Hawaii Journals

Even though we've been home from our trip to Maui for a few weeks now, the kids are still adding pages to their Hawaiian journals. It occurred to me that I should do a quick blog about these journals since they've turned out to be such a keepsake.

The week before we left I planned a Hawaiian unit for each child. I took all the subject areas but math (spelling, Language arts, vocabulary, handwriting, geography, history, science and art) and taught them Hawaiian style. Then the kids brought their books along on our trip and added to them as we vacationed. (Should I mention that I caught Henry trying to use my Chapstick for a glue stick since I had forgotten to pack one? :) He had to see for himself that it wouldn't work. For some reason I didn't get as many photos of Havalah's book, but here are some of Henry's and a few of Havalah's.

Henry's:

{showing the island of Maui and the flowing lava}

{we learned about Pele the goddess of fire, lightning, wind and volcanoes}

{traditional Hawaiian batik}

{story writing}

And a few pics from Havah's book:

{Havah's name in Hawaiian}

We had lots of silly fun calling each other by our Hawaiian names while on vacation. Too much fun really.

{working with the Hawaiian alphabet and translating words}

Here are some of my resources, other ideas came from books from the library.

#1 - unit ideas, maps, state facts, volcano making and more volcano making, lei making, Hawaiian crafts, more mapping and more mapping, videos of volcanoes erupting, teaching kids about volcanoes, mythology, history of poi (did you know they use this as a palate cleanser?), Hawaiian alphabet, more art ideas. I wish that I had written down all the books we used from the library, but unfortunately I wasn't that organized. Anyway - this unit was so much fun, and I hope that we can do something similar sometime soon!