MISSING MIDDLE: For the first time since we started this blog, I missed blogging the entire middle of the week, and we weren't even out of town or ill or anything. We were just very, very busy. The kids and I have been helping host a reading fun week. It was five days of special events and activities from kids pre-k through eighth grade. Monday's theme was a fun, pirate-themed day called "Bookaneers." Kids could find out their pirate name by checking out a poster CJ and Annabelle made. You would take the first letter of your first name and the last letter of your last name to find your pirate name. Then we had "Hello, my name is ..." tags they could write their names on. It made for some fun around the school that day.
Annabelle helped give the poster a little color.
People could also write their own pirate adventures in a Mad-Libs type activity we printed out.
At lunchtime, Christian donned his pirate duds and we dyed his beard blue (with Colormist food coloring spray). He appeared as Bluebeard and read the book "How I Became a Pirate." Kids snacked on Pirate Booty and got gold doubloons (chocolate coins covered in gold foil) as treats. Tuesday, the theme was 'Dig into Reading." Students had a chance to plant seeds for future school garden starts, and we encouraged people to bring in vegetables, which were combined to make about 15 gallons (!) of 'stone soup.' At noontime, we screened a version of the folk tale. Afterward, a local author whom I'd contacted came in to share his book "Our School Garden" with the group.
Rick Swann is a retired school librarian and teacher, and has been instrumental in helping a number of schools get their gardens started. One of the things we learned from Mr. Swann is that back during World War I, school gardens were a really big deal! He shared some great vintage posters from the Library of Congress about school gardens. Check out this poster by artist Edward Penfield. It was published in 1918!
And how about this gem from 1919?
Wednesday, the theme for the day was "One World, Many Stories." CJ and Annabelle identified six folk tales from six continents (sorry, Antarctica). We printed them out poster sized, posted them around the school, Kids could pick up a passport we made and then when they read a story, they would get a stamp. When they filled up their passports, they got a prize (a 'scratch art' bookmark). Below are a couple ones that Annabelle created. (You scratch off the black to reveal the rainbow background beneath.)
Thursday it was Book Bonanza! The day started with a (four hour!) pancake feed.
With a number of awesome volunteers, we made so many pancakes. They were a big hit with the crowd, and we had Gusfater Yellowgold music playing on the cafeteria's big screen. At lunchtime, local author and illustrator Jessixa Bagley came and read her touching, award-winning picture book "Boats for Papa," as well as her soon-to-be-released book "Laundry." (Happy faced student's identity blurred out as I don't like putting other people's kids at private events on our blog.)
Jessixa was simply wonderful with the students (and parents)! She even gifted the school a signed print. How sweet is that?! Thursday afternoon and Friday morning was a book swap/sale. There were several tables covered with dozens upon dozens of books.
Friday's theme was "Reading Gives You Super Powers." People were encouraged to dress up as their favorite story or comic book hero. CJ dressed as Greg Kinney from "Diary of a Wimpy Kid." Annabelle dressed as a Hogwarts' student (from Harry Potter). They were part of a costume parade down the hallway and up onto the stage where they introduced their characters. The lunchtime attraction was real live heroes! Four fire fighters from Fire Station 9 (in Fremont) came to our school on their big red truck!
The kids all got to climb into, over and around the truck!
Afterward, we gathered in the school and one of the fire fighters read the super cute (and informative) fire safety picture book "No Dragons for Tea" to the group.
The firefighters also gave an interesting equipment demonstration.
Below is a camera that images heat, which can be helpful to find people in smoky situations.
The firefighters were just winding down with their presentation when they got a call. So their departure was hasty and dramatic - lights blazing and siren blaring. All in all, it was a super busy, hard, and fun week. BTW, the "Book Buddy" graphic at the top was created by Annabelle. The artwork was for badges kids could choose to wear to indicate they were willing to read a book to another student.
YOU ARE HERE: Check out this gorgeous photo. It's one of the first images from GOES-16, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's latest in a new age of weather satellites. As you can see, this snap shows North and South America and the surrounding oceans. GOES-16, formerly known as GOES-R, launched on Nov. 19, 2016. More about GOES here: http://go.nasa.gov/2jUvOZd
A LITTLE PROJECT: Our blogging has been a bit spotty lately. Apologies for that, but it's not due to us doing nothing, to be sure. We've had a number of big projects and are in the midst of a busy week, helping host a reading celebration. I wanted to have an author's/reader's chair for the event, and searched out ideas for fun chairs on Pinterest. And then I turned to my local Buy Nothing group to try to find a chair. A neighbor gifted me a pair, like this. Super sturdy and a great style for painting - perfect!
