Manoa Mountains News for November 7, 2007
The Manoa Mountains enjoyed three excursions that helped them to learn more about our community. On Friday they went to Foster Botanic Garden to view the Talipot plant and draw it with suggestions from Miss Brooks. All of the drawings were detailed and interesting. Some were especially detailed and captured the beauty of the plant's leaves and berries. The drawings are in the art rooms for safekeeping.
On Monday the class went to the Manoa Heritage Center to see the house and gardens built by Monty Cooke. The heiau in the back yard was especially fascinating, and the native plants which were planted around it made it even more interesting. The guide, Aunty Sharon, taught the class about the endemic, indigenous, and introduced plants in the garden. Everyone took lots of notes and wrote detailed reports when they returned to school.
The Manoa Stream tour was fascinating from beginning to end. We began at Lyon Arboretum, where we saw the stream at its source. The area was cool, the stream was clean, and the foliage was plentiful. Many large trees provided shade, and the plants on the sides made it look beautiful. At Kaimuki High School, we saw evidence of negative human impact with large amounts of graffiti on the walls and rubbish in the stream. At McCully Bridge, we saw even more evidence of negative human impact, with lots of rubbish in the water and a shopping cart and lots of other debris on the sides. At Magic Island, we saw even more rubbish in the water and debris on the edges along the walls. It is evident that human impact is at its worst there because of the heavy usage by families.
Mr. Shideler works on the Ala Wai Restoration Project, and he shared some information about how the habitat of the o'opu and opai have been affected by humans. The rising temperature of the water and the introduction of foreign materials to the stream have created hazardous conditions for these native animals.
The Manoa Mountains are busy preparing their Math Adventure planning sheets for approval. The projects will be presented on Monday, November 19th, at 10:00 AM. Of course, all parents and grandparents are invited.
Tomorrow morning the Rotary Club is sending some representatives to provide our third graders with dictionaries. The fourth graders received theirs last year, and they need to bring theirs to school. We want to show the Rotarians how we are using the dictionaries to do our vocabulary work.
Next week Wednesday, Graham Salisbury will visit our school to talk to our students in grades 3-5. We have been reading his book Under the Blood Red Sun to prepare for his visit. We will have the opportunity to ask him some questions.
Next Friday we will attend the Honolulu Theatre for Youth's production of Obake at Tenney Theater. The show will begin at 9:15 and end at 10:15 AM.
Posted on November 7, 2007 10:20 AM | Permalink