Mother's Day Open House 2009

We (the Lion Class) have been practicing a little over a month for our Mother's Day Open House! It has been crrrrrrrrrazy for all of us, but the kids did an emaculate job and we're just all happy it's over. You don't know how many bribes and treats and blah I had to give to get them to keep going...poor things. But the parents want to hear them speak...without help...and so we practiced on and on.

Our Program:

1. Yoga introduction by kids and Chinese Teacher
2. Teachers Welcome the Parents
3. Children Welcome the Parents with the song "I Love the Mountains" with actions
4. Phonics Review and game
5. High Frequency Word Review, Brief discussion about parts of a tree (roots, trunk, branch, leaf, cherry, tree)
6. Group Conversation...Each child uses High Frequency words in sentences connected to the tree discussion
(i.e. Can you see it? What do you see? What is it? It looks big. It looks little. I see the....(tree).
7. Bathroom Break/ Set up for the play
8. Perform "The Three Bears Medley" ....I was inspired to create something that the kids were familiar with and would give each one an equal opportunity to speak! You gotta watch out for those parents.
9. Sing the song "Celebrate love" with actions then perform a memorized speech with actions

"Good morning everybody. Thank you for being here today. My name is ____________. This is my mom and I love her. I think my mom is (smart and beautiful)...so I nominated my mom for the most 'smart and beautiful' mom award. I love you mom. Please come to the front to receive your award!"....Yes, they said that.

10.Traditional red bean soup ceremony. The children feed their moms soup to symbolize their gratitude for nourishing them.

*Celebrate that it's all over!

And now...some pics

Practicing our play, "The Three Bear's Medley"



A mix of "The Three Bears, The Three Pigs, and Little Red Riding Hood"!



Get a dinosaur card for doing a good job! (The kids are totally into these cards right now).




Make some colorful lantern decorations.









Make a sign that you think will totally rock




Create a speech telling everyone what you think of your mom




Give the speech...




with actions




in front of everyone's mom







then invite them to come to the front to receive their award














Ask the parents what they liked most about the MOther's Day PRogram....the Play!




Meanwhile break into your moms award candy while listening to the boring parent comments




...and then partake in a traditional ceremony





The children fed their moms red bean soup as a symbol of giving back to the one who has nourished and cared for them











Act like you're getting your picture taken for a magazine




or simply let your grandma feed you instead




celebrate that it's all over with a little bit of chocolate cake!

Happy Mother's DAy!

OASIS_Live FoRever

Friday April 3, 2009!







Waiting for the band



checking for any technical difficulties with the binoculars



A close up




Wooooooooo!



Noel Gallagher (song writer/brother of lead singer) singing Talk Tonight. Love.



Liam Gallagher singing Champagne Supernova. It's what I came for. The first time I ever heard it was on the highway in Hawaii.



OASIS_Live Forever

OASIS faves: Champagne Supernova, Stop Crying Your Heart Out, Whatever, Don't Look Back in Anger, Don't Go Away, Talk Tonight, Wonderwall, The importance of Being Idle, Stand By Me, Live Forever....

BorNEo Epilogue

We had to drive through palm oil plantations to get to Uncle Tan's.




Heading back was just as muddy as when we came in...only this time there were some obstacles.




A huge rig of palm oil pickins stuck in the mud...luckily we didn't have to wait long...it actually just had to back out.




A flood...that turned out to be...not so deep.





L to R: the Australian matching couple (always wore the same colored t-shirts), the London couple (Gary the softie and Holly one of the cooler girls I have ever met), the Swiss couple (Sonja and Patrick) and the South African (Surita aka my co-worker).


This was the group we ended up with for the last few days. I have to say I really loved the Swiss couple b/c we were always laughing at the same things. We had actually told them about Uncle Tan's and they came with us.




In Sukau, Jonas and Lois from Sweden. They were filming some stuff for American schools. You can check out some of his work: thewildclassroom.com. It's like Bill Nye the Science Guy stuff. Pretty cool.

All this for a pic of a tiny praying mantus.




We were on the NE side of Sabah, Malaysia and were heading South. Ah the taxi ride...I couldn't help but breath in that fresh air...




you know...that air. I was dying and laughing to myself at the same time...all that cig smoke flying in my face...but believe me that was better than the rotten fish smell all 3 hours in our mini bus ride to Semporna.




The bus stop to Semporna. There is no set time for the bus to leave.



You know which bus to take by the sign on the bus or in its front window. I don't know how we made it around, but we survived b/w our little known Malay/Chinese and their English. ha ha. The most commonly known word was...Ringgit (their currency)




This is a mini bus (boss meanie) (we say it backwards and without a cool accent). This is so luxury compared to some of the other buses and means of transportation...truly.




and when the bus fills up...then you go. You could be waiting for hours...which we did. The bus even took a few rounds around the town beeping at everyone on the street to see if they wanted to hitch a ride to Semporna.




While waiting for the Semporna bus to fill up we began to feel hungry...so we ate and these lovely Muslim girls were the cooks. They actually asked us to take their picture...not a usual case.




After a good nights rest in Semporna we found the Mabul Cafe to be a great place to eat and figure out where to dive.









Figuring out when and who we were going to dive with. I was the scribe while Surita read off prices and accommodations. We dove with Uncle Chang. And lived on Mabul island for a few days.




A view from Mabul. I dove to see the Hawksbill Turtle and I saw. I could have just watched them forever...magical.




Mabul itself...is not poor in beauty, but poor in the way of life. Poverty and tourists...don't make a good mix. It's not a new thought for me, but seeing what I saw motivates me to be more urgent to do something about it...I'm working on that.




freedom love









Pick a spot to sit down.




Make sure you have some tooth fresheners.




And brush away to the rising tide and sun.




Dive with the locals




...and somehow notice a set of homemade drums in front of the scuba hut.




Watch the clouds at sea...and think of the things you wish everyone could experience with you...It'll happen someday.


When we got to the airport our flight was cancelled so they put us up in a Hyatt (4 star) hotel. A nice way to end the trip after a long stream of...not so clean hostels and random street food that you were unsure of. The next day we arrived at the airport LATE and had to through the airport just in time to hear them announce...it was boarding time! I was laughing inside about how the ENTIRE trip was not without some kind of pure adventure.




Terima Kasih (Tur-ee-muh Kah-see) (roll the r) means Thank you. I love you Borneo. I wouldn't have seen it any other way...you should try it sometime.