The PROJECT: Halloween

    On 31st of October the Halloween Day has taken place in the British International School of Moscow. I had taken part in organizing the event and I would like to describe the whole experience and the things that, in my opinion, went well and what could have been improved upon.
    To begin with, Karina, Polina and I have stayed after school the day before the Halloween day in order to decorate the school. We have prepared a variety of decorations, including spider webs, balloons, garlands, posters and other miscellaneous things that we thought would help to get everyone in the right mood. It took us almost 3 hours to hang everything up inside and outside of school, contrary to how much we thought it would take (I thought we would be able to finish in under an hour). When we got home (the three of us went to my house), we were already tired, but we knew that we still had tons of work to do before the next day. We baked cupcakes and cookies that would be sold during the bake sale and decorated them. We also had to pack everything for tomorrow, e.g. additional decorations, baked goods, tickets etc.
    The next day we tried to get to school as early as possible. When we entered the school, there already were a couple of younger students, who seemed to be really impressed with the decorative work we have done the night before. This was really encouraging for us as we spent a lot of time and effort making sure that the day went well. During our second lesson that day, which conveniently was CAS, our year group began decorating the hall, where the disco would take place that evening. Everyone was given a task - some people were carving pumpkins, some people were covering the windows with newspapers and some people were hanging up spider webs on the walls. We were truly grateful for all the help we received that day, because everyone worked collaboratively with others, thus making sure that everything was done to a high standard.
    On lunchtime, we had a themed bake sale. As always, most of the baked good were sold very quickly and we managed to collect almost 10,000 rubles in less than an hour, which I think is rather impressive.
    After the end of school, the most exciting part of the whole day has begun - the Halloween disco. In parallel to the disco, we had Korean students organize a Korean restaurant, where they sold snacks and Korean triangles as they are very popular in our school. The people who came to the disco seemed to be having a lot of fun, thanks to the guys, who volunteered to be DJ's! The music was great, the costumes that both the students and the teachers were wearing were amazing and the decorations really created the spooky atmosphere we wanted to achieve! Overall I, personally, was very happy with the final outcome of our planning - people had fun, we managed to raise funds for charity, and all of the time and effort we spent on planning everything have paid off!
    On a less positive note, however, I would like to mention that just like with any event we had faced a few problems over the course of the day, however I am proud to say that we found ways to solve all the problems. For instance, we had a misunderstanding with the school administration and therefore have misinformed the students about the day being a non-school uniform day, so we had to change the information sheets and make sure that all students heard the new version of the announcements, saying that they would have to wear uniform and change into their costumes after school.
    Another problem that we had to face was the fact that we made a mistake of not telling the students about the disco well in advance, so until the last day we were nervous that very few people would actually show up. Most of the people ended up buying the tickets during the last day before the disco, which was a big relief.
    Overall, we have received a lot of positive feedback, especially from younger students, so I think that we should be proud of the final outcome!

As a result of organizing the Halloween Day, the following learning outcomes were met:
- Increased awareness of strengths and weaknesses
- Undertaken new challenges
- Planned and initiated activities
- Worked collaboratively with others
- Shown perseverance and commitment to the activity
- Developed new skills

 

Halloween: Decorations & Cooking

    As the Halloween Day is coming closer and closer, the girls and I have started making decorations for the Halloween disco. In order to create a celebration atmosphere we want to decorate the corridors of the school as well as the outside space.
    As well as the decorating part, we are paying extra attention to the bake sale that is planned to take place on lunchtime. In order to practice decorating the cupcakes with Halloween-themed icing, Karina and Polina came to my place, so we baked cupcakes and decorated them with green, orange, white and even black icing that seemed appropriate for the occasion.
    The decorations have proven to require much more time than baking. Since the school building is large, we had to spend quiet a lot of time first listing all the decoration-related ideas we had, then buy supplies to make them and then spend a lot of time actually making them.
    We have decided to use spider-webs, bloody stains on the windows, balloons, themed garlands and mummies. Some of it could be made in advance, so that's what we have been spending most of our free time doing. Personally, I have decided to make a big corpse decoration that could then be hanged somewhere like the hall in order to scare younger students. It turned out rather challenging as I had never produced anything that big in the past.

   Also, as a preparation for the Halloween day, I have tested my creativity by practicing a spooky makeup on my little sister, so that it would give her an idea of what kind of costume she could choose for the disco, since we were going to organize a competition for the best costume.

