drawing and learning Chinese

 

 

Thanksgiving

at school, in the blue room

 

 

 

 

 

thanksgiving dinner at the Rubyhofer's

 

 

making banana bread

<爛成績>-- 駱以軍

for all the tiger moms, or the soon-to-be ones, 爛成績才是正道.  love this poem!

駱以軍

<爛成績>

小兒子期中考有一科考壞了
回來路上垂頭喪氣的
其實我喜歡姜文這部電影的名字
...

<陽光燦爛的日子>
或從前年輕時讀一位仙枝的書名
<好天氣誰給提名>
我喜歡小兒子每次學校有大考那天早晨
出門時一付"哎呀 不過就是個考試嘛 萬一全滿分還真害羞"
那種胡鬧的快樂
燦爛自得的走向學校
當然他已經五年級了
好像沒有一次不是有一兩科
考得爆爛
他拿考卷給我看
媽的那種題目老子也不會啊
但我好像還是總進入京劇套式角色
必須扮演成恨鐵不成鋼的嚴父
"啊!!!什麼!!!考這是什麼爛分數???@#$#@%^&*!!!!!"
但其實為父的
從國一不知哪次考試 穿越了整個國中 高中
一直是班上最後一名啊(可能大學也是 但大學身邊廢材哥兒們
讓我深信自己是在一群陣裡
不是那麼醒目的最後一
但當他被這麼小的年紀 這麼無聊不重要的事
迷迷糊糊真的弄得一付憂鬱 委頓的模樣
(也許他是忽巄我的? 我一直擔心的不是他對生命"軌道上"的漫不在乎吊兒郎當嗎?)
我卻又不安起來
想告訴他
我喜歡 非常滿意 甚至感謝上蒼
現在的這個你
這是什麼屁挫折啊
有一天生命會重重揮拳擊在你的心臟
譬如最好的朋友背叛你
譬如無意義的誹謗
譬如失去心愛的人
有一天你會失去這兩隻心愛的狗(喔對了阿波)
或你萬一掉入一種白癡的處境和整個體制的道德對立
或你有一天得站在我的葬禮上如我那時站在我父親的葬禮上

很怪
最後你一定會原諒
因為那些啊真的不重要
會再次去同情你不理解的你眼中不幸之人
你也許要到非常晚非常晚
才會領會到你是一個何其珍貴的人
因為你有一顆輝煌的心
你不忍看見他人的難堪
你不在乎自己是丑角但絕不掉入脅迫感情的催眠
我希望你的眼睛像蒼鷹看見草原和滾雲洶湧上面的天空
地平線那邊孤寂的公路

想想
弄不清楚什麼是對偶或其他的修辭
或台灣常見的火山活動下面哪一項是錯的
這是並不很重要的事吧

School News

This week, the blue room children were challenged to create new friendships within the classroom for our buddy week. Each child was assigned a buddy. These buddies were children in the classroom who may not have“discovered” each other yet. Having a new buddy in the classroom gave children the chance to explore new friendships and bring new friends into their play. When we first introduced this idea to the class, there were many concerns about playing with new friends. By the end of the week, we saw everyone looking for their classroom buddies in the morning and inviting their buddies to play and sit next to them. We saw all blue room children stepping out of their comfort zones and trying new friendships this week. Even though our buddy unit has lasted one week, we know these new skills and relationships will last throughout the whole year!

Throughout the week buddies worked on special projects together and for each other. Children worked on creating portraits of their buddies. This was a change for children since we usually create self-portraits. We saw many children helping out their buddies by asking “What color do you want your hair to be?” or by standing up so their buddy could draw them more easily. Buddies also baked and decorated cookies for each other and made friendship necklaces or bracelets. Children did an amazing job throughout the whole week thinking of others before themselves!

This week we talked about the presidential elections and what it means to vote. We held our own Blue room election where children voted using ballots for which book they would like to read- “Duck for President” or “Arthur Meets the President”. “Duck for President” won with a two-point lead! We also asked the class what they thought were important things a president should do. Here are their responses:

“Make houses”- Asher

“Make ice cream”- Claire

“President should protect the people”- Ming-Ming

“He should make sure we are safe”- Olive

“He should give us a big scoop of ice cream”- Izzy

“He should take care of the whole America”- Danny

“He should give everyone joy”- DeHavilland

“He needs to make sure we are safe at school”- Julian

“He needs to be nice President”- Noah

“He needs to make sure sunshine on the buildings”- Julia

“He should give us clothes”- Leila

“He should go to New York to help clean up”- Charlotte 

* With the idea of thinking about others, the blue room has started to collect tzedakah (charity) every Friday before Shabbat. This week we learned about the student group called the Chesed Club. This middle school student group at Akiba is collecting money to donate to a small Jewish Day school in Brighton Beach, NY called Mazel Day School. This school was flooded from the storm Sandy and lost most of their supplies. The Blue room will be donating the their tzedekah money for this cause this Friday. You are welcome to send in tzedakah coins with your child this week to put in our class tzedakah box.

MM on election

election night at home (reported by Antoine), MM: "daddy, Popo (my mom) supports Obama because he likes Hong Kong. Do you like Chinese food?" Antoine: "yes." MM: "then you must support Obama too!"

MM's second theorization on election after her "like chinese food, vote Obama" one: "Do you know what is Voting?" hmm... "Voting means that no everyone gets what they want".... got nothing to do with us, PBS kids have shows on kids voting on a class pet, and her classroom has set up a voting booth picking the book of the day.

MM (again): "voting means no everyone got to have what they want. But if everyone wants the same thing, then they all got to have what they want."
True. while half of the americans mourn the defeat of their candidate, in Beijing everyone got to have what they want as there is only one candidate. what is the inconvenience of not able to roll down the taxi cab window or buy a knief or fly a toy plane when you can have the glorious joy of wanting the same thing all the time! 

Nov. random pic

working on her computer, just like daddy

 

 

MM's daily schedule

writing Chinese with popo

reading before bedtime

circus time

having dinner with her friend Claire

 

Popo sewed three dresses for MM

 

 

 

school