Luffa Gourd

by Vidheha Ranjan

  

We went out and we bought plants in a shop in Lagankhel. There were luffa gourd, long gourd, pumpkin plants and seeds.

We planted the luffa gourd ourselves. First the plant was small. Today it is tall. There were caterpillars on the luffa gourd leaves.

We collected the caterpillars and we put the caterpillars in the big bowl because they turn into cocoons and tiny insects came out of the cocoons [these were wasps that had already laid their eggs in the caterpillars].

 

Anita didi saw a luffa gourd today. Everybody saw many luffa gourds. She picked luffa gourds. I couldn’t pick the luffa gourd because we are small and the plant was big. Sanket dada also picked luffa gourds. 

That was fun and we took photos. We held the luffa gourd and took photos.

Everybody was smiling and I was also smiling. We are eating the luffa gourd for supper. Sabita didi will cook the luffa gourd.

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Nicola and Phoebe and their friend came to our house on Friday evening. Everybody ate luffa gourd and rice and chicken also. Everybody liked the luffa gourd.

We also made artwork of the luffa gourd. We did the artwork for science. We made artwork of luffa gourd, luffa gourd flowers and leaves. A leaf was torn and there were holes in the leaf because the caterpillars had eaten the leaf.

We made puri!
* because of danger of possible hot oil burns, the children were not allowed to be a part of the puri frying process


We made super tasty puri and ate them too!



Chuntu at 3 made many puris but this was the one that was approved for cooking and taking home to share with her parents. 



Snigdha is our resident puri making expert. 



Prabiiiiir is a love. He makes the best puri and when he puts it on the nanglo, he turns it into a momocha!



Ok, ok, here, I will make anudder one better than that!



The boys are champs here. Bishes is the puri making teacher even.



See Sanket make puri, and see Suprit do amazing things with a round ball of dough. 



After learning geometry making triangles, quadrangles, pentagons, hexagons, septagons, octogons, and nonagons and new shapes previously unknown to geometry, Suprit makes the roundest puri ever made in the history of Spritisanicity.



Vidheha and Chuntu are hard working. 



Bishes teaches everyone how to use flour so unstickyfy the puri but then ends up using toooooo much. 



Oooo lalala Chuntu is worried. WHY are you taking the puri away. To FRY? You will destroy my perfect puri she says. 



Snigdha's wonderful puri. 



Prabir makes perfect.



Roll roll roll your dough.



And roll roll roll some more. 



Aarambha has made all those puris? Wow, Go Aarambha Go!



Bishes and Vidheha at work. 



Anika and Anna are all ready to eat the puris Aarambha and friends made. 



Yum Yum Yum puri.

Caterpillar Ecosystem

26 July 2018

Today we saw a moth in our ecosystem bowl.

We had placed 7 caterpillars in there.

All caterpillars were put in with the particular leaves that they were found on. This is because they may only eat and live on those leaves and not others.

Some caterpillars had been turned into hosts by wasps and flies who had laid eggs on them. So instead of forming pupa, the larva inside them formed tiny egg like white pupas and we saw many tiny flying insects in our ecosystem bowl.

The caterpillars changed their skins. Meaning, when they had to become bigger, they let go of their old skin and bigger caterpillars with new skin emerged from them.

Caterpillar ecosystem is hard to do.

Out of 7 caterpillars, we were able to see 1 moth came out and we still have 2 cocoons which may make new butterflies or moths.

Learning how to swim

video by Palistha Shakya

More than 200 young people have learned to swim through the Spiny Babbler pool program. The program has completed 10 years. It teaches young people water comfort, walking, playing, handling buoyancy, floating, addressing fears, and achieving. It uses in water as well as out of water teaching techniques, exposes young people to different swimming techniques and learning methods as well as helps them understand skeletal, muscular, respiratory and other human systems that help young people participate safely. 

July 23 was an interesting day at the pool. 

1. Our 4 year old Vidheha has been crossing 9 feet depth for some weeks and is now comfortable doing it on her own. 

2. Our 3 year old Neela or Chuntu is now walking comfortably in water and tries her hand at floating and kicking.

3. Our two brand new 5 year olds Bishes and Amulya have now crossed 9 feet without support from an adult or a floating device. 

4. Snigdha, Aarambha, Suprit, Anita, and Shila are floating independently!

So a great week overall!

Its great fun swimming with Vidheha. 

Amulya go go go. Amulya, 5, makes it to 9 feet and back several times.

Snigdha getting comfortable in water. 

Prabir goes on and on and on floating.

3 year old Chuntu learns to walk in the water and tries basic floating. 

Bishes, 5, crossing several times.

Suprit, 7, learns to float.

We look forward to posting further videos of our children's progress. 

Cheers!

"Deep Blue"

Documentary review

by Anita Bhattarai

12 July 2018, Thursday

"Deep Blue" is a science documentary that we watched at our school during movie night. This documentary is amazing. There are lots of small and also big fishes are in the sea. They, the water play, the huge ocean and seas, big fishes chasing small fishes and their escape are all shown so beautifully.

There are sharks, whales, killer whales, jelly fishes, silk fishes and more. In one scene, a gray whale and her baby are migrating and are playing in the water when a group of killer whales come and they are very scared and they try to runaway but the killer whales killed the gray whale baby by taking her alone and drowning her.

