White Sunday

Connecting to prior knowledge

Initiate a discussion about celebrations and traditions, inviting students to share their own experiences. Record the responses in a table like the one below.

View this Learn Bright video about world cultures. Invite the students to identify  cultures that they know or belong to. Ask if they heard any new or unfamiliar words/phrases in the video and discuss. Suggestions might include:

Watch this HiHo Kids video and discuss the various cultures and traditions that the children share. Invite students to ‘share and tell’ an aspect of their own culture with the class or in small groups. This could be a word, action, holiday, or something else. If students do not wish to talk about their own culture, or find it difficult to do so, invite them to share something that they do/say in their family or another community group (e.g. a sport they play, a hobby they enjoy).

Create a new class brainstorm outlining what cultural traditions are. Include features such as:

Start a conversation about cultural and family traditions and explore some that the students participate in. Encourage them to actively listen and respond to each other by asking relevant questions to extend their knowledge.

Invite students to bring in photos, draw pictures, and/or write about their own family and cultural celebrations and traditions (again, they can use another community group if they prefer). Model creating a poster with these materials, using your own family as an example, then have the students complete their own.

In small groups, students can present their posters and ask questions about each other’s traditions. This is an opportunity for them to share their own experiences and increase their understanding of other people, cultures, and communities. Create a class display for the posters titled ‘Our Family and Cultural Traditions’.

If possible, read and discuss some rich texts that explore various cultures and cultural celebrations, such as:

• Filo’s Butterflies by Litea Fuata, illus. Myo Yim
• Grandmother from the East, Grandmother from the West* by Jacinta Liu, illus. Freda Chiu
• My Nonno Loves by Adelle Frittitta, illus. Claudia Frittitta
• Stay for Dinner* by Sandhya Parappukkaran, illus. Michelle Pereira
• Baby Business* by Jasmine Seymour
• I’m Australian Too by Mem Fox, illus. Ronojoy Ghosh
• New Year Surprise!* by Christopher Cheng, illus. Di Wu
• My Two Blankets* by Irena Kobald, illus. Freya Blackwood
• Our Village in the Sky* by Janeen Brian, illus. Anne Spudvilas

* Reading Australia title

Add these to your class library for students to view and read. Write the titles of any texts you use on a display wall and add coloured paper around each one with key words, phrases, observations, and responses towards the cultures and traditions explored.

Before reading

Look at a world map to locate Australia and Samoa. Explore the latter using Google Earth. Then show students some images of White Sunday celebrations.

Introduce and explore aspects of White Sunday. This is a national holiday dedicated to children, observed in Samoa every year on the second Sunday of October. Have students close their eyes and listen to this factual recount by Sarona Aiono-Iosefa. Afterwards, invite students to share key words and ideas from what they heard. Allow them to listen to the recount a second time, then invite them to draw pictures of what they heard and imagined. They can share their ideas and pictures in small groups.

Display the front cover of White Sunday, written by Litea Fuata and illustrated by Myo Yim. Explain that Fuata comes from a big Samoan family. She was born in New Zealand and now lives in Australia. Display Fuata’s photo and some images of life in Samoa to provide context for the students (a selection is available from the Samoa Tourism website).

Now read the title of the book and introduce the main character, Sina. Explain that in this story Sina celebrates White Sunday with her family.

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During reading

Conduct a read-aloud, making connections and identifying some of the cultural representations in the text. Invite students to listen and observe anything that stands out or interests them. This provides an opportunity to highlight and expand vocabulary, reading fluency, and comprehension, as well as oral language and communication.

After reading

In small groups, students can discuss questions such as:

• What does Sina do to get ready for the day?
• What are some things that Sina and her family do on White Sunday?
• Do you do similar things at your family celebrations?
• The adults give ulas (necklaces) to the children – are there special accessories or clothing you wear at your celebrations?

Discuss and record any text-to-self, text-to-text, and text-to-world connections. You could jointly construct posters or retrieval charts for each one and display them in the classroom for future reference.

Have students draw or write some of the highlights from their first reading of White Sunday. They can then form small groups and take turns to share one idea, picture, word, or phrase from their list, providing an opportunity to build knowledge and vocabulary. Each group should draw and record the key words, phrases, and ideas from their discussion on poster paper. They can then conduct a gallery walk to view the other groups’ posters. After the gallery walk, they can return to their original group and add any new words, phrases, and ideas to their own poster.

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Exploring the text in context of our community, school, and ‘me’

In groups of three, students are to share, draw, and record connections and comparisons between White Sunday celebrations and other traditions. This provides an opportunity for all students to clearly communicate and share their experiences while becoming familiar with those from other cultures and communities. Remind them to actively listen and respond to their peers by asking relevant questions to extend their knowledge. They can record their ideas in a table like the one below.

