Students in Kindergarten through 6th grade share songs of peace, inspiration and the spirit of giving as we enter the 2021 holiday season under the direction of Innovations’ music teacher Ms.Katy and support and mentorship of middle school students.
Our gardens and orchards are plentiful at Innovations. Students are working in the garden, harvesting vegetables, picking fruit and planting new crops every day. Of course, they also enjoy the bounty of their work by eating yummy garden products and creating new recipes throughout the year.
To start off another year of garden work and promoting healthy, balanced eating diets - Miss Melissa and Miss Krista presented a fun skit and important information to students through a morning assembly. The skit was produced with student-created props and puppeteers while important information about the life cycle of rat lungworm and the way that food can be infected was presented to students.
Miss Melissa also identified important food handling procedures and protocols that every should implement - both at school and at home - to protect ourselves from this potentially deadly disease.
We encourage everyone to watch this engaging presentation and implement these safety protocols in your households. The protocols and safety measures discussed in the presentation are in place here at school - all children practice and follow the procedures to ensure safe participation on our garden programs.
1st and 2nd graders took their learning of the ocean ecosystem and our impact on this important ecosystem to film, creating a public service announcement highlighting the efforts we can take to support the ocean, marine life, reef and coral system like our life depends on it - because it does.
Innovations is the recipient of Kona's newest piece of public art.
Na Kalai Ola - Life Navigators
Students in Innovations 7th and 8th grades participate in a mentorship program aimed at exploring areas of passion and interest in the community. Students develop a resume of skills and interests and interview prospective mentors in the community under whom they will work every Friday during school hours to learn their trade.
7th grader Micah Brackett was interested in film-making and photography. He took the opportunity to travel with Uncle Eli's elementary surfing interest group to photograph and video the students as they learned to surf at local area beaches. Micah then used this underwater video and photography to design a video demonstrating the skills he learned during his mentorship.
With the middle school band playing on a truck loaned to us from long-time supporter Alices family, students in grades Kindergarten through 8th sing "Christmas in the Sand" for the community on-lookers at the Kailua-Kona Christmas parade.
Innovations learning community exemplifies a model of community networking and collaboration in educating students. With the help of our parents, friends, families and community volunteers students are provide opportunties for connecting the learning they do in the classroom with real-life applications in their local community. Volunteers mentor, offer resources, guide, advise, nurture and educate our youth.
Innovations 1st and 2nd graders share the knowledge they gained through their year-long study of the ocean through music, drama, dance and narration. Students work with Innovations' performing arts teacher Andrea Lindborg to write lyrics to popular music tunes that reflect the information they've gained about our precious ocean ecosystem.
Kindergartners open the performance with their rendition of "Island Style" as they prepare to take the stage for curriculum shares in the elementary grades.
Innovations 8th grader Mingxia Hawkins created this award-winning video promoting anti-bullying efforts. Mingxia's video was awarded 2nd place in this year's statewide Pono Campaign.
3rd and 4th graders present important concepts and lessons learned in their animal migration unit through a performing arts presentation entitled "Animal Adventurze". Main characters: fashion model panda, master chef mouse, Olympic jumper rabbit and Comedian monkey all seek a migration journey to seek their fortunes. Along the way they are introduced to important concepts of animal migration such as the impact humans have on animals' migration journeys, reasons that animals need to migrate and benefits and dangers animals encounter as they migrate from one location to another.
Performing an adaptation of "This Christmas", Innovations middle school band accompanies the student body as they participate in the annual Kailua-Kona Christmas parade.
5th and 6th graders culminated their study of architecture with a musical presentation written and created based on the concepts they learned throughout their unit.
Through music, dance and drama, Kindergarten and 1st grade students share all they have explored in the amazing world of "Birds". This unit's performing arts exhibit features an original story that tells the adventures of Ms. Hawkins' class pet, "Uncle Feathers" who escapes from the classroom one day and gets lost in the nearby mango tree. Seeking the help of feathered friends in the bird kingdom, Uncle Feathers finds his way back home with the help of mynah birds, red robins a few mischievous vultures and even a family of ducks.
Unique to this performance was the collaboration of Innovations' middle school students who performed all of the musical numbers in support of the Kindergarten and 1st grade performers. Innovations' middle school band and choral groups provided musical accompaniment and vocal support as well as choreography for some of the dance moves.
