Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Purple Cake day: Kids helping Kids all over the World.









Today is Purple Cake Day.

For our school, Pt chevalier School, Phil Spriggs, the Deputy Principal was in charge of this special event. The teachers and some parents took part. Some children brought purple cakes for the staff. I know, in one class, a mum made cupcakes for all the children. Some of the classes had a shared breakfast of purple cup cakes, some of them made purple cup cakes. Most of them wore purple and donated a gold coin for the children in Nepal.


We raised more $660. A fantastic effort for a primary school.

Nepal has a special place in my heart, About 12 years ago, I spearheaded a fundraising exercise in the Nanyang Technological University to help separate a pair of Siamese/Con-jointed twins from Nepal in Singapore.

What is purple Cake Day?


Purple Cake Day is about connecting children around the world.

Children in Nelson, New Zealand and New Jersey, USA were skyping to learn more about each other's Purple Cake Day. We now have over 1000 people in 28 countries who have downloaded our Resource Kit to learn about Purple Cake Day and the projects we support. 



On 1 st March – there were sporting events and bake sales to purple dress and wearable art, from small to big events, from classrooms to whole schools and communities.

There is tremendous support and recognition. There is real benefit in making these global connections, helping children understand their role in the global community and empowering them to take part in change. 




Children in orphanages in the Congo and Burundi will be celebrating and having purple parties.

At an International School in Bordeaux, France, children will wear purple, make flags of hope, draw and give their thumbs up to Purple Cake Day.

At the Children of Haiti Project in Haiti – one of our project partners - older kids will wear purple ribbons and help clean up rubbish in the tent camp they live in. The little ones will sing, draw, read and play games.

In Hong Kong, at the 10 Woodland Pre-schools, it's going to be a purple day, with purple decorations and purple clothing. And at Citykids Preschool, children are making and selling bead necklaces, butterfly pencils, ladybug fridge magnets and bumblebee bookmarks

In Nepal, our project partners First Steps Himalaya have organised a Mad Hatters Tea Party. Its going to be a fun filled family friendly event - yummy food, purple cakes & drinks, kids art exhibition, competition and prizes, stalls, music and kids corner. They're also running an art competition and lots of rural Nepalese children are competing. There'll be a special purple party, as well as an environmental clean-up. Also in Nepal, our project partners In Time Trust are organising a rubbish collection day at the Kailash Bodhi School.

In the United Kingdom, a school in Portsmouth is planning a purple day. And One World Nannies will be celebrating too.

And moving to the US, we have a preschool and church in Bozeman, Montana turning purple. In San Luis Obispo, California, 10 schools with YMCA afterschool programs have all sorts of purple activities planned, from studying Nepal and eating Nepalese food through to a "who can wear the most purple?" competition. We have wonderful ambassadors in SLO, who have lots of businesses on board for support as well. And at Brigantine Elementary, New Jersey they've been turning purple all week, with "thumbs up", the toy box, bake sale combined with exercise class and studying Nepal.

In New Zealand, lots of schools and groups are getting involved, turning purple, selling cakes and donating. There are also sponsored sports activities, purple yoga and purple icecreams and in Nelson the businesses and Saturday market have already turned purple.

We have New Zealand TV personalities giving us the thumbs up .

Countries involved: Angola, Australia, Belgium, Cambodia, Canada, Dubai, France, Germany, Haiti, Hong Kong, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Ivory Coast, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Singapore, South Africa, Switzerland, Taiwan, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom and United States.

What a wonderful day it was. If those students were like me, they would remember the day even when they are 50 years old and blog about it.

It's a small world after all
It's a world of laughter
A world of tears
It's a world of hopes
And a world of fears
There's so much that we share
That it's time we're aware
It's a small world after all

It's a small world after all
It's a small world after all
It's a small world after all
It's a small, small world

There is just one moon
And one golden sun
And a smile means
Friendship to every one
Though the mountains divide
And the oceans are wide
It's a small world after all

It's a small world after all
It's a small world after all
It's a small world after all
It's a small, small world

Thursday Theme Song.
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watery wed: making pizza in school 4


http://waterywednesday.blogspot.com/
How do you make an outdoor pizza oven in school?

