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Class Cupcakes

Published by
Nettie
at Jun 19, 2010 in The Kitchen. 0 Comments

For our last homeroom, I decided to surprise my group with cupcakes that looked like their faces. I was inspired by the book Hello Cupcake, and an article in American Girl Magazine. Both featured cupcakes iced to look like real people. I used jellybeans for boys’ ears and a few of the girls’ eyes. Chocolate sprinkles were helpful in creating eyebrows and thick hair that stood up. I used candied cherries for everybody’s mouth, and little flower sprinkles for earrings and hair clips. I’m the curly-haired cupcake in the middle of the second row. I made myself much too tan by accident, but if you surround me with cupcakes with darker icing, it doesn’t look that much different. Making these for my classmates was really fun, and everybody loved them. I can’t wait to make them again!

Peabody’s Movie Theatre

Published by
Merriweather
at Jun 18, 2010 in The Classroom and The Workshop. 0 Comments

During the last week of school, Nettie and Peabody brought home a year’s worth of school projects. Here Peabody is holding his movie theatre featuring the diaster film “The Xsplozin.” The theatre is a shoe box with scenes drawn on a scroll. His summary of the scene here: “Some dudes are playing four-square and suddenly the ball is going so fast that it’s flaming. It shoots into the air and hits a plane. The plane crashes and then there is lightening, a tornado, rain and a tree on fire. Did I mention the tidal wave?”

A History of the World in 100 Objects

Published by
Merriweather
at Jun 7, 2010 in The Map Room. 0 Comments

I’m listening to the BBC Radio 4 podcast, A History of the World in 100 Objects. Each of the 100 15-minute episodes, tells the story of one item from the British Museum’s collection. The program, written and narrated by Museum Director Neil MacGregor, covers two million years of human history. I like how he has grouped famous and less known objects into weekly themes. This week’s theme, the movement of goods and ideas from 400 – 700AD, includes not only the Sutton Hoo Helmet but also a roof tile from Korea. I learn something new from each episode like where Ramesses II (seen above in a photo I took a few years ago) got that hole in his chest. It was not, as I suspected, the result of a French bullet. The podcast is available on iTunes. Check out the official website here for more information.

Berkeley Adventure Playground

Published by
Merriweather
at Jun 4, 2010 in Berkeley and The Workshop. 0 Comments

Tucked away in the Berkeley Marina is a boy’s paradise. Adventure Playground is a small village of wooden huts, boats and castles built by visiting kids. The park provides scrap lumber, tools (earned by collecting trash and lost nails) and plenty of work space. The picture above is Peabody sitting on his three legged chair with Zev from the park’s staff. In addition to areas for building and climbing, the park has a popular zip line. We can’t wait to head back this summer!

To Kill a Mockingbird

Published by
Nettie
at Jun 4, 2010 in The Classroom. 1 Comment

Last week, my middle school performed To Kill a Mockingbird at the Live Oak Theater. I played Dill, which was an AMAZING part. Dill is very dramatic and likes to make up stories, so it was very fun to be him. I also enjoyed having the audience laugh at my lines, since I rarely get a funny part in plays. This was also my first time being a boy. Our set was three house fronts and their porches, a painted backdrop, and the Radley tree, which I helped to make. We used rough cardboard-y pots to make the trunk, and covered wooden poles with cellulite clay and gravel to use as the branches. It was the best part of the set. I also helped with gluing on the knothole, which sadly fell off in the second performance. The costume committee did great, as you can see from the pictures here. I wore a white button-down shirt, khaki shorts, black knee socks, black shoes, and my Spanish teacher’s dad’s cap, with the name “Alejandro Madrid” written inside. Everyone did wonderful, and all the performances were very fun! This was the best play I’ve ever been in, and I’m very sad it’s over!

