Showing posts with label Hawaii. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hawaii. Show all posts

Tuesday, November 08, 2011

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!

Thursday, October 27, 2011

happy birthday...


...to my (ok, our) one and only.

To my best friend for life. You are the coolest person I know and with you I am forever entertained. When I think how full my heart is for you, well, words are not enough. You, my Jonathan, are the perfect person to walk next to in this life, and I (ok, we) love you dearly.

Happy Birthday!

Saturday, October 22, 2011

Maui - day 15





Saying goodbye - Hawaiian style. See you soon, Maui!

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Maui - days 12, 13 and 14

Our last 3 full days we picked our favorite beaches to enjoy one final time. The top 3? Kamaole 1, Ka'anapali and Po'olenalena (the latter we nicknamed turtle beach).





One evening we headed over to the beach at the Grand Wailea to attempt some family pictures. Here are some outtakes.












Back to Ka'anapoli Beach...




H & H attended a lei making class at Whaler's Village. These flowers are so beautiful it hurts!



The lei making instructor.
Shaka to you too, brutha.


That, my friends, is devil's food cake fro-yo with peanut butter cups, white chocolate chips and CONDENSED MILK! Yummmm. The white chocolate chips were for Havalah. Wink!



Can you see all the sand on this girl's scalp? It was unbelievable.



Final sunset at Kamaole Beach.

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Maui - day 11

Today we decided to take our friend's advice to leave the beach behind for a day to drive 7,000 feet up to see the Haleakaka Crater. In a word, awesome. It's my understanding that as the crow flies it's only 12 miles to the top, but at 25 miles per hour and constant switch backs, it took almost 2 hours. Of course we had to get out frequently along the way to enjoy the beauty.

We started our day with Malasadas, which are Portuguese donuts. Oh yum. Apparently the Malasada bakery is in Honolulu and is called Leonard's...just an fyi. :) Then we started our drive. This incredible plant was bordering someone's house, err, estate.

Shopping, and snacks...



I was so excited to see the famed Silver Sword plant. These plants live 50 years and apparently only bloom once and then die. They are so protected by Hawaii that to tamper with one in any way, shape or form is a HUGE fine. It was really, really spectacular.











As we were driving down the mountain we were passing lots of fields with farm animals when I noticed this sheep dog sitting in the middle of his field guarding his goats. It was the cutest thing I think I've ever seen, him sitting right there, panting, almost like he had a smile on his face. Jon turned the car around so I could get this picture and when he saw us slowing down he started walking slowly to the fence, assuming we were there to cause trouble. Then he ran back and forth barking, trying to get us to leave. So CUTE!