January 24, 2008
Two Special Visitors - Mr. Haga and Mr. Rumford
Today’s assembly featured two very special guests.
As part of our "100 Years in Manoa" celebration, the elementary school students will be putting on an opera in conjunction with Hawaii Opera Theater. The opera tells the legend of Kahalaopuna and is based in Manoa Valley. To help our students understand the legend better, we invited author/illustrator James Rumford to speak. Mr. Rumford has written and illustrated a number of children’s books, including a book entitled Kahalaopuna. Mr. Rumford read Kahalaopuna to the students and even showed us his original watercolor paintings that were included in the book. It was amazing to be able to see the original work of art and how that original piece was transformed into printed form. The students are even more excited to get started on planning the opera!
Our second special guest was Mid-Pacific alumnus Mr. Samuel Haga. Mr. Haga came to celebrate his 106th birthday with us! This was a special time for our entire school and especially our class since Mr. Haga’s great-grandson is class member Justin Schatz! To illustrate to everyone the significance of turning 106, Mrs. Hussey had one child stand up for each of the years Mr. Haga has been alive. By the time we were done counting, almost half of the students were standing up! We then sang Happy Birthday and gave Mr. Haga cards and posters we had made for him. We feel honored to have been able to share this special birthday with Mr. Haga and his family - the Koikes and the Schatzes.
Posted at 11:27 AM| Permalink
January 18, 2008
Camp Erdman
As I'm sure you have already heard, our students had a blast at Camp Erdman. I decided to let the students tell you in their own words what they liked about camp. Be sure to check out pictures in the gallery as well!“My favorite part was hearing pigs at night.” Ji. M.
“My favorite part was the Olympics because it was fun. My favorite event was the spear throwing because Bazooka Bubble gum came in first place!” S.R.
“My favorite part was the Group Challenge because for one of the games we beat our record and did it in .4 seconds! Some people had great ideas, and everyone listened. I also liked the science fair because I never knew you could hear sound waves.” K.Y.
“I liked the campfire because it was very fun and funny. My favorite song was “When My Aunt Came Back” because we had to do all sorts of things at once, and it was kind of hard.” H.L.
“My favorite part was campfire because it was funny, and my favorite song was 'Bazooka Bubble Gum' because I like bubble gum.” C.Sh.
“My favorite part was science because it was fun. I liked that we could pull up ice with just a string and salt.” M.S.
“My favorite part was campfire because I liked the songs. My favorite song was about the squirrel shoving the bus up his nose!” L.S.
“My favorite part was the Group Challenge. I liked the game 'Human Knot.' It seemed like it was easy, but it was really hard. You had to work and move with your teammates so that you don’t get tangled up again. I liked that we all had different ideas.” S.C.
“I liked the Olympics because when we did the game 'Pizza,' we got the award for 'The Best Use of the Oven,' and I was the oven!” K.M.
“I liked going to sleep in the cabins because we stayed up late playing games.” J. Mo.
“My favorite part was free time because I got to play football. I made a touchdown!” T.M.
“My favorite was the Olympics because it was fun. My favorite part was racing with the tennis ball and the bamboo stick. I liked it because when I was doing it, the ball didn’t fall down.” K.C.
“My favorite part was waking up at 3:00 in the morning and talking to my friends. ” C.Sa.
"My favorite part was the science fair because it showed us new experiments like how to pick up ice using a piece of string and using a spoon to make sound waves." J.N.
"I liked the bonfire because we sang songs about shoving things up your nose." J.S.
"My favorite part was team building because we go to work together as team." N.L.
Posted at 1:15 PM| Permalink
January 11, 2008
Happy New Year!
Happy new year! I hope that everyone had a wonderful winter break. I definitely enjoyed spending time with my family in California and cheering on the UH Warriors at the Sugar Bowl! After all the excitement, I was pretty anxious to get back to school to share my experiences with the students. It’s been a great week, and we have enjoyed listening to what each of us was up to during the break.Before I update you on what we have been working on in class, I would first like to thank everyone who attended our class breakfast, which took place before winter break. I hope that everyone enjoyed talking to other families and sharing a meal with the students. Also, I would like to thank everyone for the generous class gift basket. The playing cards in particular proved to be very useful in helping my husband and me pass the time on the long trip to New Orleans! I am also very thankful for the Kahala Mall gift certificate. I am confident that it, too, will be very useful! Thank you for your thoughtfulness and generosity.
This week we began our study of poetry. After briefly discussing what we already knew about poetry, students had the opportunity to explore various poetry books. During the exploration, students looked for new ideas about poetry, as well as marked some of their favorite poems. In class today, students shared some of these favorites. As we looked at the different poems, we talked about the different techniques that each author used. They were very eager to start writing their own poems! We will continue our study of poetry over the next few weeks.
I am sure that you all know that next week includes our trip to Camp Erdman! Students are already buzzing with excitement about the upcoming trip. Please make sure to go over the camp packet while helping prepare your child for camp. The packet contains a packing list. For your convenience, I am providing a link to the packing list. To view it, please click on the appropriate link:
Please contact me with any questions or concerns.
Posted at 2:41 PM| Permalink