This lesson first takes students on a journey through ancient Hawaiian number systems. Students will read an article about hā, or breath, and learn what that has to do with Hawaiian counting numbers. Then they will learn that Hawaiians used a base 4 system. They’ll see that often the naming of the numbers had multiple meanings. Students will then read more about the base 4 counting system before moving on to our current base 10, Hindu-Arabic system and expanded form of numbers. The lesson asks students to write numbers in English and Hawaiian as well as in expanded form. Students are then asked to explore some other counting system and write about it. Finally, students are challenged to add numbers in different bases.