Hawaii @ Home!
Once we finished up our work with Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear last week, we hopped right into a new book: Hawaii is a Rainbow!
I had already decided to do a Hawaiian theme with the girls since their Nana and Boppa had just returned from vacationing there.
The problem was finding a book featuring Hawaii!
My search lead to this one at our local library.
I wasn't over the moon about it but it did give Taitum a chance to review all the colors she's been learning!
For each color there are photos of things in Hawaii.
I did appreciate that in the back of the book they explain more thoroughly what each of the pictures are.
We began our Hawaiin study by talking about the weather there.
Because it is so warm and sunny I also pointed out the importance of wearing sunscreen and protecting your skin from the sun.
We did an experiment to go along with this - a sunscreen experiment!
The girls applied sunscreen to one side of a piece of black construction paper.
Then they taped them on the deck outside and left them there for the day.
At the end of the day, they went back to see what had happened.
The areas with no sunscreen were quite faded while the area where the sunscreen had been applied was still black!
We talked about just how strong the sun is and that this is the reason Mommy is so adamant about applying sunscreen to them when they go outside for long periods of time!
In Hawaii is a Rainbow, we learned about lauhala - a type of leaf the Polynesians used to weave various items.
(If you look closely, you can see a photo of someone weaving with lauhala in the book beside Piper.)
So the girls did some weaving, too!
They used ribbon and this wire contraption I got for free at a yard sale!
(Any idea what it actually is??)
Tait became frustrated rather quickly with this exercise and soon scampered off but Piper thoroughly enjoyed it!
I think I need to come up with some other weaving projects for her!
And what is an Hawaiian themed week without a trip to the beach?!
We ventured off to a nearby lake and spent the morning building sandcastles, burying ourselves in the sand and splashing around in the water!
We spent a day learning about waves and surfing.
This included assembling 'wave bottles'.
The girls added water, oil, blue food dye and sparkles to their bottle.
Then they shook away creating some fun and fabulous waves!
Even our littlest student enjoyed this one!
Next I cut out surf boards for them from cardboard.
They had a great ol' time pretending to surf while watching a "Surfing in the USA" youtube video!
Finally, they painted their boards and drew pictures on them!
The girls discovered what an island is!
They colored a map of Hawaii and found it on our world map.
Then I hauled out the playdough, had them form their own island in a container then filled it with water.
They were delighted to have a little island for their princesses!
This also really helped reinforce the idea that an island is land surrounded by water.
While playing, Piper said her island was a volcano.
I hadn't planned on doing anything about volcanos since we had just learned about them not so long ago but since they are Hawaiian and Piper was interested, I thought "Why not?!".
I hauled out the baking soda and vinegar and the girls went to work, creating one volcanic eruption after another!
Being always enthusiastic about dancing, both girls were overjoyed to learn the hula!
We watched come youtube videos together to see how its done, then practiced it ourselves!
They also colored a picture of a hula dancing girl.
We also learned about palm trees.
There were many pictures their Boppa took of palm trees in Hawaii and the girls really loved looking at them all.
We made our own using a toilet paper roll, twine, fabric, beans, pompoms and a pop bottle.
They turned out to be extremely cute!
Piper and Tait also learned that the hibiscus is the state flower for Hawaii.
They made their own with construction paper, do-a-dot markers and pipe cleaner.
To wrap the week up, we hosted a luau in honor of my Mom and Dad's 30th anniversary!
(Big cheer for 30 years!!)
Much of the girls' work was displayed on the wall for guests to see.
And there was lots of tropical goodies to be had!
(Plus some Vanilla Macadamia Nut Hawaiian coffee straight form Hawaii! Mmmm, good!)
I made some Pina Colada cupcakes for the luau.
Some were simply frosted with a 'Luau Party' cupcake topper.
Others had more of a fun twist and were assembled by Piper herself!
Unfortunately, Piper was not feeling well the evening of the luau.
It slowed her down a bit but we all had a wonderful time celebrating with the girls' Nana and Boppa!
They had leis for everyone, dresses for the girls and a slideshow of pictures for everyone to watch!
The girls' (shyly) did the hula.
And the limbo!
Learning about Hawaii was so much fun!
It was a perfect way to end our school year too!
We are taking the next 2 weeks off, then jumping back into things for a few weeks while Daddy teaches summer school!
Happy summer vacation!!
3 comments:
Hi Gina, very nice and so much fun for the girls. I have one of those wire things. I use it to put cups on top and under it in the cupboard. I'm not sure if this is the really purpose of it, but that's what I use it for. Got the girl's picture and drawing. Please tell Piper I really liked the drawing and thanks to you for the picture. They are adorable for sure. Love Auntie J. X0X0
What a lovely study of Hawaii! It was very inspiring.
Oh wow! You've been sooo busy exploring Hawaii! Awesome unit! Thank you so much for adding this link to High paw! Looking forward to see you again this Friday with new fun posts! PS: I was looking on your blog for links to Twitter and Fb accounts when I shared your post but couldn't find them...
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