Some fishes have legs and sea lions sound like dogs. There were many birds that came when they saw the small fishes. They dive into the water and they try to eat the small fishes. The killer whales are very dangerous, beautiful and they are very big.

We saw these whales also tried to kill the sharks. One time there are many silk sharks and they are chasing all fishes that ran and ran they hid under big stones.

There are many plants also in the water they look very amazing. I had never seen before a documentary like this. I didn’t think the plants were plants or flowers and I was confused: some of them looked like animals and some animals looked like plants. But I liked that.

And when the ocean was dark like night time there are all jelly fishes and many other marine animals shining and they are looking so amazing and wonderful. Some are like stars and short, some are longer and of different different colors. I have never been to the sea. I saw jelly fish that are red, pink, white, orange and very interesting.

I loved those fishes but I learned that they also sting. I saw all water looking very red with blood when fishes attacked each other and I was very sad. The ocean is very big. I loved this documentary.

Making Mayonnaise

reported by Shila Shrestha

19 July 2018, Thursday

We were so hungry because we read “The Very Hungry Caterpillar.” Pallav sir said that we will make mayonnaise.

We were so happy because we like to make mayonnaise. We got ready to make mayonnaise.

  

Anna, Anika, Chuntu, Vidheha, Amulya, Bishes, Snigdha and Aarambha were all here.

There were eggs on the table, a big packet of sunflower oil, freshly squeezed lemon, and salt. This time we would make the mayonnaise sugar free!

We broke the eggs and put them in the blender turn by turn. We added oil and spilled some too!

Then we got the chance to see the mayo thicken and press the blend button turn by turn. Sabita didi helped us! We go to put salt and lemon juice in.

All of us got to do something.

Mayonnaise color is white. It became very thick and nice. After we made mayonnaise Sabita didi mixed mayonnaise and cucumber and they made sandwiches for everyone.

Our tummy got full like the very hungry caterpillar, our tummies also got biiiiiiiig and roooooooound.

Architecture Exhibition

A collective report

Nepal has a long history of wonderful architecture. The three oldest Nepali architecture styles are the pagoda, shikhara and the stupa. Nepal imported the shikhara style and its unique adaptations include the Krishna Mandir while, the pagoda structures such as Nyatapola are among masterpieces of architecture and on the world heritage site list.

That was the past and now as a nation, our architectural geniuses have arrived and they are all over the world. Our architectural artists and engineers are practicing in the finest organization of the America, Europe and Asia contributing towards the making of the best human architectural achievements around the world.

And some of the best engineers got their education from the Pulchowk Engineering Campus which is probably considered the best architectural college in Nepal. That is where we went for a visit.

And from 13 July to 15 July an architecture exhibition was held there. This was their 12th architecture exhibition. There were all of us, our three year old Chuntu or Neela, our four year old Vidheha to our older Sanket dada who is 14. It would be a great outing for sure.

What did we see, a bamboo structure that was made for spatial recognition, places narrow, and places wide and high, so the third year students who made it said. In fact we go to talk to the designer who came straight after painting some stuff and had paint daubs all over him!

That was the entry point.

Then we went through an art show and we got to vote for the artwork that we liked best. Next was another installation around a pond that was made with bamboo and white rope. It was spectacular, the contrast against the greens was stark. The shapes were like upside down cones.

Then came the photography exhibition. Here, too, we got to vote for the images that we liked best. It was quite interesting that many of the images were of places we had already been to and they looked so different when presented as art, photographs and architectural models. The photographs were all in black and white and that made them even more interesting. We like the image of feet that were tied with chain and jewelry best.

Then came more artwork; stalls by different construction companies such as iron rods for construction, plumbing, water safety; images of human species and their progress from ape to homo sapiens; another installation.

The installation was interesting as it was made with white ribbon. We got to walk through and it was very interesting negotiating the space. Next came a perspective presentation of height including being inside tall halls to being inside narrow spaces.

Once out of this area, we got to see hundreds of models of houses, living spaces, kindergarten schools, resort complexes for healing, and much more. It was interesting seeing these and so many of them and comparing their geometric shapes.

Then came product designs that used lighting also for highlights. We came down the stairs and reached models presented by Purbanchal University student engineers. Then we saw traditional buildings from the Terai and from the valley and other places. Some of them were large.

Last but not the least was a special presentation of international and national architectural design presented as a chess board piece. That was an amazing experience. The international buildings such as the tower of London (the Big Ben) were presented as pawns, the buildings of Paris, Dubai, Shanghai, Malaysia that were the most remarkable were presented in all black. The architectural masterpieces of Nepal including the Nyatapola, Boudha, Bisket jatra rath, Dharahara, and the patis were presented.

The Architecture Exhibition

by Vidheha Ranjan

We saw a bamboo sticks arranged in a way that was amazing. The color was yellowish and black.

We looked at plumbing equipment.

We saw humans from different ages.

We saw artwork and we took pictures.

We looked at the house models and everybody liked them.

We were at the Puchowk Engineering Campus.

Near the fish pond there were installations made of bamboo and white rope. That was very interesting. There were three of them of the same shape. They looked like nets.