Archive for September, 2010
I Know What We Did This Summer – 8
Author: utbt30 Sep 2010
More summer fun 2010 posts.
Back with the summer posts. This means three things – got myself a decent digital camera, I am refusing to let go of summer and the girls still dig their summer activities.
For a long time now Chula has been writing music. Last year’s summer found Chula sitting with a paper and pencil next to the Melissa and Doug wooden piano. She would play one of her favorite songs, she would practice the sounds again and again till she got a line sounding right and then she would write down the keys.
(Twinkle twinkle little star…. CC GG AA G…..
How I wonder what you are…. FF EE DD C…)
This summer found Chula in front of her keyboard with a pencil and paper. The difference is, she would write the notes first and then test the notes she composed on the keyboard. If it satisfies her, she would proceed to add words to the notes and try making it in to a song. What with my practically non existent musical talents ( a post’s worth material right here 
), I was amazed to see the child do this.
Mieja must top it some how right?! She came with dance choreography!!!! She traced her foot on paper, cut it out, cut some general directions and arranged it on the floor. Presenting Mieja’s choreograph for Chula’s recent music composition…..
(From left to right, clockwise, starting @ purple feet…
feet = step, X = freeze, -> = slide, curled -> = spin, ? = jump)
PS: The child is a horrible teacher. Absolutely no patience I say. She comes with all this fancy-shamncy slip-n-slide-n-jump-n-flip-n-spin steps and expects me to keep up. She gets so worked up if I don’t do justice to her vision. All I ask is to sit with my head between my knees to control the dizziness from perfecting my spin. Is it too much? So if she invites me for a lesson, I have learnt to say that my tail bone hurts and that my doctor has asked me not to dance.
Gooney Bird Greene
Author: utbt22 Sep 2010
We read couple of disastrous books about the fictional life of grade school children….. I was in half mind to withdraw the girls from school, post kindergarten….That is when we stumbled across Gooney Bird Greene series by Lois Lowry.
I thumbed through the book and quickly digested that the book was about a quirky little girl in second grade. Gooney Bird who tells tall tales, has an ‘interesting’ fashion sense and has an exceptionally high level of confidence. At first it reminded me of Pippi Longstockings, but Lois Lowry does manage to differentiate this very Pippi-like character, well at least in my mind. While Pippi made me a little sad, I did not have this lump in my throat and a heavy heart when I read Gooney Bird. Pippi leaves you wondering if her claim that she has super human strength and that she can bake a 100 dozen cookies in an hour are true. But Gooney Bird assures that all her stories are 100% real, though her stories are ‘HOW GOONEY BIRD CAME TO THE TOWN OF WATERTOWER, USA FROM CHINA ON A FLYING CARPET’, ‘HOW GOONEY BIRD’S BELOVED PET CAT, CATMAN, GOT CONSUMED BY A COW’, ‘HOW SHE GOT LATE FOR SCHOOL BECAUSE SHE WAS DIRECTING THE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA’.
And yes, all of Gooney’s stories are true. For those of you asking me are flying carpets true? can cows eat cats? can a second grader conduct an orchestra? All I can say is, pick a book and find out for yourself.
I loved Gooney because of her confidence, her curiosity to be in the middle of things, her genuine effort to help her friends and her ability to transform and inspire even the shiest child in the classroom. Also through Gooney Bird, Lois Lowry tells her readers how to write a story! She talks about the components of a story – how to choose a title, how to keep the audience interested, when to add ‘suddenly’ and give a twist in the story, descriptions etc. She also talk about how to tell a true story full of facts and numbers without boring the audience, how to write a fiction based on real historical characters, ambiguous endings which open up different possibilities and such. Creative writing 101 !
What endeared Gooney Bird to Mieja was Gooney’s fashion sense. With her three pony tails, cowboy boots on pajama pants, velvet coats, fashion scarfs etc, Gooney and Mieja are soul sisters. She is also thinking deeply about emotions. When ever I read, ‘she slumped her shoulders’ or ‘he scowled’, she asks me to act out slumping shoulders or scowling and she is processing the information.
Chula adores Gooney Bird because of her stories. I can see that Chula can’t get enough of them. She is inspired and wants to write her own stories and look up dictionaries (Yes! That is the current passion! If there is a word she does not understand she looks it up in webster, the old school way. )
Yay to Gooney Bird and we are sad that we have only one more Gooney bird book that we haven’t read 
Yay to Lois Lowry for her faith and respect in young people and her ability to simplify information without being condescending.
SFMOMA
Author: utbt9 Sep 2010
I have five more SummerFun posts, but my digital camera stopped focusing for some reason and I am struggling to get good pictures from the phone. So I am taking a small break from the SummerFun posts. Meanwhile at UTBTville…..
Ten days back, R left for a three week trip to India. He visualized the girls coming to airport and giving him a grand send off with plenty of hugs and kisses. But both C and M backed out the very last minute and all he got was me. After he walked in to security, I waved bye and guess what I stumbled in to?! The SFMOMA store at the airport. No strings attached, I mean it quite literally, I spent an hour just drooling over the things they had. R called just before he boarded the flight and was taken aback that I was still at the airport. Even key words such as budget, quality, unique etc did not put him at ease. After ten years of marriage he knows that we both have our own definitions about budget, quality and unique.
My SFMOMA find was Charley Harper. His art was simple, symmetrical, precise, balanced, brought some kind of order to my slightly obsessive compulsive brain and made me wonder if Sanjay Patel was inspired by Charley Harper. There were a whole bunch of alphabet books and counting books based on his prints. I can see myself purchasing the books for my classroom. The color yourself Charley Harper calendar, I would love to implement a DYI version at home.
I bought two board books for my classroom, Kangaroos Have Joeys by Phillipa-Alys Browne and Matisse Dance With Joy. Both were on sale for under ten dollars and I couldn’t resist.
For Chula and Mieja I bought….
 Go Fish Art Card Game |
 Hypotrochoid Art Set |
 50 Optical Illusion Cards |
The hypotrochoid art set is such a hit. The girls mixed and matched gears and covered stacks of papers with hypotrochoids. Chula loves the Go Fish art games. Half the time she just sits and stares at the cards. They haven’t caught on with the optical illusions. They think I am seeing things and give me odd looks.
The things drooled over….
 A Book Of Sleep |
 Wire Bloom, wire clips |
 Foldable Flower Vase |
 Memo Holder |
 Magnetic Key Holder |
 Magnetic Rings |
 Wine Tote |
 Magnetic Flower Vase |
 Flowing Mobile |
 Silicone Place Mat |
 Stapler |
 Magnetic Paper Clip Holder |
Window shopping is so much fun!!
Proud Member of Saffron Tree
Recent Comments