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Celebrating Samoan Language Week at BestStart Pharazyn Street
Tamariki Maia Celebrated Samoan Language week by creating many different pieces of art. One of their favourite activities was learning about Samoan Siapo, also known as Tapa. This is a traditional Samoan cloth given to people of rank and displayed for special occasions. We learned the magic of how crayon repels the dye and how to scrunch it up and unravel it very carefully. The tamariki were very curious why they were scrunching up their beautiful artwork? To help them all understand better, the Kaiako encouraged them to feel the texture of the Tapa we usually have hung on our wall, to create their own working theories. Then they were asked what had happened. This helped them understand that by scrunching our artwork we were changing the texture from "smooth paper" to "crinkled cloth". Another favourite was creating beautiful headbands inspired by Samoan designs and using the beloved hot glue gun to attach the variety of resources. Mat times included simple words, and phrases for our tamariki to learn. By joining in different cultural celebrations, tamariki can extend their knowledge and understanding of the diversity around them.