

Alu i luma o mummy. Go to the front of mummy

Alu i lo'u agavale. Go to my left.

Alu i lo'u tamatau" Go to my right.

Switch it up. Get them to do the calls and you do what they say.

Ok enough for today. In the next blog post I'll talk about going into the planetarium and the fun we had in there including the children naming all the planets in Samoan and then the fun we had at the playground.

In the meantime- Manuia le vaiaso :)

Our Facebook page

So I am finally motivated to blog again (because I am truly passionate about teaching my kids to speak Samoan and talk about my journey with this) so naturally my Internet goes down! It feels like karma for all the times I put off writing with no legitimate excuse!

Vodafone has assured me they are sending a technician. In the meantime I am typing this from my phone! Which is very very very hard.

So I am compensating by doing small (but I hope useful) Facebook updates on our Facebook page
https://www.facebook.com/funsamoanforkids/ .

Feel free to come on over and check us out. :)

Vasega muamua- i le nofoaga o manu

We thought that something that may be helpful for parents would be to write a blog outlining what we have done in each class.  The idea is that:
-you can extend and consolidate the learning from the class during the week (we will include the words of songs and possibly videos in the future, examples of the sentences so you can sit down with your child and using the start of the phrase get them to make up stories using that structure, have lists of new words that we read or talked about to increase vocabulary etc.)
-you can get ideas for running the class/ see how simple running the class is so you feel confident taking the class yourself

It's been a long week, so here's the recap of our first impromptu class...to the best of my recollection.

Our first class all started with a call from Gianni on a lazy Sunday. The kids and I were out at Cornwall Park biking and scooting rather than at lotu, just like the bad Samoans we are. Did we want to do a Samoan class this afternoon?

Sure that is exactly the type of impromptu no prep thing we love do! We decided to do a trial run at the zoo. It's a fun place and Gianni and Lagi both have +1 passes courtesy of their respective grandparents (faafetai mo tama ma tina matua e alolofa ia la'ua). We were due to meet at the zoo at 1.30pm. We got home at 1pm.... I hurriedly translated the only kind of zoo related book I could find - From Head to Toe by Eric Carle. I quickly translated it writing out the Samoan next to the English Mai le Ulu i le Tama'ivae tusia e Eric Carle.  I chose it because

• I thought it would be fun for the kids because it has animals in it and it has actions that they can do
• the copy I have is rather large so was suitable for reading to a group
• I thought it would be useful to encourage the kids to speak Samoan (while we were going to see the animals later) if we started with reading a book about animals in Samoan.

I didn't take photos of us reading this book at the zoo itself, ae popole fua, I forced asked Lagi and Tanifa to hold it up for me today so that you would get an idea of size  of the book (and of the translation).

"O a'u o le pafalo, e mafai na o'u tu i luga o'u tauau. E mafai na e faia?
E mafai na o'u faia!"

"O a'u o le manuki e mafai na o'u talo atu ma o'u lima. E mafai na e faia?
E mafai na o'u faia!"

The structure of this book seemed to work well for teaching sentence structure. It is simple and repetitive and the picture cues (as you can see from the photos) are really clear.

I also thought it was fun as we could then incorporate the action song "Ulu, tau'au, tulivae, tama'ivae" or "Head, shoulders, knees and toes"

This song goes
"Ulu, tau'au, tulivae, tama'ivae
tulivae, tama'ivae
tulivae, tama'ivae
ulu, tau'au, tulivae, tama'ivae
mata, taliga, gutu ma le isu."

As you will know the English version is
"Head, shoulders, knees and toes
knees and toes
knees and toes
head, shoulders knees and toes
eyes, ears, mouth and nose".

This led into the next game "Faimai Simoga" or "Simon says". Most people know this game from childhood- we just do the exact same thing in Samoan.

"Faimai Simoga e te tago ia ou taliga
Faimai Simoga e te tago ia lou isu
Faimai Simoga e te tago ia ou suilapalapa
Tago ia lou isu"

And then inevitable laughing at all those who touched their nose because  as my 5 year old put it "Ga le faimai Simoga e te faia". This also can lead to a good conversation about the difference between
your- lou (singular) and ou (plural)
and
my- lo'u (singular) and o'u (plural)

The winner got a Freddo.  Chocolate incentivises children. This is a universal truth.

We also had butterfly wings (courtesy of Tanifa's 2015 Halloween costume). So we ran around, arms extended, flapping our 'apa'au singing:
"Va'ai i le pepe, va'ai i le pepe,
e lele solo, ma fa'apepepepe
e pei se manulele, e pei se manulele
manaia ana lanu eseese
e lele i i, ma lele i o
ae leai, leai se pa'o."

Tanifa ma lana 'apa'au. I le ata lea lae tuli e Leon ma Tanifa le tama'i lapiti uliuli.

