Tongan Language - Rules and Laws

Today in both of our chats online William's Dad from a village in Tonga joined us and talked about life in Tonga and New Zealand. Yes he does live here now with his family.

This afternoon we were talking about rules and laws in the Pasifika Islands pre-european times. We found out in Tonga even though there is a ruling King some villages answer to the Nobles. If there is a feast for a celebration everyone in the village is expected to contribute as much as they can. And of course no one wants to be looked at like the ones who didn't do much, so families give and give. 

Paralympics

We have been trying to engage with students while in Level 4 Lockdown and I thought we would try a version of the paralympics. Why?

• For Fun
• As we couldn't complete our own team olympics sports at school
• Get students moving and engaged

After watching a range of the Paralympics, which I don't usually get to see due to being at work. I thought how interesting it was to see how they modified various activities so a range of people could participate.

 E.g. ball with bells for the blind to hear, wheelchair sports and so on.

We came up with blind darts (paper planes), mouth aerobics (writing the ABC with your mouth), hand aerobics, tying a shoe lace with one hand and thumb typing "the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog", blind bowls (roll a tin to the kitty), blind boccia (toss under under a ball of paper) and if time athletics one legged hopping race after spinning around 10 times, and crab crawling.

Please remember these need to be done in front of a camera and were just for fun. (our computer often the target or finish line). I can't wait to see the results.

Punishments and Consequences

 The horrible part of Law and Order. For every law there has to be a consequence, if there is no consequence why have the law. Just like at home why have a rule and no consequence. Although there are some interesting consequences as all families are different. 

The most strange was if you drink from a bottle (straight out of the fridge, say) it is now yours. How is that going to stop teenagers drinking from the bottle of coke? But no one wants to be sharing germs! YUCK!!!

Two Places at Once

It doesn't happen often during lockdown but today I had a staff meeting and a class meeting. So while I listen to both one with headset and gave directions through chat to the class. Two of my boys ran the class meeting with a speed discussion about with the consumer has the right to return, repair or refund. 

They did well, thankfully the class had followed instructions and read the story to find out about what refund, repair and return meant and when you could possibly do each and when you couldn't. It was also great to hear from some other students too.

Rules in Society that we can observe

 There are many places we can see rules in action. Nature has it own set of rules, some plants and animals are out for themselves - survival of the fittest and they do often protect their young. An example of this is the lone wolf or male lion and snakes or in plant life, weeds or vine that take over the garden or suffocate another plant.

Others are more family orientated like the elephant who ensures the young are in the middle holding on to a tail (or hand) as to not get lost. Orangutans and other primates, although they do fight for the dominant role when old enough. 

Another Law we observe is around Privacy, so when on calls videoing has to be asked for due to names and possible faces being visible.  But here is a mixed up screen shot with only first names due to this law.

Purpose of Rules and Laws

We have been talking about the reasons why places have rules and laws. Today we created a poster using Canva to help explain the importance of Rules and Laws and why people should follow them. Some students did rules and laws in general. I did rules and laws around Covid. 

I carefully considered my background, Canva had a lot to offer for Covid and Medical Ideas. 

As mine was the example I choose to focus on Covid and why we should follow the rules and laws that have come along with it. 

Here are some ideas from the class.

Beating the Lockdown Lazies

As the Prime Minster said it was a matter of when not if. So here we are at home ready to teach from a distance. I am so happy that our school is fully digital it makes it easier, even if some need to borrow school chromebooks.  We have recently finished looking at the Olympics and start our new Inquiry about Rules and Law. With a focus on Consumer Law and a bunch of students who purchase things everyday this was a good place to start. 

We watch a clip on a boy called Anaru who buys a pair of shoes after explaining clearly what he is going to use them for. Not long during his practise playing basketball he finds they are unfit for purpose.

Our first Inquiry session as a class we discussed the plus, minus and interesting facts of what happen as this is what we came up with.