Guests in the Garden
Lanakila Mangauil shares about Kumu Lipo and the mo‘olelo of Hāloa
For his 17th year in a row, Kumu Lanakila came to share the Kumu Lipo and mo‘olelo of Hāloa with our 6th grade students. Students learn about the Hawaiian creation story all the way up to Hāloa, and it’s emphasis on how we are all interconnected as humans and to the natural world.
Students also got to harvest the kalo planted by the previous year’s 6th graders, contributing to our cycle of Hāloa in the garden. We are so grateful to Kumu Lanakila for continuing this tradition with our students.
Peer to Peer Sharing with Konawaena Agriculture Class
Through our HISGN program we get to meet and interact with kumu around the moku, sharing ideas and resources to make all of our garden programs and ‘āina education better. One collaboration that came from these partnerships is with Nick Wainwright and Konawaena middle school. Mr. Wainwright teaches an agriculture class with 8th grade students, and they had been learning about vegetative propagation, and specifically air layering.
Five of these students came for a peer-to-peer sharing day, where they taught a class of 7th graders about the process and purpose of air-layering, and then demonstrated the technique on several of our trees. It was great to see the Konawaena students teaching our WMS students! They also brought us a puakenikeni tree that we are excited to watch grow :) And hopefully in a few months we will have air-layered branches ready for planting!
Native Plants with Avalon Paradea
We have also started a Native Plant project collaboration with ʻāina-based creative, steward, educator (and WMS alumni!) Avalon Paradea. Through grant funding from the county, Avalon will be coming into the classroom for 4 different sessions focused on native species in Hawai‘i. We will pilot these lessons, gathering feedback from students, and then they will be refined and shared out to teachers through HISGN.
Our first session was on Nā manu a me Nā Mea Kolo - birds and insects! Students got to learn about the different pollinators on our island, how the native plants and animals/insects evolved together, and they got to make a lupe (kite) featuring a native pollinator of their choice. Because of weather we had to go inside, but students still had a great time. Looking forward to our next sessions!