Ingredients:
Clay from a farm, be careful if you dig your garden, the clay is not too sandy.
Washed sand
Wooden chips
Water to mix
Bricks

Very important extras:

Helping hands and legs from students of Diocesan school for girls http://www.diocesan.school.nz"

Your own senior students, hhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifttp:http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif//www.ptchev.school.nz/Home/

An expert Ron Sperber of http://earthwhile.co.nz/composting_kids-dvd/

A paparazzi to record all the buzzing excitement.


















Monday, February 27, 2012

Ruby red/rednesday: Making pizza in school 2








We are very lucky to have the students from Diocesan school for girls to help us build our pizza oven. Under the instruction of Ron Sperber of earthwhile.co.nz, they and our senior students built what I dub as a traditional oven using traditional material and traditional method.

I will post more on this. I spoke with Ron briefly and he told me he is involved with http://earthwhile.co.nz/composting_kids-dvd/ which fits nicely with my Save the world theme.

ool.html">http://ann-mythoughtsandphotos.blogspot.co.nz/2012/02/making-your-pizza-in-school.html

http://annkschin.blogspot.co.nz/2012/02/pizza-making-in-school-3.html


What a great experience our students had.






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Scenic Sunday/Sunday bridge: Singapore




The Water Engineer went to Singapore on work assignment. He bought himself a nice camera, which operates like a mobile phone.

I shall be posting his photos. This is a new bridge on the Singapore river. I don't remember seeing it when I last lived there in 2006.






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Saturday, February 25, 2012

Flowers: Trumpet vine








The trumpet vine or trumpet creeper (Campsis radicans), also known as "cow itch vine" and (in horticulture) as "hummingbird vine", is a large and vigorous woody vine of the family Bignoniaceae, notable for its showy trumpet-shaped flowers. It is native to woodlands and riverbanks of the southeastern United States, but is a popular garden perennial plant across much of the US and southern Canada, as some cultivars are hardy to as low as -30°F/-34°C.

http://wildflowers.colormagicphotography.com/
Macro Flower Saturday
Macro Flower Saturday Macro Flower Saturday ">
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Friday, February 24, 2012

Plunket and me





I’ve signed up as an online collector for Plunket's 2012 Appeal.

Plunket’s Appeal raises vital funds for a wide variety of services , such as parenting education courses, car seat safety schemes, education in schools, toy libraries and many other valuable resources and programmes.

In the 80s, I was a young mum 3 times. I had no family in New Zealand. Plunket was family to me. Plunket's care was epitomised when I was sick when I was pregnant with Andrew and after he had died. I could never repay what Plunket did for me. I tried by collecting door to door, I tried by writing about Plunket. I wrote in detail about Plunket's help in my book and in my other posts.

Diary of a bereaved Mother http://annkitsuetchin.blogspot.co.nz/

http://ann-mythoughtsandphotos.blogspot.co.nz/2010/11/christmas-in-rocket-park-2010-and.html

http://annkschin.blogspot.co.nz/2009/06/plunket-society.html
These services rely on community support to keep going. Your support will assist Plunket to give every New Zealand child the best start in life.

Please consider making a small donation, every dollar counts. Thank you for your support!


This year they're trying something a bit different: an online version of the traditional street collection. Please click on this link:



http://appealcollector.plunket.org.nz/collect/annchinplunketappeal
ann Chin

Skywatch Friday: Singapore sky




Singapore is dubbed as Lego city. They are forever pulling down and rebuilding.







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Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Watery Wednesday: Christchurch's earthquake 1st anniversary.

It rained,
It rained,
And it rained.
It rained the whole day.

The sky cried,
The sky cried for the 185 who died,
The sky cried for the buildings that fell.
The sky cried the whole day.



