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 names for all the different clouds, constellations and moon phases. These terms are different in Hawaiian than those used for science. Hawaiian names contain local, cultural, and spiritual 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 resources
• Weather — Ke Anilā
• Rain — Ka Ua
• Clouds — Nā Ao
• The Moon — Ka Mahina
• Stars — Nā Hoku

Nature Journaling The Sky

International Nature Journaling week (a yearly event in June) had a sky themed day: https://www.naturejournalingweek.com/program/skies

Join or visit the Skyscapito Appreciation Society for instructional videos, to learn more about the art and science of the sky and clouds, and see examples how different people have painted the sky throughout history.

Weather — Ke Anilā

List of terms for sky and weather in Hawaiian: Weather Terms — Ke Hua 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.)

Note: Using the term “anilā” for weather is a modern invention. Traditionally, there was no separate word for weather as a concept. You would simply describe what was happening, when, and where. Check out this post on the Ka Alala website for more on this topic.

My favorite resources for weather forecasts:

• Predict Wind: This site requires you to create a (free) account, but it’s an amazing way to get accurate short-term forecasts for your area, as well as visualize larger weather systems and how they impact the wind, rain, clouds, temperature, and waves. Best viewed on a laptop or desktop: https://forecast.predictwind.com/maps/
• earth :: This site doesn’t require an account, and offers beautiful visualizations of large weather systems. https://earth.nullschool.net/#current/wind/isobaric/1000hPa/orthographic=-155.94,20.36,1692
• On my phone, I use the Willy Weather app, because it gives me the weather, wind, tides, general swell forecast, as well as the sunrise/moonrise and sunrise/sunset times, all with a very simple interface: https://www.willyweather.com/info/ios.html

Rain — Ka Ua

How do you nature journal when it’s raining? I created a list of prompts to help guide observation: Rain Phenomenon Prompts

Here’s some ideas for supplies to use for journaling when it’s wet: Underwater Nature Journaling

Clouds — Nā ao

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/

ʻŌlelo Noʻeau (Hawaiian sayings) related to clouds from waahonua.com (My favorite: Aia ka wai i ka maka o ka ‘ōpua. Water is in the face of the ‘ōpua clouds. In Kona, when the ‘ōpua clouds appear in the morning, it’s a sign that rain is to be expected.)

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/)

Alternate link for the Hawaiian cloud chart

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.

This is just so fun and adorable by artist Chris Judge. You can use it as inspiration to draw cartoon images of what you imagine the clouds look like in your journal (which matches the journaling prompt, “It reminds me of…”: https://mossandfog.com/chris-judges-daily-cloud-interpretations/

The Moon — Ka Mahina

Now a separate post on this site: https://hawaiinaturejournal.org/the-moon-ka-mahina/

Stars — Nā Hoku

From Bishop Museum: Chart of the night sky for this month

From Imiloa: Learn about the four star families

From Roseann Hanson: Journaling Night Skies

Kristin Link has examples of her nature journal pages of the night sky: https://weeklynaturejournal.substack.com/p/sketching-the-night-sky

From John Muir Laws: Astronomy Nature Journaling

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/

Also be sure to check out the post about navigation and wayfinding on this site!