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Rich assessment task

Drawing on the previous activity, students will draw and label several elements from their culture, family, or other community group. This may include features such as music and songs, dances, clothing, art, symbols, food, language, and special rituals or ceremonies. Collate the work samples and create a class culture and traditions book to display in your class or the library.

Students will then create a second work sample depicting elements of another culture, based on texts they have read and/or work shared by their peers. Collect these samples and compile them into another book to represent what they have learned about different cultural traditions so far.

Another option is for students to record elements from another culture in a word cloud. These can be printed for display or students may take a photo/screenshot, allowing them to share their learning with different peers across their grade.

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Responding to the text

Place students in groups of two or three and provide them with a key word story strip (PDF, 46KB) featuring words from White Sunday.

Model how to use the words on one of the strips to create a sentence with a single idea, including sentence boundary punctuation (i.e. capital letter at the beginning, full stop at the end). The purpose is not to copy the sentences from the book, but to use the words to create a new meaningful sentence.

Ask students to use their story strip to orally create a sentence, then write it on A3 paper (or a device) with an accompanying illustration. Invite each group to share their ideas with the rest of the class, then add their work to a ‘Super Sentences’ display.

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Exploring plot, character, setting and theme

NOTE: For the purpose of tracking page numbers, the first page of the story is considered p. 1.

Hand out copies of White Sunday to small groups of students. Ask them to look carefully at the text and illustrations for clues that point to the importance of the White Sunday celebration and family togetherness. For example:

• Sina’s siblings are all smiling (p. 2)
• The whole family is dressed in white (pp. 1–2)
• There are family photos on the wall (p. 2)
• The adults at church clap and cheer for the children (pp. 3–4)
• The adults in Sina’s family give ulas to the children (p. 6)
• The family gathers to share food (pp. 7–8)
• The adults prepare for the meal together (pp. 7–8, 11)
• The children play happily together (pp. 7–12)
• Sina’s mother comforts and encourages her (pp. 20–21)
• Sina’s family cheers for her as she climbs down the tree (pp. 23–26)

Encourage students to make connections to their own experiences. They can use a Venn diagram to compare and contrast Sina’s White Sunday celebration with a family, cultural, and/or community celebration of their own. An example has been provided (PDF, 50KB). Students may also make comparisons with other cultural celebrations and traditions they have read about.

Prepare question dice (if you do not already have them) by modifying large foam dice or constructing cubes with a different question starter on each face (‘Who?’, ‘What?’, ‘When?’, ‘Where?’, ‘Why?’, and ‘How?’). Place students in groups and give each group a die. Invite them to roll the die and take turns generating their own questions to promote deeper thinking about the characters and story of White Sunday. The other group members can then respond. It is important to model this process to show the students how to generate both closed and open questions. Closed questions require short answers (e.g. yes/no); open questions require more information. Listen to the groups and record some of their questions. Display these on a wondering wall.

Regroup as a whole class and select one or more students to hot seat as Sina or another character from White Sunday (e.g. Mum, one of Sina’s siblings). The other students can ask a mix of closed and open questions to clarify the events of the story and to infer how the characters are feeling. These can be questions from the wondering wall, or any new questions the students may have thought of. Encourage the students in the hot seat to explain their responses using evidence from the text.

Finally, invite students to make inferences about the events and characters from White Sunday using the sentence stem:

I think … because …

Record the inferences on a T-chart like the one below.

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Rich assessment task

Ask students to return to their Venn diagrams and use them to make statements that compare Sina’s cultural experience to their own. Sentence stems could include:

• On White Sunday, Sina … and in my culture we also …
• On White Sunday, the children … but in my culture we …

In pairs, students will take turns to orally share their comparisons while their partner films them. Compile the videos into a reel that can be shared on Harmony Day or at a school assembly to recognise and celebrate diversity in our community, country, and world.

Allow students to review the first draft of the reel and consider their facial expressions and gestures. Are they welcoming? Do they add interest? Do they speak clearly, at a good volume, and in full sentences? Have they used topic-specific vocabulary? Allow students to self-evaluate and re-record themselves if desired.

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Examining text structure and organisation

Ask students to close their eyes and listen carefully as you reread White Sunday. Encourage them to reflect on the images that spring to mind as they listen.

Distribute copies of White Sunday to small groups of students. They can examine some of the illustrations that depict different features of the holiday (pp. 1–8, 27–29). Each group should look carefully at these images and discuss the sequence of Sina’s White Sunday celebration.

