The Sky — Ka Lani
E nānā i luna. Look up. What do you see? Clouds? A rainbow? The moon? Stars?
Can you name what you see? There are different names for the clouds, constellations and the moon phases in Hawaiian than the ones used for science. Hawaiian names contain both local and cultural knowledge. Scientific names are used worldwide so that people all use the same terms when describing what they see. Both types of names offer us different ways of looking at the world.
This post offers a variety of ways to investigate and think about what is happening in the skies above us.
Topics in this post:
- The sky — General resoureces
- Weather — Ke Anilā
- Clouds — Nā Ao
- Stars — Nā Hoku
- The Moon — Ka Mahina
The Sky
Join or visit the Skyscapito Appreciation Society to learn more about the art and science of clouds, and how people nature journal about clouds.
Brooke Morales has a routine of painting the sky every single day, and shares videos of her painting technique: https://www.lifenoticed.com/365-skies-2024/
Nature Journaling the Sky
International Nature Journaling week (a yearly event in June) had a sky themed day: https://www.naturejournalingweek.com/program/skies
Kristin Link has examples of her nature journal pages of the night sky: https://weeklynaturejournal.substack.com/p/sketching-the-night-sky
Weather — Ke Anilā
Kamehameha Schools created a weather report worksheet with versions in both Hawaiian and English. (Note: They have a number of other great worksheets and lesson plans on their Ohana Resources webpage.)
From the Hawaii Climate Data Portal: Glossary of terms
Some Hawaiian words for rain from Orion Magazine.
Maps of the names for the clouds and rains in Manoa (a place famous for its rainbows): https://www.manoaheritagecenter.org/moolelo/manoa-valley/wind-and-rain-names/
Sometimes the sky brings us weather that makes it hard to go outside. For example, how do you nature journal when it’s raining? I created a list of prompts to help guide observation: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FmrLOFgjWO84XBBhlgH_RV56XsPOdzXW6ee1RrCWvmI/edit?usp=sharing
Clouds — Nā Ao
Hawaiian Cloud Chart part 1 and Hawaiian Cloud chart part 2 by Steven Businger and Gavin Shigesato (from here: https://coe.hawaii.edu/kahuaao/cloud/)
A video for identifying 10 common clouds, with links to more quality, kid-appropriate videos about the weather.
There is also a worldwide Cloud Appreciation Society with a lot of great resources and lesson plans.
This blog post is a great Hawaii-based explanation of how deep observation and documentation of the clouds you see and the weather patterns you notice can help you learn and make predictions.
ʻŌlelo Noʻeau (Hawaiian sayings) related to clouds from waahonua.com
This is just so fun and adorable by artist Chris Judge (what if you drew cartoon images of what you imagine in the clouds in your journal?): https://mossandfog.com/chris-judges-daily-cloud-interpretations/
Stars — Nā Hoku
From Bishop Museum: Chart of the night sky for this month
Learn about the ancient methods of navigation using the stars, wind, and currents, and how they’re being taught and used in modern times: https://waahonua.com/
From Imiloa: Learn about the four star families
From Roseann Hanson: Journaling Night Skies
From John Muir Laws: Astronomy Nature Journaling
The Moon — Ka Mahina
Now a separate post on this site: https://hawaiinaturejournalclub.com/the-moon-ka-mahina/