Pacific Island Unit: Picture Books...

It wasn't as easy to find books at the libraries for this unit.  Here is what we came up with:


Good.  About a girl who has different ideas from her grandma.


Ok.  Takes place in Mexico, not Hawaii, but still relevant.  Pretty illustrations.


Good.  A dog and sailor wash up on Hawaii after a shipwreck.


Good, because it has a small section of big words on each page for reading to Miss R, then more info for the big girls to read.


Very good.  I totally want to go to Lei Day someday in my life.


Good.  Story showing lunar New Year in Hawaii.





This book is gold.  Not many illustrations, but real stories.


Good.  Nice photos of children, easy to read.

Pacific Islands Unit: Chapter Books...

Last fall, I discovered the fine art of bribery; at least as it relates to reading and forcing (I mean "encouraging") kids to do it.  The girls were at piano lessons, and their teacher's kids were watching a Harry Potter movie.  My girls wanted  to as well.  It struck me that I should make them read the books first, then be able to watch.  That worked like a charm.  Both Miss A (10), and Miss M (7), read through the first four books avidly.  I bought the movies, and they watched them.  So when they wanted to go see Moana, I thought "What could I make them read to earn a trip to the movie?"  It definitely wasn't as clear cut, but I came up with something that worked.


Here's the blurb: Inspired by Disney Animation Studios' latest film, Moana, this middle grade novel features characters and adventures based on the rich culture of Oceania. It includes original content in the form of mini folktales interspersed throughout the story of the film. Bonus temporary tattoos included!

My goodness, those tattoos.  I cannot tell you how much excitement those blasted tattoos caused.  They're still kind of on the girls' faces and arms.  
Anyway.  I thought we may as well make our next unit the Pacific Islands if we were going to do it properly.  So both big girls read that Moana book, and we went to the movie.  Which we loved by the way.  Even B has been humming the songs and of his own accord looking up stuff about the actors.  I thought it was amazing.  And here is an acrticle from Vanity Fair (not my usual reading, but I thought this was very cool) about how the movie makers used scholars and experts to be as authentic as possible.

Here are some other books I read, and the girls are in the process of reading:


This one is sad, of course.  Does Hawaii want to be a state?  We should give it back.




Classic Nancy.  I read this, the girls didn't.  They love to listen to Nancy Drew, but unfortunately our libraries only have a few on cd...


This was a sweet story, as American Girl usually are.




I'm reading this one now...


I'm reading this one.  It may be a little too much for small ones.  Cannibals and all...

Pacific Islands Unit: Volcanoes...

Here are the books we used:

We liked this one.  The grandmother and girl argue about the scientific reasons for volcanoes, or the mythological reason.  The girls loved the illustrations of Pele.

We also got several general books from the library, such as this.

We read this one.  I'm always a fan a Usborne books.

Same with this one.  Not too many words, easy enough that my Kinder girl could help read and not get bored.

This is a good thing to read to find out more about what vulcanologists do.

And we read this one too.