Skyping with Hawaii!

Mrs. Yollis loves Hawaii. In fact, last summer she visited the Aloha State and swam with many beautiful  tropical fish, watched green sea turtles, and viewed moray eels from a distance!

This week, Mrs. Yollis and her class got a chance to go to Hawaii again!  They Skyped with Mrs. Conley's class from the fiftieth state, Hawaii!

Many mainlanders dressed in their Hawaiian gear for the call! Aloha!

Before the call, Etai and Maya open the big blue atlas and found Hawaii for the class. Mrs. Yollis introduced the word archipelago to the class. An archipelago is a group of islands!

Many students had flown to Hawaii from California for a vacation. It is about a five hour flight. The class discussed the various islands.

Although Hawaii is an archipelago, the class Skyped with a class on Oahu. Oahu is home to the state capital, Honolulu, Pearl Harbor, and Diamond Head.

First, Mrs. Yollis' class shared their facts about California, their suburban community, and finally their school.

California has the highest population of all the 50 states.

Our community get about 14 inches of rain annually.

Lots of fun sharing the popular school games with our new Hawaiian friends.

Then it was time to learn about the Hawaiians!

They had a beautiful classroom!

Each student spoke clearly and had interesting information. For example, Oahu is known as the Gathering Place state.

Hawaii is three hours earlier than Los Angeles. It was 9:00 in Honolulu and 12:00 in Los Angeles!

Mia and Leila did a fantastic job taking notes of the Skype call. Here is their transcript!

We used some library books to learn more about the two states.

Even Beverly wore her special sarong for the event!

Thank you Brenden for being our photographer and Maya and Etai for being the class geographers.

What did you learn from the Skype call?

How are the two states alike?

How are they different?  

Snorkel With Mrs. Yollis!

As the summer winds down here in the northern hemisphere, I wanted to share one more animal post from my fantastic trip to Hawaii. Snorkeling along the coral reef was a daily activity for me. I got to meet beautiful tropical fish like this bird wrasse and the state fish of Hawaii, the humuhumunukunukuapua'a!  

If you've never had a chance to snorkel, come and glimpse the beauty with me!

This year, the class will be studying animal habitats. The ocean is the largest habitat in the world. 

Here is my video post Moray Eels!
If you want to see my sea turtle video, click here!

Have you ever snorkeled?

Which fish did you enjoy finding?

Did you notice any color adaptations?

(False eyes? Camouflage? Advertising coloration?)

Video: Moray Eels!

Mrs. Yollis spent a lovely vacation in Hawaii.

 

 While snorkeling there, she got to  swim with sea turtles! 

In addition, she encountered moray eels on the coral reef from time to time.  Below is a video Mr. Yollis took of two separate eels. 

Here is a link from Enchanted Learning with a diagram of an eel and some interesting information.

Mrs. Yollis noticed that whenever she saw an eel, the peacock grouper was usually nearby. Therefore, whenever she saw a peacock grouper, she would stop swimming and look for an eel. Since she returned home, she's done some reading, and it appears that the groupers and the eel hunt together! 

 

Do you have any fun facts to share about eels?

Have you ever snorkeled? If so, what did you see?

Hawaii: Turtle Time!

This year, Mrs. Yollis celebrated her fiftieth birthday!  She and her husband took a special trip to Hawaii. One of the best parts of the vacation was snorkeling, especially with turtles!

Here are two videos shot by Mr. Yollis in Maui, Hawaii.  

Turtles are beautiful creatures!

The End

Have you ever snorkeled with turtles?

Do you know any additional facts about sea turtles?