Life in Samoa

In Week 2 and 3 we kept going with our inquiry topic on Samoa.

In Week 2 we looked at shelter in Samoa. We looked at the types of materials that could be used to build houses and decided that they use lots of natural materials, like wood and leaves from the trees. We also decided that we should design a house and label it. We used things like coconut husks, coconut leaves, wood, hay and sometimes metal called corrugated iron for the roof. The walls were usually made out of wood.  We worked in groups of four to practice our team work skills and use each person's different ideas. We then talked about the buildings we had drawn and decided what sort of tools they would use to build them. We didn't think they would have electric tools like drills and we thought about how people would put things together and cut down the trees. Some of our ideas were saws, hammers, screwdrivers and axes.



In Week 3 we looked at clothes. We thought about Samoa and used what we already know to guide us. We knew that the weather is hot in Samoa all year, because people from New Zealand go on holiday there during our winter. We used this and pictures and our own experiences to come to the answer! We decided that people in Samoa wouldn't want to wear thick clothes, they would like to wear thin clothes. Some people in our class are from Samoa and they told us all about wearing a lavalava or an ie. We also found out that girls wear a type of dress called a puletasi. There is also a special dress code on White Sunday in Samoa. Everyone buys new white clothes and wears them to church to celebrate childhood on the second Sunday in October.

 Here are some children dressed for White Sunday.

This is a Samoan puletasi.