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Gagana Samoa
This year's Samoan language week started from Sunday, May 24 to and ended on Saturday, 30 May. The theme for SamoanLanguage week is 'Tapena sou ōso mo lau malaga' which in English means 'Prepare yourself a gift for your travels'. Due to Covid 19 we kept our celebration this year small. We celebrated with just our faiaoga/teachers and our tamaiti/children.
Throughout the week Best Start Manukau tamaiti/children had opportunities to learn about the Samoan culture from faiaoga/teacher's through singing songs (little birdy on the tree/Si manu laititi, Savalivali), learning the lanu/colour names, counting from tasi/one to sefulu/ten, learning names of body parts and well as daily conversations and listening to Samoan music . To top it off we had a dress up day. Our children also had a chance to have chop suey and taro for their lunch. A big thank you to faiaoga/teacher Sera for cooking that. It was enjoyed by all the tamaiti/children.
Our tamariki are displaying whanaungatanga in making connections to other cultures differ from their own and having a sense of belonging. They are also displaying tikanga in ways of being and doing that have been handed and taught and doing and learning it the right way. In conclusion, we all had a great Samoan Language Week. It was great to for our tamaiti/children to witness the Samoan culture and its traditions as well as make connections between people, places , and things in the world.