Wet, White, WOW!!! A 3-D Ahupuaʻa Building Experience

Working fast with wet white strips of plaster to create a typical ahupuaʻa that runs from the mountain to sea was an awesome experience for fourth grade students. In several days, fourth graders became architectures of nature as they took their ahupuaʻa flipbook blue prints from sketch to an actual 3-D model.
In these models, students emphasized the curves and textures of diverse landforms seen throughout a typical ahupuaʻa. They created channels of water that flowed from the mountain and out to the sea. Then fourth grade students blended different paints to create dark or light shades of color to bring a white plaster creation to a beautiful work of art, but their work as an artist wasn’t done yet!

To further describe daily life in an ahupuaʻa, students illustrated plants, animals, and activities observed throughout an ahupuaʻa. To showcase what students learned in our study of a typical ahupuaʻa, they researched and wrote factual information about each plant, animal, and activity on the back of their illustrated flags displayed throughout their model. While all fourth graders will agree that it was a fun and messy process, the results are creative, unique, and fantastic.

BUT WAIT… thereʻs more!! The learning doesn’t stop here. Stay tuned for more ahupuaʻa action because their 3-D ahupuaʻa models become a focal inspiration for their fictional ahupuaʻa moʻolelo.