Hawaiian Lunar Phases

Room 211 October 25, 2014

Swimming On Monday we will go swimming. Please send a towel, swimsuit, comb or brush if needed in a waterproof type bag.

We are very lucky to have Nat, who is of Hawaiian descent teaching us about the Hawaiian lunar phases. The Hawaiians were spectacular navigators, perhaps among the best in the world. Not only did they have a deep understanding of the ocean and current, but also of the stars and the movement of the moon. That being the case, it should come as no surprise that the moon plays a very important role in the lives of the Hawaiians. Each lunar phase had a specific name in Hawaiian, and is associated with planting, fishing and gathering. Nat has taught us the first three moon names: Hilo, which means slender or twisted. Traditionally it was felt this was a good moon for deep sea fishing but bad for reef fishing and bad for gathering root vegetables as they would be small. Hoaka is the second moon, meaning crescent and the spirits were said to scare the fish making it a bad fishing night. And the third moon-KaKahi, ku meaning erect so vegetables will grow strong and upright.

Wow!! And we know all of this now thanks to Nat. We will continue to learn the names of the moons through this moon cycle.

I am happy to announce that on the evening of December 11, Thursday, from 6 to 7 pm we will have our moon celebration. Mark your calendars! Exploradome in school field trip We are excited to have the Bell Museum bring the Exploradome to Barton. It will fill the Commons and each Upper Primary classroom will have a chance to learn first hand more about our solar system!! If you have not sent $5.00 to cover the cost of this experience please do. Dots On Our Minds Our morning work on Friday was to find a partner and play the dot game. Then, Friday Architect this week was all about building geometric solids. We have been building solids from nets all week. On Friday we wanted to test the sturdiness of a cube, a rectangular pyramid and a triangular pyramid to see what structure was most stable. We used dots and toothpicks to “build” the cube, triangular pyramid and rectangular pyramid. The conclusion was that the triangles in the structure, either as faces or bases, made the most stable shape. Math This week as mentioned above we have been building shapes from “nets.” We have been reading about geometry in our math books and are puzzling through what is the difference between a pyramid and a prism. As we continue our work this week I think we will discover the difference. Math Homework The first math homework was sent home on Wednesday. We had quite a discussion about how 10 math problems for 7 days should be handled. Not leaving it to the last minute was mentioned by several children. Homework that is sent home on Wednesday will be due the following Wednesday. October Reading Logs The reading logs should have the minutes your child read each day. The will be due on Monday, Nov 3.

Important Dates to add to your calendar: Swimming: Monday, October 27-Thursday, October 29 Exploradome “in school” field trip Wednesday, October 29 No school: Friday, October 31 (record-keeping day) Wed-Fri., November 26-28 Thanksgiving break Moon Celebration Thursday, December 11 6 to 7 pm

Classroom needs: Crayola broadline washable markers

Websites to check out: KahnAcademy.org/computing/cs/programming