Field Trip to He'eia Fish Pond

On Tuesday, February 5th, 2013, my classmates and I went on a field trip to the He'eia fish pond. What we did there was we got to eat the Akulikuli to cure our bodies. We got to listen Ms. Mahea and she told us 2 stories that became legends. The 2 stories were about a lady who can transform into anything, and there was a man who was a rougher, meaner and a really, reall strict person. What we also got to do was that we wemt to pick out mangroves out from the ground because Ms. Mahea had told us that if there are a lot of mangroves that are growing around the river that is not good because if there are a lot of them growing, then there won't be enough clean environment around. Then we did a scavenger hunt and we had to grab 5 mangroves, 5 pieces of trash, find brackish water, and draw 2 native plants. We learned a lot on that day and it was the best field trip.

Written by Kenna, Jonny, Anthony, Ashton, and Ayleen

Table 2, "The Doodlers"

3 W's Mobile Project

During this amazing and interesting week, our class, F204, started and completed our 3 W's project for social studies. The 3 W's are wind, wings, and last, but not least,  waves. The 3 W's project was about how plants and animals migrated to Hawaii. F204 worked very, very hard on this and put a lot of quality work into their projects.  We all hope to start another interesting project soon!

Written by "The Cheetahs"

Our first day back - photos

We got right to work, setting goals and choosing new books for the new year.

 Our new table names

 Essential agreements are vital for a happy classroom.

First day of 3rd Quarter!

Yay! It's finally 3rd quarter. Time flies so fast. Soon it's going to be 4th quarter and then the end of the year. So far all of this time we've been in 4th grade as kids, but we know we will leave as knowledgeable kids. 3rd quarter will be much harder because it's almost the ending of the school year and teachers want students to be prepared.

Written by Codey Y.

For our first day back from break, we focused on organizing our classroom. We went over the January calendar, cleaned out our binders, and organized our assessment folders. Each table group decided on a table name, wrote their essential agreements, and created a team poster. Finally, we set our goals for 2013 and found new books to read. It was a busy and productive day. We're all looking forward to what the new year will bring. 

Our Myths and Legends

We are working on awesome one-pagers about myths or legends.  So far all of these one-pagers are great. Some are really scary and some are sad. We did one-pagers to learn about people's different cultures and learn about their stories.  There are a lot of different cultures that some people didn't know about.  Some are Greek, Irish, Tibetan, Filipino, and Roman.  People don't really know about these cultures' myths and legends.

Written by the "School Surfers" 

Blayne, Codey, Jonny, and Sarai

This quarter, we will be focusing on how different stories can be used to express thoughts and beliefs. The one-pagers shared helped us to understand that people all over the world, now and in the past, have used stories as a means to teach others about why the world is the way it is, and how one should act.  We'll continue to explore myths and legends, as well as learn about the connection between these stories and scientific fact. 

After sharing all of our one-pagers we discussed why these stories were written. This is what we came up with. 

This one pager is comes from the Hawaiian legends on the Big Island of Hawaii. It teaches us not to give into jealousy. This is one example of the many cultural myths and legends shared. 

We also realized that not all myths come from ancient times. There are many current myths that are science-based rather than culturally generated. The myth about Pop Rocks and Coke is well-known and easily testable, if you're brave enough that is. 

Our Field Trip to the Lo'i

On Thursday, April 12th, our class went on a field trip to a lo'i in the Kaneohe ahupua'a.  The bus drive was extremely long and loud! When we got to the lo'i, most students were anxious to get into the mud! But, first we did an activity where we collected rocks and sticks to clear out an area so that the people that are in charge of the lo'i could continue making the ahupua'a better by planting a garden.  Another activity we did was stomp in the mud to make the mud softer for the taro that would be planted in it.  There were cray fish swimming around and nibbling on our feet!  There was an auwai (stream) that we got to wash off in.  It was freezing cold, but worth it!

We learned that they are trying to bring back the ahupua'a as it looked like in 1920.  We changed our clothes and took a seat on the bus.  We had lots of fun and hope we can go back and help.

Our Chinese New Year Celebration

Our class was fortunate enough to be treated to some tasty traditional Chinese candy first thing in the morning on Monday. Savannahri brought us our sweet treats and Cory explained the significance of eating something sweet first thing in the morning for Chinese New Year. Savannahri also brought a small lion dancing puppet to share with us as well. The following day, on Tuesday, Cory brought a larger version of a lion. Some of us had fun trying it on and we were treated to a short lion dance around the class. We learned a lot about the Chinese culture and enjoyed celebrating together.