Bookends

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. 

Busy Bees

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 21^st, 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. 

Juggling

BEEN A LITTLE BUSY: MPA is behind in posting this week, and what a week it has been. Busy, busy, busy.

A few highlights ...

Wednesday morning we made a field trip to a local kindergarten classroom to act as space ambassadors, of sorts.

We were invited to share a presentation on something space-related. I thought about it for a bit and I wound up settling on astronauts - how they're alike and how they're different and how each is an inspiration in their own way. And so, I spent some time putting together a PowerPoint to introduce 5-year-olds to a *whole* bunch of astronauts.

I got the kids' attention right away by talking about Buzz Lightyear, the animated astronaut of "Toy Story" fame. I asked them if they knew he was named after a real live astronaut. ...

And that Buzz is one of just 12 humans who have walked on the moon!

We noted that Buzz was not the first American astronaut. Here was the first group - the Mercury 7, from 1958.

I asked the kids to look at the photo. What did they notice about all these astronauts. There were comments about their different boots, their spacesuits ... then one child noticed that they were all men. I agreed, and noted that they were all white men.

I then introduced them to the newest astronaut class, named in 2013.

How the times have changed! Half the group is women, and "one has dark skin" as one student noticed.

From there, I noted that the U.S. isn't the only country with a space program, and told them about Valentina Tereshkova, the world's first female astronaut. She flew way back in 1963.

It wasn't until 20 years later, 1983, that America had its first female astronaut, Sally Ride.

We also talked about the first African Americans in space, Col. Guy Bluford. He has a doctorate in philosophy and studied laser physics before becoming an astronaut. He flew to the ISS in 1983.

And the amazing Mae Jemison was the first female African American in space. Here, she's seen on board the ISS in 1992. Jemison is a medical doctor who left her practice to join the Peace Corps. She is also an accomplished dancer and an actress.

We shared this awesome photo and gave the kids a chance to make guesses about where the astronaut was. (Answer: Doing a space walk outside the International Space Station.) It's a cool photo because you can see the blue line of the Earth's atmosphere, and the Soyuz capsule docked to the ISS, as well as the solar arrays.

I told them what you couldn't see in the photo was that the astronaut inside the suit was John Herrington, the first Native American NASA astronaut. Below is a photo of him we took when meeting him at The Museum of Flight a couple years back.

I let them know about other nations' space programs, including China and Japan. And I told them about the first Cuban astronaut in space, Arnaldo Tamayo Méndez. Mendez was the first Latin American, the first person of African descent, and the first Cuban to fly in space.

Another amazing astronaut we've had the chance to meet is South Korea’s one and only ever astronaut, - Yi So-yeon. She’s a biotechnologist and lives just outside of Seattle now.

And I told them that right now, as they sat there in that classroom, the man below, France's Thomas Pesquet was in space, living on the orbiting space laboratory.

And we told them that they could stand out in their own backyards and watch Pesquet and his 'room' mates fly over their home if they knew when and where to look, and they were given handouts for NASA's Spot the Station site.

Winding down, I told them about one of our favorite astronauts, Col. Chris Hadfield. In addition to being an accomplished test pilot and astronaut, Hadfield's a musician.

We shared his recording of "Major Tom" with the kids. They loved it!

I ended the presentation by noting that Hadfield is also an author, and read his children's book, "The Darkest Dark" to the kids. Before doing so, I asked the kids to think about some things these astronauts of varied ages, countries, races and interest have in common. We noted they all had to go to school, they were all determined and brave. But I pointed out each of them had some obstacles to overcome, and for Chris Hadfield, a fear of the dark was one.

The book really helped the talk come full circle, because ultimately, it's Hadfield watching Buzz Aldrin on the moon that propelled him to conquer his fear and pursue his dream of being an astronaut.

Pretty cool.

Neverland

SWEET SHOW:  Last night, on kind of short notice, we went to see "Finding Neverland" at the Paramount theater in Seattle.

We knew next to nothing going in, other than it was about the author of "Peter Pan," J.M. Barrie. In about two hours we learned a lot about Barrie, and came home and read a whole lot more.

