Manoa Heritage Center

Yesterday, the Magical Pueos took a field trip up to the Manoa Heritage Center.  The Manoa Heritage Center is focused on preserving the cultural heritage of Hawai`i, with particular focus on our valley.  Since we are celebrating our 100th anniversary this year, the Manoa Heritage Center provided a fitting introduction in teaching us about the rich history that our valley holds.  This year we will be focusing on our ahupua`a, a land division used by the ancient Hawaiians that started in the mountains, continued through the valleys, and down to the ocean.  Manoa Valley was, and still is, a very important part of our ahupua`a.

At Manoa Heritage Center, we learned many interesting facts about our valley.  Do you know what Manoa means in the Hawaiian language?  Do you know the uses for an o`o?  These are questions that we learned the answers to during our tour.  The Manoa Heritage Center also is home to the only intact heiau in our ahupua`a.  This heiau was an agricultural heiau, where the ancient Hawaiians would come in hopes of productive agricultural activity.  Students were able to peer inside the heiau and get a glimpse of what life was like hundreds of years ago in this valley.  Please see the photo gallery for pictures from our field trip.

Today we had some very special guests.  Members of the Rotary Club visited our school and gave our third grade students their very own dictionaries.  Our fourth grade students already had dictionaries given to them last year by the Rotary Club, and today the third graders received their own.  The dictionaries are an essential tool to learning in our classroom, whether it be vocabulary words or spelling.  These dictionaries also include a gazetteer, which students use to answer geography questions.  We are very thankful to the Rotary Club for providing us with these useful gifts!  

Posted on November 8, 2007 10:21 AM | Permalink