This roughly translates
"Look at the butterfly, look at the butterfly
it flies around, being like a butterfly,
it's like a bird, it's like a bird
 it's many colours are lovely
it flies here, it flies there
but it makes no noise at all"

(After writing this I found this link http://artsonline2.tki.org.nz/resources/units/music_units/into_music_1/singing/o_le_pepe.php and it looks like you can download the song there :) )

When we had finished the lesson on the big blue fala. We decided to walk around the zoo.  We were surprised how much Samoan the kids used.  For example when we went to the penguin enclosure Gianni volunteered "Na o'u faitau le penkuini. E iva penkuini." At which point my fiapoto child Lagi said "Leai, leai, e to'a sefulu penkuini." Furious double counting and checking ensued in Samoan. There were 9. Gianni got a freddo!

Competitive as ever as soon as we got to the Kea enclosure Lagi volunteered "Tina, e lanu meamata le Kea. E to'a lua Kea." The freddo count was then even.

I also had forgotten how many bridges there were at the zoo.  The kids loved going over them and we prompted them to say "Le ma te savali i luga o le alalaupapa"



Ok that seems enough for one lesson. Not just because I am writing this the day before our lesson tomorrow Sunday 13 November at 2.30pm next to the Stardome Planetarium at Cornwall Park.

O a'u o le Samoa

"O a'u o le Samoa." It's a line you learn pretty early when you are light-skinned, growing up in Samoa. Along with "alu ai gi ou kae" but that's not quite as uplifting.

It's a line I want my even more light-skinned children who are growing up in Auckland to be able to say.  But more than that, it's a line I want them to think. A line I want them to feel. To know. Deep inside their bones.

So it has always been important for me that my children speak Samoan. I grew up in Samoa but Samoan is my second language.  We all know mothers are the primary caregivers, the first teachers, the singers of lullabies and whisperers of comforting words. It is mothers that introduce us to the magic of nursery rhymes and books.  My mother is palagi and I was born in Australia and lived there surrounded exclusively by English for the first three years of my life (so crucial for language development) while my dad was doing his PhD. We moved back to Samoa for three years and then we moved again to Fiji for three years. I came back in year 6 and went to Robert Louis Stevenson School (RLSS) where all the kids in my class spoke English and only English. I may have taken one or possibly two Samoan classes in my life (thanks Mrs Leuga) but I, a class geek and A type personality used to achieving academically, hated it. I was frustrated and bored and ashamed all in one class - this was my own language that I was struggling with.

I think Samoan really started gelling for me in Uni.  Not by going to actual classes. We all know Uni wasn't actually for attending lectures or tutorials! But by hanging out with friends from Samoa. Homesick and at hostel we mostly spoke to each other in Samoan. It was fun. It was comforting. It was like coming home.

So many years later I still think that the key to learning language is using it. Having fun with it. Being encouraged to try, to make mistakes and be corrected in a fun setting.

My 5 year old has been attending Aoga Faasamoa since he was 3 and is now in Mua i Malae - a full immersion Samoan language unit at Richmond Road School.  My 2 year old has been attending Aoga Faasamoa since she was one.  Through these schools and my children's friendships I have made some amazing friends.  One of my close Samoan friends Gina grew up with two non-Samoan speaking parents.  But for the last 10 or more years she has been doggedly going to Samoan classes, and I admire immensely her persistence and dedication, how much she has learnt and her determination that her children will speak Samoan.  We, who didn't grow up with Samoan as our mother tongue, are all the more committed to teaching our children Samoan. To have the language of our ancestors roll off their tongue in the way it has never quite rolled off ours.

So we have been talking about how we could encourage our children to speak Samoan more and we were talking about my experience.  But recreating Uni for our kids a.k.a taking them up to Shadows to get crunk constantly, did not sound like a viable plan  may be frowned on by child welfare experts. We talked about the importance of elevating Samoan - of making it cool for kids to speak.  So we came up with simple parent-led free classes where our kids could get together and have fun.   The classes will be aimed at what I like to call "Sesame Street level". Our own kids range in age from 1 - 5 so we are aiming it at that level (I think kids up to age 8 would be engaged especially if Samoan is their second language). We are going to run these once a week. It will be a chance for our kids to get together and use their Samoan, it will also be a chance for us to reinforce grammar and sentence structure, increase vocabulary and so on.

I feel equipped to give these classes not the least because I'm no longer ashamed of acknowledging that my Samoan is not perfect (and am happy for my Samoan to be corrected).  I am old enough now to recognise that learning is a journey. And that journey is life long. I recognise that I have had 13 years of English classes (as opposed to my one or two Samoan classes) so I have a lot of catching up to do. I am confident I can run a simple Samoan class for kids - to read books and sing songs and have vocab lists and follow-on lessons for parents to work with their kids on this blog. And I think a lot of other parents could do this too. We intend to revolve the teaching among parents who feel comfortable enough to take the classes.  Come along tomorrow at 2.30pm for our Vateatea lesson by the Stardome Planetarium. Look out for me and Gina on a large blue mat.