RESOURCES

TEACHER RESOURCES

Distance Learning Activity Guides

Easy-to-use guides to help learners explore Hawaiʻi’s native forests and watersheds. Originally designed for grades 5 & up, these guides can be done with younger learners with help from an adult. 

Nā Māhele Activities

Students can learn the different terms for the parts of a tree, bird, and flower with these fun worksheets and diagrams. These worksheets focus on important restoration species at Keauhou, Kaʻū and each species features a full-color diagram as well as fill-in-the-blank, colorable worksheets, and a list of terms and definitions.

Hawaiian Watershed Adventure

In this lesson students will learn about Hawai‘i's watersheds through a fun and interactive board game. They will be introduced to the components that make up a watershed and some of the problems our watersheds face including erosion, browsing animals, invasive species and pollution. Click below for complete lesson.

Fun Foam Stamp Art Project

​Fun Foam stamp project uses fun foam to illustrate observations made in our natural environment through stamping. Try out this fun and inexpensive craft project with your class!

Native Mask Activity

Native species masks are a fun craft project for keiki of all ages! On the back of each mask includes information on the species that that mask represents. In this activity students will learn about different species and elements that are a part of our native ecosystems, color and decorate their mask, then learn about Hawaiian food web interactions by playing a fun game! For a lesson plan and mask print-outs click below.

Watershed Post Cards

Mailable post cards featuring native watershed species including the Alalā (Hawaiian Crow), Pinao ula (Hawaiian Damselfly) and the ‘Apapane (Hawaiian Honeycreeper). Print post cards double-sided on heavy weight card stock and cut out along line, color, then mail to someone special!

TIPS FOR TEACHERS

If you would like to involve your class in the Hawai‘i Nei art contest here are some tips that might help. 
  • Consider having a contest within your class or school first, and then enter the winning pieces from your contest to compete with the entries from other schools and individuals.
  • Invite a guest speaker to talk to your class about native Hawaiian species, ecology, or watersheds. 
  • Check to make sure your students’ entries qualify. Birds, insects, or plants native to the island of Hawai‘i are OK. What’s not OK are non-native species or Polynesian introductions.
  • Entries must be display ready.
  • Remember that youth entries are free but donations are gleefully accepted.
  • There is a “group” entry division which allows students or classes to work on one piece together.
  • Contact us at [email protected] for more details on how to get your students involved in the exhibition.

REFERENCE BOOKS

Check out the Hawaiiana section of your library or local bookstore to find the following titles about native species of Hawai‘i. Also, if you have any question as to if your subject is native please feel free to send an email and photograph to [email protected] for identification.
  • Hawaiian Natural History, Ecology and Evolution By Alan C. Ziegler
  • Hawaiian Forest Plants By Mark Merlin
  • A Pocket Guide to Hawai‘iʻs Birds By Douglas Pratt
  • A Pocket Guide to Hawai‘iʻs Trees and Shrubs By Douglas Pratt
  • The Birds of Hawai‘i and the Tropical Pacific By Douglas Pratt, Phillip L. Bruner and Delwyn G. Berrett
  • An Identification Guide to Mushrooms of Hawai‘i By Don E. Hemmis, Ph.D. and Dennis E. Desjardin, Ph. D.
  • Plants and Flowers of Hawai‘i By S.H. Sohmer and R. Gustafson
  • Hawai‘iʻs Plants and Animals: Biological Sketches of Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park By Charles P. Stone and Linda W. Pratt
  • Hawaiian Insects and their Kin By F.G. Howarth and W.P Mull
  • Manual of the Flowering Plants of Hawai‘i By Warren L. Wagner, Derral R. Herbst and S.H. Sohmer

ONLINE RESOURCES

Native Plants Hawaiʻi
A comprehensive and searchable online list of endemic and indigenous plants of Hawaiʻi compiled by the University of Hawaiʻi 
nativeplants.hawaii.edu/plant/

Native Hawaiian Plants
A list of sites compiled by UH Manoa
http://www.botany.hawaii.edu/faculty/carr/natives.htm

Native Birds of Hawaiʻi
Learn more about the endemic and indigenous birds of Hawaiʻi
https://dlnr.hawaii.gov/wildlife/birds/

Hawai’i State Department of Land and Natural Resources, Division of Forestry & Wildlife
Resources for teachers, parents, and students
dlnr.hawaii.gov/dofaw/education/

Hawai‘i State Natural Area Reserves System
Information about the Natural Area Reserves System
http://www.state.hi.us/dlnr/dofaw/nars/

Three Mountain Alliance Watershed Partnership
Find out more about the partnerships of private, state, and federal landowners
working together to protect our natural resources
threemountainalliance.org/

Mauna Kea Forest Restoration Project
High up on the slopes of Mauna Kea is a unique and fragile forest home of the palila. Restoration efforts are underway to protect this famous bird. 
www.RestoreMaunaKea.org

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Information about threatened and endangered species in the Pacific Islands.  
www.fws.gov/pacificislands/

​The Nature Conservancy
Last Stand: The Vanishing Hawaiian Forest
www.nature.org/media/hawaii/the-last-stand-hawaiian-forest.pdf

PLACES TO VISIT

Not sure where to find some natives? Start by visiting some of the spectacular Hawai‘i Island locations listed below.

Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park or Pu‘uhonua o Hōnaunau National Historic Park

Visit these island jewels of the National Park System and sign up for an interpretive hike, explore on your own or stop by the visitor centers. For more information and locations visit: http://www.nps.gov/havo/index.htm

Volcano Art Center

The Volcano Art Center offers interpretive hikes, classes, and workshops focusing on native species. For more information and location visit: volcanoartcenter.org

Nā Ala Hele Trails and Access System

Explore the Stateʻs trails system. For more information and trail locations visit: 
hawaiitrails.hawaii.gov/trails/#/

Amy Greenwell Ethnobotanical Garden

Amy Greenwell is a 15-acre ethnobotanical garden featuring a variety of dryland natives as well as many Polynesian introduced plants. For more information or location details visit: 
www.amygreenwell.garden/

OTHER RESOURCES

KEALOPIKO - Styled in Hawaiʻi Nei

"Out of a paper bag and the back of a truck, Kealopiko was founded in 2006. It started out as three friends (Ane Bakutis, Jamie Makasobe and Hina Kneubuhl) with a vision to make t-shirts that broke the traditional mold of how Hawaiʻi has been portrayed for so long.

[They] felt that what is truly and uniquely Hawaiian deserved to be the focus of designs transferred to clothing: our plants and animals, our language and practices, our aliʻi (royalty) and kūpuna (elders and ancestors), and our moʻolelo (stories and history) as the people of Hawaiʻi." 

​kealopiko.com/
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