Kanani and Hawaii Lapbook

Sophie loves the American Girl books. She received the Girl of the 2011 year, Kanani book for Valentines day and quickly read through it and has talked and talked about Kanani and Hawaii ever since.

I asked her if she would like to do a book report on Aloha Kanani in March. She decided she didn't want to just do a book report but that she would do a whole lapbook about the book and also about Hawaii.

I showed her how to look for books on Hawaii at the library. She brought a few home and read through those to gather information.

Setting to work on the report was a little difficult. She didn't know exactly how to start. She had all sorts of ideas of things she wanted to include but didn't know where to get started.  I really wanted this to be her project so I tried to stay out of it as much as I could. She got a bit frustrated when I wouldn't give her the folder and paper to make the lapbook yet. I told her before I could give her the paper and such she needed to come up with a list of the things she waned to include and then we needed to go online and find images of things she needed to cover the topics she wanted to include.

Once the outline was made she really wanted to paper. I relented even though I knew she wasn't quite ready for it. Again she got upset when she started cutting and pasting things and then they didn't turn out quite right or things got lost or didn't fit. So we started over again this time I had to help her think through each topic and come up with a way we could display the information that would be organized and look fun. 

I think it turned out pretty well. And I know she did most of it all by herself. She chose the topics and the information that went into it. I just helped with the display a little. It was still mostly entirely her project.

I know in these photos it is hard to see the details. But on the left flap there is a mini book about Monk seals. And of course she has a map of Hawaii. On the right are the Hawaiian words she learned.

Here are the insides of the flaps. Monk seal information.

Kanani goes to a Lua'u so the top of the next flap is information and pictures about what a Lua'u is.
The next page and the back of it is her report on the book.

Under the report are two more flaps. One that describes some Hawaiian foods.

The other flap has some fun facts about Hawaii that Sophie learned.

She was fascinated by the number of islands and also that each has volcano.

My kids couldn't get over the pictures of the black sand beaches.

And the trigger fish just had a really long Hawaiian name, Humuhumunkunukupua'a.

Here is a close up of the Hawaiian words. My favorite is Ho'opono which according to the Kanani book means "to do the right thing". We interpreted that to mean "Choose the Right". But I guess it means more about making things right and asking for forgiveness.

Here is what Sophie wrote for her report.

Aloha Kanani is about a girl named Kanani Akina. She lives on the island of Kaui, in the town of Waipuna with her parents.  Her cousin, Rachel is coming to stay for the Summer. Rachel is from New York and is probably going to think Waipuna is prehistoric. Kanani tries to get Rachel to feel at home and finds that she couldn't do it really well.


Kanani took Rachel to a Lua'u and when the dancers ask Kanani's table for some volunteers Kanani says that she would go up and dance the hula


Later Kanani thinks she sees a monk seal but its only a tree trunk. Rachel didn't make fun of it and infact comforted Kanani. The next day Kanani really sees a monk seal pup. It was wrapped in a net. They called the nonk seal rescue which sends a volunteer and a marine biologist. After the rescue, Kanani and rachel went paddle boarding and ha a lot of fun.


At the end of the book Kanani was sad when Rachel has to go home to New York. 

I know the report is a bit rough and we need to work a bit more on it but she was so thrilled with her entire project. 

Sophie really wants a Kanani Doll now so she can do her long hair in braids. My boys just really want to go to Hawaii. When I asked them if they would rather go to Disneyland or Hawaii they all said Hawaii.

So perhaps our plan for Disney next year will change and we will save our pennies so we can take a trip to Hawaii.