School | House Team Swimming

Today, grade 3 students showed some house team pride and raced opposing house team members to show their acquired swiming skills in the 40m freestyle! Miraculously, all 73 students (aside from those who were "sick") were able to complete one heat in less than an hour. Each student was assigned a heat and a lane number. They waited at their assigned lane until the whistle was blown to signal their ready. Then, at the sound of the bullhorn, students dove, or plopped, into the pool to show off. These are the trial races to determine who will compete in the all-school house team swimming competition in May!

Those who weren't participating for one reason or another formed the cheer squad around the edge of the pool to encourage their teammates!

School | Science Experiments

Today we finished up our unit called How The World Works. Since we have been learning about the scientific method and how variables can effect the outcome of an experiment, the kids presented an experiment with a changed variable for their summative assessments. Here are a few of my favorites!

Penang | Malaysia

Our weekend finished off getting tangled in a Hindu festival on our way up a hillside to tour the largest Buddhist temple in Southeast Asia. The Thaipusam festival involves carrying milk pails and other symbols of burden up a hill to a temple, in the case of Penang. Depending on the burden or the devotion of a participant, one might also resort to bodily piercings from which to hang other burdens. Before heading out of town, we swung by the Cheong Fatt Tze mansion, or blue house as it's better known. Once a Chinese immigrant, Cheong Fatt Tze became a self-made man, working to own a good portion of Penang by the end of his life. His house, which was left in ruins after his death, has recently been restored to it's former glory (and vibrant color). Should you find yourself in Southeast Asia in the near future, I would highly reccomend a trip to this charming, little island.

 

Penang | Malaysia

The second part of our weekend took us to the island of Penang in Malaysia. Aside from Indonesia's Lombok, this has been one of my favorite places in Southeast Asia! Being that Indonesia is currently in the middle of rainy season, three days of uninterrupted sunshine was bliss. Penang was settled by the British once upon a time and because of that, many colonial buildings still exist to this day in various, beautiful states of decomposition. A wide variety of cultures have meshed to make Penang into what it is today. We explored a plethora of temples, witnessed a few festivals, and even tresspassed in an abandoned house to get a better angle on the Burmese temple!

We rented motorbikes, our preferred method of transportation and circled the island. On the west side of the island, there is far less development. We hired a boat and went to Monkey beach, which is only accessible by water or an extreemly long hike. For those of you who think that monkeys are cute and cuddly, like a stuffed animal, think again. These little guys were willing to attack at the slightest advance. I had trouble getting pictures with my 135mm lens. They greatly enjoyed the trash left behind by tourists; I even caught one fella drinking a cup of leftover tobacco juice! Blech. The beach itself was gorgeous and lined with several food stalls, rope swings and hammocks.