Halloween: Planning

    I have been a fan of Halloween for as long as I can remember. For this very reason, I am very exciting to say that this year, a group of people from Year 13, including moi, are organizing the Halloween day in BIS 3!
    We have made a quick plan of the activities that are going to take place on that day. They include a themed bake sale on lunchtime, and an after-school disco, during which we are going to sell snacks and have a couple of mid-song games, including a competition for the best costume. We are also planning on making it a non-school uniform day, which would allow us to raise funds for charity.
     We have spent the last couple of CAS sessions planning the details of the day, thinking about who to ask to do what to help as well as making a list of things we would need for decorations (as, of course, decorations are one of the best parts of Halloween!). Even though we are still in the planning period, we are already facing a couple of challenges, such as lack of free time. I think we have underestimated the amount of work that needs to be done to organize a good event, especially when there are so many different aspects that have to be taken into consideration.
    Karina and Polina have taken it upon themselves to allocate different tasks to different people, so that everyone is responsible for different aspects of the day. It was really nice of them as it has helped us a lot.

 

"Ruka Pomoschi" - Helping the Homeless

    One of the charity organizations we have decided to help using the money collected during the fundraising money collecting challenge is the "Ruka Pomoschi" organization that helps the homeless people around Moscow. Together with the girls who have been contacting the organization in order to find out what kinds of things they are in need of, we went to one of the biggest supermarkets in Moscow and have bought big amounts of food that the organization suggested we get - wheat, grain, rice, pasta, biscuits, sugar, salt, drinking water, tea, coffee, condensed milk, mustard and pearl barley.
   The next day after school we went to the organization's office, where we were met by a lovely woman, who turned out to be the coordinator of the organization. She asked us questions regarding how we found out about the organization and why we have decided to help the charity organization. She then expressed sincere gratitude for our help, because even the smallest help can save someone's life.

The following learning outcomes were met:
- Planned and initiated activities
- Worked collaboratively with others
- Shown perseverance and commitment to the activity
- Engaged in issues of global importance
- Considered ethical implications of our actions

Dog shelter

    As I have said in the previous post - as a result of a fundraising activity we have organized in our school we managed to raise around 40,000 rubles. A part of this money was allocated to be spent on the dog shelter that we have been helping for the last year and a half. We have already bought food and medicaments in the past, so this time we decided to contact the shelter again and ask them about what kinds of things they are in need of right now.
    Together with Polina and Karina, we went to Ashan and bought dog food, meat, drinking water, wheat and medicaments that we then took to the shelter. They were very grateful for our contribution and gave us another tour around the shelter in order to show the progress they have made after our last visit.

Results of the money-collecting challenge

    As I have mentioned in one of the previous posts, Karina, Polina, Apolina and I have organized the money-collecting challenge in our school. After the challenge has been open for a week, we have counted all the coins that we managed to collect in order to be able to announce the winner (the Year 11s ended up becoming the winning class).
    The task of counting the coins ended up being much harder than I expected, because we managed to collect much more funds than we expected. At first, I couldn't believe how much we actually managed to collect in just one week - after converting all the money into rubles, it added up to around 35,000. The first thing we had to do was to separate all the coins into different currencies. As it turned out, there were all kinds of different currencies in the jars - from pounds and dollars to shekels and euros. Then, we began separating the Russian coins into different values - 1, 5, 10, 50 kopeks, 1, 2, 5 and 10 rubles, counting everything, putting them into separate plastic bags, labeling the quantity of coins in every one of them, so that in the future it would be easier for us to explain it to the bank when we went to exchange it to paper money.
    Overall, the task ended up being much harder than expected and we had to spend a lot of time and effort on this challenge, but the end result was really worth it! After numerous discussions, we decided to separate the collected money and spend the money on different charity organizations - a part of the whole sum was allocated to the dog shelter, a part of it was to be given to the "Homeless" people charity while a part of it would be donated to the local children's hospital.

The following learning outcomes were met:
- Undertaken new challenges
- Planned and initiated activities
- Worked collaboratively with others
- Shown perseverance and commitment to the activity
- Engaged in issues of global importance
- Considered ethical implications of our actions

International Day

    The British International School of Moscow has an amazing tradition of organizing an International Day in the end of October of every year. This year was no exception. This year, our class was responsible for setting up the dining hall as well as helping Yr 12 to run several activities. Personally, Polina Orlova and I, we decided to join a group of Yr 12 students, who had an activity about Lebanon. While they were presenting their Power Point presentation and giving younger students a chance to try Lebanese food, Polina and I were drawing Henna tattoos and doing face painting of flags.
    As well as running our activities, the day before the International Day we have made decorations to decorate the hall, creating the "International" mood so that there would be a festive atmosphere during the day.