How to make Gak

Published by
Merriweather
at May 19, 2010 in The Laboratory. 3 Comments

Peabody has been making mounds of Gak, a homemade polymer that’s fun to squeeze. There are many different recipes online. Peabody mixed eight ounces of Elmer’s glue with 3/4 cup of water. Then in a separate bowl, he dissolved a tablespoon of Borax into 1/4 cup of warm water. Then he mixed them together with a plastic spoon. You can get different consistencies of gooiness by reducing or increasing the amount of water. You can also add food coloring. Peabody recommends putting it in a plastic zip-lock bag and using a rolling pin to flatten it out like pizza.

Wingspan

Published by
Merriweather
at May 10, 2010 in San Francisco and The Bay Area. 0 Comments

With a picnic basket of lemonade, sandwiches and Nettie’s homemade cupcakes we headed out on a Mothers’ Day excursion. We stopped at Muir Woods for a short hike along the hillside trail. The drizzle seemed to keep the crowds from going to deep into the park and we were able to hike in relative peace. Outside the park they have a long poster where visitors can measure their wingspan against those of various birds. Peabody is about the same as an Osprey and Nettie was just shy of a Pelican. After the woods, we drove into San Francisco and picnicked by one of the small lakes in Golden Gate Park. We were lucky enough to catch a couple men captaining their remote control sailboats across the water.

Taller Uno: Cuidado de Animales

Published by
Nettie
at May 7, 2010 in Mexico. 0 Comments

While at El Molino, we got to choose a morning and afternoon workshop. For the mornings, I chose Animal Care, taught by Eloy. Every day we would go to a pet store to buy medicine and vaccinate animals at different farms. The first day we went to a chicken farm, and gave eyedrops to chicks to, as far as I could understand in my español no muy bueno, stopped them from getting a disease that turned them loco. The next day was my favorite. This time we dusted albino rabbits’ ears with blue powder that killed ear parasites. I think that the blue in the powder was supposed to help the farmer know which bunnies had been vaccinated, but it still looked pretty funny. At the end, we got to hold newborn baby bunnies. They were so small they could fit in your hand, and their eyes hadn’t even opened yet! On the last day, we walked to a large mansion that kept five horses. We gave a pregnant horse a shot to make its appetite stronger, and fed alfalfa to the rest.

This was one of my favorite parts of my Mexico trip, and definitely the best workshop. I LOVE animals, and I want to be a veterinarian, so this was the perfect class. You can see more pictures of the workshops here.

Traveling to Erongaricuaro

Published by
Nettie
at May 2, 2010 in Mexico. 0 Comments

Last Saturday, my eighth grade class took a midnight flight to Guadalajara, Mexico. After an hour in customs, we boarded a tour bus to take us on a four-hour trip to Erongaricuaro. This small Mexican pueblo is the home of El Molino, a camp for American and Mexican kids. Every year the eighth graders from my school stay here for a week, improving their Spanish, going on field trips, and attending workshops.

We stayed in a colorful building surrounded by trees, cacti, flowers, and places to play four square, volleyball, and soccer. We ate outside. Our largest and tastiest meal was lunch, served at 3 o’ clock. We ate tamales, rice, spaghetti, enchiladas, and these small tortillas with refried beans served with the cheese and meat made by the Quesos y Embutidos group.

Sadly, the class of kids from Chihuahua did not come. However, we did have fun with the counselors, who we taught to play Egyptian War and TOUNGEs. Later this week, I’ll post more of my adventures in Mexico.

Visiting Mar Vista

Published by
Merriweather
at Apr 26, 2010 in The Bay Area. 0 Comments

Earlier this month we drove a couple hours north from Berkeley to stay at the Mar Vista Cottages at Anchor Bay. Mar Vista and Asilomar are our go-to bases for extended weekend beach breaks. The cabins here have cozy beds, nice bathrooms, a full kitchen and no TV or phone. Nettie and Peabody love visiting the goats, gathering eggs from the chickens, hiking around the frog pond and playing on the rope swing. Usually we spend our days at nearby beaches. We were kept indoors, though, on much of this trip due to heavy rain. But we couldn’t have been happier reading, knitting, cooking and playing games near our fireplace. We can’t wait to go back!

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