New Zealand mourned,
There was no a dry eye.
Even the children,



I taught my students,
why we wore red and black.
A student learn it very well.
For Christchurch,
For the earthquake.
For the people who died.











Here I recycle a post I did last November, as I see so appropriate.
For watery Wednesday here, you can't really see the water. The water mains had been broken by the earthquake, and Kim and Lynn were washing the car after driving through the broken sewage pipes,







http://waterywednesday.blogspot.com/

I was down in Christchurch for the weekend in August. There are two stories here that are so incredulous that you just have to trust me.

During the two days I was there, there were 4 aftershocks of low magnitude and I was unaware of them.

On Saturday, my host friends took me to the fringes of the inner city and I saw mainly the old churches which were affected. On the way home, Jenny Ah Peng saw about 6 inches of bubbling water, and as she drove through them she joked that she got a free car wash. The next moment, she was @@##$ about driving through the sewage water. I was concentrating on the water at the kerb and didn't smell anything despite having the window wound down. Their mum and Kim and Lynn smelt the awful smell. All except me.

Now I tell you why, I think I have posted it before. When I was about 3 years old, my Dad went to London to study. We moved back to my grand Dad's house. At that time in the 50s, there was no power or TV or radio. To entertain us, my uncles performed magic tricks. One of these tricks was to put a peanut up their nostril and have it reappear in their arm pit. Impressionable me, I tried to imitate. My peanut got stuck in my nostril. All efforts to dig the peanut out failed and it remained in my nostril because my grand Dad was worried it would be pushed further if they tried to dig it. So my peanut remained in my nose nostril for many months. One day, we took a boat to my maternal grandma's house. I jumped from the jetty to the boat. As I jumped, my peanut came out. It had swollen and grown whitish. I had grown quite fondly of it. I was exclaiming, " My peanut! my peanut!" and showing it to everyone.

I also learn a new word with the earth quake, liquefaction: loosely packed, water-logged sediments come loose from the intense shaking of the earthquake and the smell!!!! Good thing I can't smell.

Saturday, February 18, 2012

Ruby red/rednesday: What is in your first aid kit?



What is in your first aid kit? If you have young children, Are you aware that children's medication and adults are different?

Do you have tablets, syrups and suppositories in your kit? If you have young children or infants, perhaps it is a good idea to have a separate kit for them and one for the grown ups in your family. Children are not merely smaller versions of adults. Medications for adults can have adverse affects on children. Medication should never be given to children unless it has been prescribed or recommended by a Doctor or Pharmacist.

We do not use a lot of medication in our family. I am glad my youngest child is 15. My grandmother taught us to massage our babies. She even used egg whites. I don't use egg whites because my second daughter is allergic to eggs.

If I have a baby, I would be very worried about the latest Tylenol scare.

Johnson & Johnson said it was recalling its entire U.S. supply of infant Tylenol after parents complained about problems with a new dosing system, the latest in a string of recalls for the healthcare giant. Tylenol is used in America, the rest of the world call it paracetamol .

Friday's recall involves about 574,000 bottles of the grape-flavored liquid Tylenol for infants younger than 2 years old. Following earlier recalls, J&J had just returned to the market with the infant Tylenol in November, but now will be out of the market for an indefinite time.

The problems involves a new bottle design, which was intended to prevent accidental ingestion and ensure accurate dosing. But when parents inserted a syringe into the bottle, some accidentally pushed a protective cover inside. To date, J&J has received 17 complaints, company spokeswoman Bonnie Jacobs said.

No serious side effects from the infant Tylenol have been reported, and the risk of such problems are "remote," J&J said.

The recall is from stores and wholesalers; consumers can still use the product provided that the protective cover at the top of the bottle remains in place, J&J said.


The infant Tylenol product was manufactured at a plant in Latina, Italy. Last March, U.S. health authorities took over supervision of three other J&J manufacturing plants after the flood of recalls.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46427423/ns/health-childrens_healthhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif/a#.Tz-C7VGDtyE

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