Regroup as a class and discuss how the illustrations support the telling of the story. Display pp. 1–2 and read the text. Then guide students to explore the following visual literacy concepts in relation to these pages:

These concepts may be new to students, so the discussion will need to be teacher-led. Model how to comment on the illustrations using a visual literacy approach:

Sina and her family are getting ready for a day of celebration. We can tell that they are excited because the children are smiling as they run down the stairs.

You can repeat this process for other pages, working as a class, in small groups, or in pairs. Invite students to share their ideas about what the illustrations show, what feelings they evoke, and what message Litea Fuata and Myo Yim want to convey.

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Examining grammar and vocabulary

Discover, display, and investigate the following new words from the book:

Have students draw or use an app like Sketches (or similar) to create visual posters based on the new vocabulary. Display these as part of cultural word wall.

Point out that Fuata writes in the present tense and the first person. Discuss how this makes readers feel as though they are sharing White Sunday with Sina.

Identify and list the present-tense verbs in the text. Then ask students to record the past-tense form of each verb. Compare when finished. For example:

Afterwards, have students rewrite select sentences from the text in the past tense. For example:

Display both the present- and past-tense sentences. Compare and discuss their differing impacts on the reader. Discuss how White Sunday would be different if it was written in the past tense.

Repeat these activities to identify and list the first-person pronouns in the text. Ask students to suggest some third-person (and, optionally, second-person) pronouns for comparison. Then jointly rewrite some sentences from the text in the third person. Again, discuss the effects of each and how White Sunday would be different if it was written in the third person.

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Rich assessment task

Picture quilt

Reread White Sunday and ask students to select a part of the story to visualise and reflect on. This may be a part that they found enjoyable or interesting, or that reminded them of their own experiences.

Give each student a square of paper with a border. Inside the border, they should draw a detailed picture of their chosen part of the story. Outside the border, they should write words or phrases that describe their illustration. Encourage them to include new vocabulary from the cultural word wall, if relevant.

Invite students to share their finished squares with the rest of the class. Then assemble the squares to create a picture quilt for display in the classroom.

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Planning and sequencing

Reread White Sunday and review the highlights of the day for Sina and her family. Emphasise and explain how Litea Fuata has used Sina to recount the events of White Sunday as a cultural tradition.

Explain to students that they are going to create their own book based on a cultural tradition of their choosing. This can be an event or celebration they have participated in, or one they have learned about as part of this unit. Instead of using Sina as the main character, each student will star in their own story.

Model a simple oral recount of a cultural tradition in the first person. If your chosen tradition is from a different culture, describe what you have learned about it rather than trying to place yourself in the experience.

After sharing your own example, ask students to identify the focus of each sentence (as above). Then allow them to choose their own cultural tradition and practise orally recounting it using the same structure. You may record some examples to share with the class and refer to later.

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Modelled writing and joint construction

Present some images that depict elements of your chosen cultural tradition. Describe and sequence the images, glueing or draw them on the planning and sequencing template (PDF, 47KB). Write a single sentence to describe each picture. Alternatively, create a film strip summary as a visual format to support your retelling of the cultural traditions. Students can then add images, words, phrases, and new vocabulary to their own templates.

Model and jointly construct a written recount using the completed planning and sequencing template. Highlight the importance of a main character to tell the story (i.e. the student writing in the first person); consistent use of the present tense; a clear sequence of events; and use of simple and compound sentences, sequencing connectives, and conjunctions.

Jointly construct an anchor chart to model some simple sentences, and another to model compound sentences. Add these to your ‘Super Sentences’ display (see Responding > Responding to the Text) to provide students with examples of clear and meaningful sentences.

Also jointly construct an anchor chart of sequencing connectives and conjunctions that students can refer to and use in their writing.

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Rich assessment task

Students will use the planning and sequencing template or the book planner (PDF, 46KB) to create their own recount of their chosen cultural tradition. Remind them of the many features they can write about, such as music and songs, dances, clothing, art, symbols, food, language, and special rituals or ceremonies (as outlined in the Literature section).

Referring to their planning and their work on ‘Super Sentences’, students are to draft, reread, and edit their writing. They should also sketch out some pictures for each part of their story. Encourage them to use a combination of simple and compound sentences to describe what is happening in each image.

Once they have finished their draft, students can turn their story into a physical book or publish it using an app like Book Creator (or similar). Organise to share the completed books with another class or with the whole school during an assembly (e.g. for Harmony Week). You could even record and share the stories with your students’ families via your LMS, or invite families to attend a sharing session at school.

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