Pride

Our value for the next two weeks is PRIDE.  View the short iMovie to check out some students who are proud of the learning they are doing in classrooms and being part of our school.  Thanks to Jayden and Pandora for helping Mrs Kakoi to put it together.

WELCOME to 2014!!!

I hope everyone has had a restful holiday and is eager to start back at school.  I am looking forward to seeing students from last year and meeting new students.  Please feel free to come and find me if you would like any support.

Tongan Language Week

Malo e' lelei,

Last week it was Tongan Language Week so we had a themed Assembly and Mrs Kakoi dressed in some Tongan clothing for the assembly.

Randy, Mrs Kakoi and Valentino.  A Tongan necklace is called a kahoa and the belt worn over the skirt is called kiekie.

  

Randy and Valentino represented their culture by speaking in Tongan and by teaching the school a Tongan Song, Malimali Mai:

After assembly the Tongan students and Mrs Kakoi made a special Tongan drink called Otai made from tropical fruits, cream, ice and some sugar.  All the students tried the drink and most loved it.  Thanks to Valentino and his Mum for sharing their recipe.  We couldn't source any watermelon so we substituted with apple, strawberries and rock melon.  We also included fresh mango, pineapple, honey dew melon, tinned fruit salad and threaded coconut.  ( I will upload some photos of this soon...)

Term 3 Focus

This term we are focussing on our cultural backgrounds and identity in ESOL.  First we are looking at what our names mean and their origin.  We will be asking our family to help us find information as we research and may use the internet to find some of the meanings.  We will present the information on a digital name tag, using the iPads.  During our learning we will focus on some key vocabulary, e.g. heritage, culture, origin, identity, etc.  I will post some photos soon of our work.

Here is a photo of one student's work:

The student wrote their name using ColourBox App then cut it out on PicCollage then added text using stickers or background colour to highlight.  The name tag has information about what the name means, where it comes from and what the student likes about their name.

Describing People

In our ESOL group we have been learning how to describe how someone looks.  We have been focussing on describing parts or a person's face (their eyes, hair, nose, skin colour), what the person is wearing and what size they are.

Today we played a barrier game.  Mrs Kakoi hid a finger puppet behind the modelling book so that we couldn't see it.  She then described the puppet's face, what it was wearing and it's size.  As she was describing, we had to draw each part using the colour box app on the ipad.  At the end we got to see the puppet and compared our drawings with it.  We then took a photo of the puppet on the ipad to show the comparison.  

Here is a copy of our drawings:

Drawn by Dipshay

Drawn by Bella

And here is a photo of the puppet that was described behind the barrier:

A fireman:  He has a brown face with black hair, thin black eyebrows, dark eyes and a bushy black moustache.  He is wearing a long yellow coat which has a red collar.  He has red gumboots on and is holding a black pipe with a silver nozzle.  He is also wearing a red helmet with a yellow badge at the front. (Photo taken by Bella).

Umu Photo Captions

Our group has been working on talking and writing, including detail so we wrote detailed captions about some of the photos taken when the umu was made.

The pig is ready in the metal mesh to be cooked on the hot steamy rocks.

Amosa and Mr T came to help make the umu.

There was luau, lamb chops, pork, green bananas and taro in the umu.  Yummy!

After the pork had been cooked, they started to slice the pork ready to serve out to the whole school.

Mr and Mrs Kakoi were unwrapping the taro from the umu so they can serve the food.

Captions written by Sarah, Mafutaga, Atilisi, Krystina and Hannah.

Celebrate Samoan Language Week

Last week on Friday we had a yummy umu to celebrate Samoan language. We learned all about the Samoan words for the food that was put in the umu.  
by Pero and Luse