A couple/three weeks, 9-plus different colors of paint later, here was the final product ...
It was fun creating it. CJ and Annabelle each helped with the paint and design. Christian was kind enough to figure out the diamond/harlequin pattern. Drawing that on a curved surface was not easy! That's my favorite part of the chair.
DEMONSTRATIVE: Saturday we, and a couple hundred thousand other people in the greater Seattle area, decided to hit the streets. Initially billed as a 'women's march,' the event's official name morphed to "Seattle Womxn's March," to be more inclusive. It was set to start at Judkins Park at 10 with speeches, with the walk from there to begin at 11. We decided to catch the march en route, as logistically getting to Judkins and back after walking would have turned into a mega hours long thing. So, we drive toward Seattle Center, the march's finish line, and parked a car there. We hopped on the monorail, heading south, to Westlake Center.
From there, we went to the transit tunnel and caught a bus further south. We were lucky to be able to get a bus there, because we were passed by multiple buses and trains, all packed to the gills. We decided to shoehorn our way onto one at the last second, and felt lucky to be standing in a spot on the platform where the doors opened. Had we not been there, we would not have caught that ride. We decided to wait near the main branch of Seattle Public Libraries for the march to approach.
Pink hats were a sign of solidarity at the march. One woman who walked past us was passing them out.
We knew the march start was near when the helicopters started hovering overhead.
Indigenous Sisters led the march.
Signs of the times were everywhere. I took dozens of photos. Here are a few.
As we were nearing the march's finish line, Seattle Center, I couldn't help but notice an elderly woman trudging uphill, gripping a walker. She progressed about 4-6 inches at a time. Seemingly undaunted, she kept putting one foot in front of the other.
The event set the record for the largest demonstration ever in the city of Seattle. Crowd estimates were put at 200,000.
Here are CJ and Annabelle's impressions. Annabelle's up first ...
The Womxn’s March on Seattle took place on January 21st,
as a protest against the recent election of Donald Trump as the President of
the United States. The march started at Judkins Park and ended at Seattle
Center. We joined in the march at the Seattle Central Library, one of the
official joining spots. We walked about a mile and a half during the march. It
was very fun and I loved seeing the positive messages on the signs around us.
There were a variety of people there, old and young, male and female. It was
actually pretty heartwarming to see the variety of people all united. It was definitely a great experience and, if
it were to happen again (and it most likely won’t), I would urge you to go.
Grab him by the presidency!"-A sign at the Womxn's March in Seattle, a play on words of one of Donald Trump's obscene remarks. On
11/9/2016, Donald John Trump, a hyper-bigoted conman and sexual assault
suspect with no prior political or military experience, was
unexpectedly elected as the President of the U.S. Shortly thereafter,
people across the United States began organizing a major protest in
Washington D.C. for January 21, the day after Trump was inaugurated. Across
the world, several "sister marches" were organized, one of which was
the Womxn's (spelled that way) March in Seattle. While the name of the
march in D.C. was the Women's March, several protesters supporting the
rights of other groups that Trump (likely) sees as second-class citizens
(such as Muslims, Hispanics, Native Americans, and African-Americans)
also protested at the marches. My family
protested at the Womxn's March in Seattle. To the march, I wore one of
my dad's Oregon for Obama (if I remember correctly) t-shirt and my
homemade sparkly rainbow fedora. I carried a home-printed sign reading
"Love, not hate, makes America great", a play on the notorious Trump
2016 campaign slogan, Make America Great Again. While
we did not walk the whole march route from the beginning, we walked
about a mile and a half to Seattle Center (the ending spot for the
march). Before we entered the march ourselves, we decided to look at
some of the signs carried by protesters. A sign that I saw several
variations of was "This (cat drawing) grabs back!", referencing an
aforementioned obscene remark by Trump. Assuming
that you do not believe in Sean Spicer's "alternative facts" (read:
Lies), I was amazed that even the Women's March in D.C. alone attracted
hundreds of thousands more people than Trump's inauguration, held the
day before. Protesting at the Womxn's March was an important experience, and I cannot wait any longer for 1/20/2021 to arrive.
