Another very successful summer program at Kailua concluded as week number six ended on Friday, August 29. Most children who attended the final week had completed the whole program.
The week’s theme was “Hawaiian Sky and Hoku” (star), thus lessons and activities — including the final assembly for parents and friends — were focused on the sky and the stars. The final end of the week assembly had the largest audience, and the parents and friends who came were entertained by a variety of songs and dances. The children in the toddlers group were very cute with their “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” opening number. The three- and four-year-olds class performed “Up in the Blue Sky What Do You See?” followed by the kindergarten bilingual class singing an original composition called “Hoku in the Sky Up Up and Away.” The advanced elementary group’s “The Star Song” told the poignant story of a girl and a star that both got separated from their mothers.
The final number was very special, as the beautiful hula dance, “The Old Hawaiian Way,” was taught by one of the members of the class. Hinata Moriyama, a graduate of Kailua and now a fourth grader at Tokyo YMCA International School, trained six classmates who had never danced the hula before. Their dance interpreted what Hawaiians love to do “when the sun begins to rise in the great eastern sky and the evening stars go hiding from the day” (lyrics from the beginning of the song).
40 children received their certificates and folders of their summer work, proof of the learning fun they had had. Based on what was written on the comment and suggestion forms, parental satisfaction was high. Also, a number of parents have enrolled their children for winter school scheduled from December 15–20, and some summer school students have joined other Kailua programs — afternoon school and Saturday school.
Kailua’s “cool” summer was a great success. Watch out for its “warm” winter program, coming soon. See http://kailua-international-school.info for more details. — ROBERT GOMEZ
