Click on an activity or scroll down for more information!
PARENT HELPERS (back to top)
Parents are encouraged to participate in their child's education at Holy Nativity. In August or September and again at the beginning of the second semester families receive a Parent Participation Form on which they may indicate how they would like to volunteer. Our Room Parent consolidates the results and sends a copy home to each family. As events approach, parents receive a reminder notice with details. We welcome ideas, suggestions, and comments from our families throughout the school year.
GRANDPARENTS DAY (back to top)
Grandparents' Day is celebrated every September. Our students enjoy honoring their grandparents, who are an integral part of their lives, by inviting them to our classroom for a party on a Friday afternoon where refreshments are served. The children are instructed to take their grandparents around the classroom describing to them our activities and showing them the work in which they are involved. For those who do not have grandparents in the islands, other family members, friends, or neighbors are invited to participate in this celebration.
PET WEEK (back to top)
Early in the school year we learn about our families, including our pets. The children bring their contained pets to school for the day and tell us how they care for them.
MAKAHIKI (back to top)
Parents are very active in their children's education at Holy Nativity. One family offered to provide for our students a Makahiki experience in November when it is traditionally celebrated. Playing guessing games, working with Hawaiian stamps, throwing a "spear", running races, and rolling a "rock", our little ones captured the spirit of this annual Hawaiian tradition.
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POLICE SAY HI PROGRAM (back to top)
Detective Johnson, one of our dads, arranged a presentation of the Say "Hi" Program at our school where the children were allowed to explore a helicopter that landed on Osco Field, two patrol motorcycles, and a police car, and pet the well-trained dogs from the very impressive canine team.
NATIVE AMERICAN STUDIES (back to top)
Mrs. Schofield-Ching shares her expertise about Plains Indians, the Lakota Tribe.
She brings many items for the children to explore, including handmade beaded moccasins, arrows, buffalo hide, a drum, and sage to smell. We have fun!
CHRISTMAS ACTIVITY (back to top)
One of our moms created an intricate project for our students. Each child received a kit of sticks, hearts, and shapes, which were glued together to make the Nativity scene to be hung as a tree ornament. Everyone listened intently in order to assemble the pieces accurately with baby Jesus, Mary and Joseph in the stable and a star on top.
Winter Dress-Up Day (back to top)
Every January the students experience the season of winter by dressing up in warm clothes, "skating" in the room, having a "snowball" fight, and enjoying hot cocoa and snowball cookies they make earlier in the week. Following this activity, we all agree..."Lucky we live Hawai'i!".
BEAR DAY (back to top)
Our Winter Theme includes a study about Polar Bears. To bring awareness of the different types of bears, the children celebrate Bear Day by bringing their favorite stuffed animal type of bear to school to spend the day with them in every activity. We sort the bears by size, record the information on a graph, read The Three Bears, and eat porridge for snack. What fun!
100 DAYS IN SCHOOL (back to top)
As a math activity we count each day we are in school. We keep track with a number chart, revealing number patterns as the rows and columns fill. Also we use adding machine tape to make a number strip. Every 5th number is circled in red and every 10th number is written in red to highlight counting by 5's and 10's.
A traditional Kindergarten activity each year is the collection by each child of 100 objects, which is brought to school on our 100th day of school in January. The collection may begin the first day of school or may be made the night before. It may include 100 of one item such as pennies or 100 different objects. The collection should fit in a sandwich-size or quart-size ziploc bag with the child's name on it. As an activity that day, we recount each collection, putting the items in rows of 10.
Chinese New Year
CHINESE NEW YEAR (back to top)
How fortunate we are in Hawai'i to live amongst such a variety of cultures. Each year we learn about Chinese New Year from our families. Activities are scheduled that engage the children in making a lion puppet perhaps or a special gong, as seen here. Traditional foods are served, such as chow mein noodles, and eaten with chopsticks. Kung Hee Fat Choy!
HEALTH UNIT (back to top)
In February we study Health and having a strong heart, which includes nutrition. To highlight the 5 food groups, the children are asked to bring to school in a baggie bite-sized fruit. First, we sort the fruit by type on our floor graph. The information is recorded on a paper graph. Then we make a fruit salad for snack...yummy!
Television Weather Forecasters
TELEVISION WEATHER (back to top)
Community Resources are very much a part of our education in Kindergarten. In March we schedule a television weather forecaster to explain why we have the climate and weather conditions we do in Hawai'i. Guy Hagi, Shari Shima, Trini Kaopuiki, and Kathy Muneno have graciously accepted our invitations to visit our classroom.
Japanese Girls Day
Every year we encourage our families to share information, food, and arts and crafts that will bring an awareness to our students of different cultural experiences. We may eat mochi, make a doll wearing traditional attire, or create a cherry blossom blowing paint across a paper and adding pink tissue.
Luau
LUAU (back to top)
Holy Nativity School, under the direction of our Hawaiian Studies/Music teacher, Miss Toni Leong, presents an annual Lei Day Program. On Dress Rehearsal day for the program our class, while still in costume, experiences a luau with many traditional foods for the children to taste as part of our Hawaiiana social studies. In addition to the dessert, Haupia which we make in class, we enjoy lau lau, lomi lomi salmon, poi, Hawaiian sweet potato, taro chips, chicken long rice, and kalua pig, all provided by our families. In preparation for this event the children prepare a placemat in the form of "Kapa", using potato stamps and hala brushes. Parents also decorate the tables with Ti leaves, plumeria and hibiscus flowers and may even dance the hula for us.
Kindergarten Excursions
Pumpkins! Pumpkins!
In the Fall we provide an integrated unit about pumpkins. A field trip to Aloun Farms allows the children to see up close how this round fruit grows on vines. Each child selects their very own pumpkin from the patch to take home. When we arrive back on campus, the kids order their pumpkins by size, without adult intervention. This project is a very good lesson in cooperation!
In class we conduct many math and science activities with our pumpkins such as placing each one in water to see if it sinks or floats; everyone measures the circumference, weighs their pumpkin on a scale, counts the number of ribs, estimates the number of seeds inside, counts the seeds in sets of 10, plants seeds, and of course, bakes and tastes the seeds.
Fire Safety (back to top)
Each October the Kindergartners learn about fire safety. The Wailupe Fire Station sent a truck to our campus for the children to explore and were treated to an excellent demonstration of a fire fighter preparing to respond to a call in full uniform. The kids were invited to hold the hose and shoot water onto Osco Field, which they loved doing! We are so fortunate to be supported by our community services in helping our students learn.
Health Unit (back to top)
The paramedics of the City and County Health Department visited our school and taught us about health and safety in emergency situations. We all went inside the ambulance!Ho'omaluhia (back to top)
Ho'omaluhia
Each year the Kindergarten students, along with their 3rd Grade Book Buddies, tour Ho'omaluhia, led by our expert docents, Olive and Tony. In this rain forest in Kaneohe, the children identify and draw pictures of trees and plants, such as the lipstick tree, bamboo, and rubber tree. We feed the ducks, eat lunch, and enjoy being surrounded by nature for the day.
