Russian Mystery Day

Our Mystery February Fun Day got delayed because of snow two weeks ago, so we decided to have it this week instead.  The teachers donned scarves, aprons, and shawls.  We played Russian music and enjoyed a delicious lunch of borscht soup, beef stroganoff, wheat rolls, layered wafer cakes, and Russian candies.  Then we played vishibali, a Russian form of dodgeball.  This was a great immersion into the culture for the middle grades which have been studying Eastern Europe, and a lot of fun for the rest of us.  

 

An Industrial Revolution Cultural Party

       Our annual cultural dinner was held recently.  This year we were studying the Industrial Revolution, so that was our theme.  We chose a British industrial-era menu (listed below.) The ladies wore aprons, bonnets, and shawls; the gentlemen donned hats and vests.  We had a smokestack with smoke (a pillar with a chicken wire and polyfill cloud), a clothesline, baskets, an old treadle base, crates, and weaving for decorations.  The students' history topic boards were on display as were the younger students' state posters.  And at the end of the evening we played a period-correct game before the students challenged their parents in putting together a fourteen-item party favor bag in a real assembly line.  The adults were more organized and won, and we only had one (fake) injury which required bandaging.  We were having so much fun we took very few photos, but here are the ones we did take.  

Menu: 

hot tea and coffee

cheese and fruit

homemade oat rolls & butter

cabbage salad

shepherd's pie

chicken pot pie

baked beans with bacon

pear cobbler

chocolate pudding

The Year of the Rat Chinese Achievement Party

For our second achievement party of the year, we held a Chinese New Year's feast.  First, the students practiced their origami and lantern-making skills, and then we strung up the decorations on the ceiling in the all purpose room.  We are leaving them there for the whole month of February for our February Fun Days decorations.  

After sipping a few cups of tea, we served the students homemade egg drop soup in authentic Chinese cups I've collected.   We then enjoyed an egg roll appetizer.  Before the main course was served, I gave them a lesson on how to use chopsticks.  Every single one of the students ate their fried rice using chopsticks.  I didn't hear one complaint.  

After a dessert of fruit and sherbet, Mr. Choppy-Choppy came out and amazed us with his culinary skills--sorta.  The APR smelled like onions for three days.  

After the students helped us clean up Mr. Choppy-Choppy's mess, we played a fast and furious chopstick relay game.  They were glad they'd had those chopsticks lessons then.  

* "Achievement party" means that each student has met his goal for the quarter.  For most students, that is making all As and Bs on their report cards.  For others, the goal is all Cs and above.  At times, we've made the goal for a student to just turn all their work in and have no incompletes for the quarter.  This way, every student is capable of making it to the party if they put forth reasonable effort. 

** We also strive to make these parties educational, cultural, and fun as well.  While having a hot dog roast and volleyball party would be fun for them, we try to broaden their horizons.  They learned a lot about Chinese culture at this party, and that is part of true education.  

A Passover Seder in the Upper Room

L to R:  Kay Fisher, Briana Nolt, Deana Swanson, Dervin Martin (principal), Caleb and Julianne Martin;  not pictured, Jeff Swanson

     
     Yes, in the Upper Room.  The Upper Room of Westfield Eggs to be exact.  

     While we have held Passover Seders for our students before, we had never done one for an achievement party.  So, when one of the other teachers suggested the idea as the students were learning about some of this in Bible class, we decided to do it.  After school the day before the party,  we made the matzo ball soup, Haman's hat cookies, charoset, and boiled eggs.  

Mr. Caleb (7th grade homeroom teacher) and Kay Fisher (resource room teacher) made the Haman's hat cookies.

One of my former 8th grade students from 2016-2017, Briana Nolt, made the charoset and helped us serve at the party as well.

We ordered kappas for the guys, matzo crackers, and dreidels on Amazon, and we were ready to go.  We passed out the invitations to all of the students as everyone is invited to the first achievement party.  


When the students arrived, we had them put on their prayer shawls and scarves, and then passed out the kippas (or yamakas) to the gentlemen.  We also told them that this was going to be fun, but that it was meant to be serious as well.
   

 
Another former eighth grade student, Mary Swanson, helped serve at the dinner, too.  
Hand washing is part of the beginning of the ceremony as well.
 
Jeff, our Bible and music teacher, presided over the Seder and read the Haggadah.  The oldest woman present is supposed to light the candles.  That would have been me.  


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The matzo cracker is bread made without leaven, pierced and broken for us.
Parsley dipped in salt water represents the tears shed by the Israelites in Egypt. 
The horseradish or bitter herbs represent the harshness of slavery in Egypt.  
The egg represents part of the sacrifice that would have been eaten along with the Passover lamb. 
Charoset (apples, cinnamon, raisins, etc.) literally means "clay," and represents the mortar used for the bricks.  
The lamb shank bone (our school has a limited budget and we couldn't afford thirty-five legs of lamb :-) represents the Passover lamb, Jesus. 

As part of the Passover ceremony, the students put ten drops of grape juice on their plates-- one for each of the ten plagues that God sent upon the Egyptians.  The students also had a shortened version of the Haggadah to follow along as Jeff read, and to read the prayers at the right times during the ceremony. . 
After the dinner we learned how to spin the dreidel.  The students played until one in each group had won all of the gold coins, which they then shared.  

Next we played two Jewish songs.  Our friend Kristen Sommers Weaver graciously joined us on viola for this part of the evening.

The students had also been asked to bring an empty water bottle, a cup of rice or beans, and five items to put inside the bottle.  The items and the rice or beans were put inside the bottle, and "Happy Purim" labels were taped around the middle.  Jeff then read us the story of Esther, the Jewish queen who saved her people, and, true to tradition, whenever he read the word Haman, we all shook our bottles and booed loudly.  (I know, that is usually part of the Purim celebration and not Passover [which is in the spring anyway], but we were doing this for a cultural experience, and it is a part of the culture.)



After the story of Esther, we ate hamantaschen, or Haman's hat cookies.  Then several of the gentlemen helped us carry many boxes of stuff down the stairs and to the vehicles.  We had enjoyed a lovely, culturally rich evening, and I hope they are more motivated to make good grades for the next nine weeks.  

All photographs are courtesy of Shalom Mennonite School's art teacher, Bethany Weaver.
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Park Strangers . . . I Mean Park Rangers--The Junior High Treasure Hunt!

Instead of having an achievement party for the last quarter, the 7th and 8th grade teachers held a treasure hunt and picnic for all of our students at the park.  First, the students were each given a piece of a puzzle.  They had to put these puzzles together to find out who was on their team.  Then each team was given a packet full of many different kinds of clues.  The day before, the teachers had hidden a number of gold coins all over the park.  The group that figured out the clue first got the highest numbered coin, and the last group to get to any specific clue got the lowest numbered coin.  

The clues included a word find which they had to figure out fit inside a cover sheet.  Once it was correctly in place, the clue was spelled out in the circles.  There were also clues from history slides, one in the maritime flag code, one in an attic window, a crumpled up map, one written in lemon juice, a number code, and several others.  The winners got to be first in line at the picnic provided by our principal, and then we played volleyball until their parents arrived.  It was a lovely day for a treasure hunt at the park. 
To see another version of a treasure hunt, click here.