I'll let CJ tell you more about the play. ...

Occasionally, my family visits the Paramount Theatre, a historic theater located in downtown Seattle. We usually visit to attend live plays, and this time, we attended the final Seattle performance of Finding Neverland (the last performance on the last day).
According to the program distributed at the event, Finding Neverland tells the true story of playwright J.M. Barrie, who befriends a widow (Sylvia Davies) and her four young sons (Jack, George, Michael, and Peter), and, through those friendships, finds the inspiration and courage to become the writer - and the man - he longs to be.
In the real world, J.M. Barrie is most well known as the author of Peter Pan, a legendary story, adapted into countless forms, about a boy named Peter Pan who lives in Neverland, a magical place where children never grow up. On a darker note, Barrie conceived of Neverland when his older brother, David, died in an ice skating accident. J.M. Barrie imagined Neverland as a place where David could live an idyllic afterlife where he never grew up.
Throughout Finding Neverland, J.M. Barrie entertains the imaginations of Davies' children by playing pretend with them (less creepy than it sounds), helping re-spark a sense of joy in Peter, the namesake of Peter Pan and the oldest son of Ms. Davies.
Late before the premiere of the Peter Pan play, Ms. Davies suddenly begins suffering from a "chest cold" (a euphemism for a cancer in the chest), creating a foregone conclusion where her children are going to be orphaned. Barrie promised to Ms. Davies that he would take care of her children, and she managed to see the  debut of Peter Pan's play, alongside her children.
Finding Neverland, in contrast to the last stage play I reviewed (George Takei's Allegiance), has very good choreography and music. The visual effects, physical and digital, are beautiful, even when you are sitting hundreds of feet away from the stage. Nearly every actor delivered an excellent performance, getting (me at least) wrapped in and interested.
Finding Neverland is a fantastic theatrical production, but I am curious of how historically accurate it is.

And here is Annabelle's summary. ...

Finding Neverland is a play about the life of J.M. Barrie and how he made friends with a widow and her 4 boys , found inspiration for Peter Pan. It all starts on a sunny day in London, where Barrie meets Peter, George, Jack, and Michael when they attempt to make him walk the plank off the bench. He meets them time and time again, and learns to play again, like he did as a child. He brings this to the theatre and is initially shooed away, but eventually they see the spirit in “playing” and the show is Barrie’s most successful yet! The story really shows how, even in hard times, a little fun can make a big difference. Life doesn’t have to be elegant and serious all the time, as was believed back when the play is set. The play is really beautiful, and the music is great. Fair warning, though- as this is a musical, there is a lot of singing and it can be a bit hard to understand at times. Luckily, there was an open captioning board in the corner to help deaf or hearing-impaired people enjoy the play just the same.  I loved the play and would highly recommend it. It can be sad at times, but it really sends the message that a little fun isn’t all hat bad.

My impressions of the musical? I thought it was lovely. I don't know that I've ever seen a more beautifully staged touring production. The lighting and simple but striking sets were terrific. And the choreography ... this wasn't a big ol' dance number show, but within the first two minutes of the production, I was struck by the thoughtful, artistic movements of the people on the stage. After the show, at home, reading Mia Michaels was the choreographer explained that. I know her work from "So You Think You Can Dance," and she is phenomenal.

I left the show wanting to read biographies about Barrie. I think that's a good sign. Leave the people wanting more!

AD ASTRA, ASTRONAUT:  Super sad news today. Astronaut Gene Cernan, the last human to walk on our moon, has departed Earth.

Several years back, we went to the San Diego Air and Space Museum during a special exhibit several years ago. There was a wall with this graphic and quote. I took a photo (below). For whatever reason, it actually made me tear up on the spot.

Awhile back, we watched a biopic movie about Cernan. "The Last Man on the Moon." It's a compelling portrait, and highly recommended.  https://vimeo.com/92046183

THE LAST MAN ON THE MOON: TRAILER from Mark Stewart Productions on Vimeo.

REVEREND KING: Today is Martin Luther King Jr. day.  Now, as much, if not more, than ever, his words ring true.