Happy Election Day

Every year, in honor of Election Day, we hold a mock election so that the children can experience the voting process.















Updated 11-9-16 
by C.N., 2nd grade; O.S., 2nd grade; S.A., 3rd grade; B.D., 3rd grade
Yesterday, we did a mock election.  An election is when people vote for something.  To vote you need a voter registration certificate and you need to sign it.  A voter registration card is how people know it's you.  You have to be quiet in the line and patient.  

We showed our voter registration card, signed in at the polls, got a ballot, found a voting booth, and voted for our favorite singers and more.  When we were done with the ballot we would fold it and put it in the ballot box.  Taylor Swift won.  

"It felt good to vote because it was exciting to have an election with our parents voting for president."  S.A., 3rd grade
"It felt good to vote because we got to have our own vote."  C.N., 2nd grade
"I did not like to vote because I was at the very end of the line and I had to wait 20 minutes."  B.D., 3rd grade

Election Results:
Favorite Musical Artist: Taylor Swift
Favorite Fad: Emojis
Favorite Toy: Nerf gun
Favorite Movie: "Trolls"
Favorite TV Show: "Teen Titans Go!"
Favorite Book Series: Harry Potter tied with Babymouse
Favorite Author: Shel Silverstein
Favorite Museum: Houston Museum of Natural Science









It's not too late for all you eligible adult voters to get out there and vote!
If you live in our area, research the candidates with the League of Women Voters Guide. 
Enter your address here to find your polling location and print a sample ballot.




There's a Book for That!
Election Day (Rookie Read-About Holidays)
Granddaddy's Gift by Margaree King Mitchell
Duck for President by Doreen Cronin
Dig Into History (Nov/Dec 2014): The Beginning of Democracy


Update 11/9/16: For help on how to talk to children about the election, visit http://www.tolerance.org/blog/day-after

Update 11/29/16: Harry Potter won 17 to 4 in a run-off election.  Unlike Election Day, we did not have 100% voter turn-out for the run-off election.

Día de Muertos

Around the start of October, a new activity appears on our art shelf: a cardboard skull template to trace, black construction paper, oil pastels, a pair of scissors, and a few laminated examples of calaveras created for Día de Muertos.  

Here's a sample of what the children created:

There's a Book for That!

Calavera Abecedario by Jeanette Winter

Day of the Dead by Tony Johnston

The Spirit of Tio Fernando by Janice Levy

Gift for Abuelita by Nancy Luenn

A few places/events in Houston where you can learn more about this beautiful holiday: 

Casa Ramirez (241 W. 19th St., Houston, TX 77008)

MECA (Multicultural Education and Counseling through the Arts)

Lawndale Art Center

Pandas and parasols

A certain red-headed substitute was spotted heading into my classroom this morning.




















It's a curious thing.  Every year around this time, I find myself in need of a substitute.  Fortunately, Ms. Frizzle, driver of the Magic School Bus and science teacher extraordinaire, is always up for the challenge.  She has some unusual (and somewhat demanding) barter requests.  She will substitute for my class on Halloween if I will convince my seamstress and shoe-designer to work their magic.  Seems like a fair trade to me!





This year, inspired by my summer Fund for Teachers fellowship in Asia, she insisted on a new Imperial China dress complete with dragon fabric.  "The children will love the dragon fabric," she pointed out in the fabric store.  And she was right, of course.  By all reports, they did.

The Friz is a firm believer that the details are important.

Shoes would not be complete without pandas attached.
(Visit the Museum of Natural Science to see "Pandas: The Journey Home," an outstanding National Geographic documentary about the Wolong Panda Center in China.)






Earrings--a Chinese calligraphy brush and a golden fan (that actually folds open and closed!)--were a must to round out the ensemble.

Happy Halloween!

Got milk?

In every ger we visit, we are welcomed with milk products.

Once seated inside, we begin with bowls of milk tea.  Cow milk tea, yak milk tea, horse milk tea, reindeer milk tea.  Whatever the family herds, they seem to find a way to milk.

Today we visited a camel-herding family, . . .

and you guessed it!  

We were welcomed with camel milk tea











and some very sour (unsweetened) camel milk yogurt,













along with sugared pieces of crispy flat bread.



And I got to milk a camel!

After I spent some time photographing our hostess milking the camel, she noticed my interest and invited me to try.  To milk the camel, especially if you're as short as our hostess, you stand one-legged with the bucket balanced on your elevated knee.

Now that I am a more experienced exotic-animal dairymaid, it was easier to get a stream going into the bucket right away.

Next, it was my turn for a camel ride through the sandy dunes.  Camel Time!  Notice that these are Bactrian camels with two humps (versus the one-humped Dromedary).  The ride is a little easier because the rider is nestled between the two humps, but it’s a tad unsteady hanging onto the front hump as the camel lurches forward to get her legs under her to stand.  

We rode out into some beautiful dunes with Chris joking about my camel’s “droopy humps.”  They were much more flexible than I expected.  Keenan pointed out that it is a little like having a joy stick-operated camel. 

At one point a young boy came up behind us and shouted something, and my camel began to run.  Our camel herder host quickly put a stop to that, but it was a breathless moment or two as I held onto that hump for dear life.  

Not only are the camels used for milk and transportation, but as temperatures rise, the camel's shaggy wool sheds in clumps.  In the summertime, it is pulled out in handfuls and used for a variety of purposes.

Our hostess demonstrated how to make rope, pulling the wool to “card” it as you might sheep’s wool and then twisting two pieces at the same time as twisting them together.  































She made it look effortless, but my attempts were decidedly clumsy.  





We also watched her use the fibers to make a thick, sturdy felt.  She began by laying out the fur in strips—first horizontal and then a layer with strips in a vertical direction.  

 She then placed a thin piece of fabric over the wool and wet it and added soap, scrubbing and scrubbing  

 and then rolling it and wringing it out. 

It produced a very nice layer of felt—much bigger pieces of which are stitched together to make the walls and roof of a ger.

How did you celebrate the Fourth of July?

Students, I am eagerly awaiting your guesses about this mystery country Fluffy and I are visiting.  Read the posts, put the clues together, and make a claim (based on evidence). 

Reindeer games

No, we did not visit Santa, but we did take a one-and-a-half hour boat ride across the lake (the largest lake in the country by volume, it holds about 70% of the country's fresh water)

to visit a nomadic reindeer-herding family who traditionally lives in a tipi almost identical to that of the Native Americans of our Great Plains!  

This time the milk tea that welcomed us was made with reindeer milk.  

The reindeer eat lichen, and there are only about 50 families (~500 people) who still herd reindeer.  To support this vanishing culture, the government now financially subsidizes each adult and child who continues to live this particular nomadic lifestyle.  As we talked with the family, it developed that they had only relocated to this particular "summer spot" for tourism reasons, and they had only brought three reindeer because the climate is too warm in the summer at our elevation of 5000 feet and all wrong for the reindeer which typically live at 9000 feet.  

The mother reindeer was panting in the heat, and the area was thick with flies, covering the poor reindeer.  I don't like to see animals suffering outside their natural habitat, but it is fascinating how similar this group of people is to some of our Native Americans.