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FREE FAMILY READ ALOUD

PROGRAM!
Books Are Building Blocks
Kailua Kona Library
January 27, 2014
4:30PM - 6:30PM
The Friends of the Libraries, Kona is
hosting their free family Read Aloud
Program, "Books are Building Blocks,"
from 4:30-6:30 p.m. on Tuesday,
January 27th at the Kailua Kona Public
Library. Registration will take place
from 4:30-5:00 p.m. in front of the
library.
This month we will focus on the moon
with a program presentation by Justin
Brown and his students at Kealakehe
H.S. on their research of the moon and
its dust. NASA and astronomy
researchers around the world are
trying to understand the properties of
the dust on our moon. It is surprising
but the Big Island's lava is somewhat
similar to the fine dust on the moon.
The Big Island may offer a test site for
future exploration of both the Moon
and Mars. Come hear from some of
our community's youngest scientists
on the work they are doing to
understand electrostatic lunar dust,
learn about how this dust could
impact local research, and what role
private space exploration, through
programs such as GLXP, may play in
their experiments.
Parents must attend the program with
their children.

Aloha, and welcome back to school! We hope everyone had

a great holiday break, and did a lot of reading. Thank you to
everyone who came out to IGNITE the Night on December 11th.
We had a wonderful time and hope you did too! We could not have
had this night without all of our talented performers and amazing
guests. You all truly made the night spectacular! If you missed this
event, be sure to look out for other IGNITE events throughout the
year.
It is with both happiness and sadness that we announce
that this is Nara's last month at Holualoa School. She will be
moving back home to New York as her one year term of VISTA
service is concluding. We wish her the best of luck in her
endeavors but will miss her. "It has been a pleasure working at
Holualoa and I will miss this great community." - Nara
We will have a new VISTA, Christina, joining Amanda next
month to take Nara's place and continue the IGNITE program.

Mahalo!
Amanda Talarico & Nara Sandberg

AmeriCorps VISTAs

ABC Treasure Hunt

What kid can resist a treasure hunt? Younger children,
especially, love hands-on games. But underneath the thrill of the
hunt, they'll get solid practice in learning to recognize letters and
sounds, using manipulatives: teacher code for objects they can
touch.
Youll need 26 brown paper lunch bags and markers. Ask
your child to label each bag with one letter of the alphabet with
markers.
Together, you and your pirate will find items to fill each of
the treasure bags. You must look for objects in your house or
outside whose names begin with the letter on each bag. (For
example: A=apple, B=ball, etc.). For more advanced readers, you
can add in more complex sounds within words instead, with
harder objects to match. (For example: SH=leash, IR=stir (spoon),
CH=church (bible), etc.). Help your child sort through the house.
Urge him/her along with questions like, What is this? and What
sound do you hear at the beginning of the word when you say its
name?
Once each bag has at least one object, ask him to reach a
hand in, hold up the treasures, and recite their names and the
letter sounds.

Holualoa Elementary School

Any book that helps a

child to form a habit of
reading, to make
reading one of his deep
and continuing needs,
is good for him.
-Maya Angelou

Page 2

Categories Game
Looking for an on-the-go game that can be played
anywhere, anytime? Put down the hangman and tic-tac-toe.
Here's a new one for the family! This is the perfect game to
whip out to keep the kids' hands occupied and their minds
active! You will need only pencils and paper for each player
for this game.
First, have your child draw a grid with seven boxes
across and seven boxes down. Make sure he/she leaves
enough room for several words to be written in each box.
Choose a letter for the top of each column. For the rows, list
seven categories. Some ideas include: sports, fruits, and
colors. Give your child 5 minutes to fill as many boxes as
possible. For example, in the sports row, letter S column,
he/she might write snowboarding or soccer. When youre
done, go over his/her answers, and brainstorm ideas for some
of the blank spaces. Keep playing until your child can fill all
the boxes!

Book Picks
Kindergarten

Lost and Found by Oliver Jeffers

First Grade

Aunt Eater Loves a Mystery by Doug

Cushman
Second Grade

The Adventures of Taxi Dog by

Debra & Sal Barracca
Third Grade

Loser by Jerry Spinelli

Fourth Grade

The Lemonade War by Jacqueline

Davies
Fifth Grade

All Thats Missing by Sarah Sullivan

Adverb Acting Game

Have your child write 10-15 adverbs on separate
pieces of paper or index cards and put them in one pile. To
help him/her get started, you can suggest a few adverbs,
such as quietly, angrily, or sneakily.
Then, ask your student to write 10-15 sentences
about things he/she does every day, such as I brush my
teeth, or I go to school.
Now the game starts! Ask your child to pick one
adverb and one sentence and act out the sentence with the
adverb. Make sure not to look at either, and try to guess
which adverb he/she chose. Keep repeating the process with
different sentence/adverb combinations. Feel free to keep
playing the game, and add harder adverbs for a fun acting
challenge!