 The following learning outcomes were met:
- Increased awareness of strengths and weaknesses
- Planned and initiated activities
- Worked collaboratively with others
- Considered ethical implications of our actions

    In order to prepare for the activity, we brought a lot of different paints as well as henna paste, oil, hand sanitizers and a couple of other tools we would have to use that day. Overall, I think the day was very well-planned, as usual, and the students enjoyed all the activities they were a part of. The Henna tattoos required some preparations as it was necessary for us to get a signed permission from the students' parents, which had to be written and distributed earlier that week.
    Our activity became so popular that we had to spend the break time and most of our lunch in the art room, painting faces and drawing Henna tattoos, so we ourselves didn't have a lot of free time to enjoy activities, but I think in the end it was all worth it!

Cooking Club

    My friend Karina and I have been organizing a weekly cooking club, starting from last year, because we have realized that it was a great opportunity to combine our creativity and passion for cooking. The club has been running every Monday lunchtime in the chemistry lab. The hardest part has been to choose a recipe for next week's club as there were certain limitations that we had to face, such as lack of an oven or any heat.
    We have already taught younger students how to cook Asian rolls, a muffin in a mug, omelette in a microwave, ginger and grape tartlets and the Halloween special - cookie monsters. Overall, every session we had more than 7 students from different year groups coming to our club, on some occasions the number of visitors we had was more than 12! In order to keep people informed about the next week's recipes Karina and I have decorated a board in the corridor, so that we could put up notices, telling people what the next week's cooking club will feature.
   Overall, so far I think the club has shown to be a success, even despite the fact that we had to clean everything up after the younger students. Many people brought food containers with them, so that they could take what they cooked home to show to their parents - we thought it was very nice of them to do that and it encouraged us to think outside the box, so the students would have something new to show to their parents every week.

I believe that we have meet the following learning outcomes:
- Planned and initiated activities
- Worked collaboratively with others
- Shown perseverance and commitment to the activity
- Increased awareness of strengths and weaknesses

Money-collecting challenge

     During the last few CAS sessions, a couple of friends and I have been discussing different fund-raising ideas we have. After making of list of different ideas, the one all of us could agree on was organizing a money-collecting challenge. It involves setting up a separate jar for every year group and putting it in the hall, where everyone would be able to see them. We would then make announcements about the competition. According to our plan, the competition will last for one school week. Students are encouraged to bring as many coins as possible, not necessary Russian rubles, but also other foreign currencies.
    Karina, Polina, Apolina and I decorated huge 5 litre bottles with silver wraps and a number for every year group. We also made announcements during registration. The students seemed rather exciting, so we are hoping to raise money for charity.

Running and Swimming during Summer

    As I've mentioned before, I usually travel a lot during summer holidays. This year was no exception, however I still managed to spend some time in Moscow. As I live outside of Moscow, in the countryside, and the weather was surprisingly nice this summer, I have decided to take this opportunity to be active. I have a forest and a field near my house, so I have been going running around the field and around the forest, enjoying the nature. I have always decided to take my dog with me, so we both got some action for us. Also, after running I always came home wanting a refreshing shower, so I decided to combine running and swimming in a swimming pool. I have been changing the amount of time allocated for each activity depending on my mood, however I have tried to increase the time for both overall. By the end of summer, I have managed to spend one and a half hours running and then swimming for an hour.
    Of course I faced a few problems over the duration of the summer, for example one time my dog decided that he doesn't want to continue running anymore and just lied there in the forest, not wanting to move, so I was faced with a challenge to get him back home.

Overall, during summer, with the help of this activity I have met the following outcomes:
- Increased awareness of my strengths and weaknesses
- Undertaken new challenges
- Planned and initiated activities
- Shown perseverance and commitment to the activity
- Developed new skills

Summer Recycling

    Over the summer holidays I had some free time, so I decided to sort out all the notes, papers, magazines and notebooks I had lying around in my room. It took me a couple of days to go through all the papers I had, sorting them out in different groups. In the end, I ended up having a lot of papers I didn't need anymore, so instead of just throwing them away, I decided to think about the environment and recycle the papers I didn't need anymore. As it turned out, a friend of mine, was planning on doing the same thing, and as we both were in Moscow at the same time, we decided to meet up and take the papers to the recycling centre together. The job ended up being harder than I expected, because there was so much paper, that it took us quiet some time to load everything in the car and then get it out when we were at the recycling centre. Overall, I think the two of us managed to collect around 50 kg of all kinds of papers, from old books to just old school notes. I believe that I will continue to collect paper for recycling and come to the recycling centre every couple of months, thus engaging in issues of global importance.

I believe that by getting involved in recycling, I have met the following learning outcomes:

- Planned and initiated activities
- Worked collaboratively with others
- Shown perseverance and commitment to the activity
- Engaged in issues of global importance

Photography during summer

    My summer holidays always involve a lot of travelling to different parts of the world and, therefore, I always carry my camera with me to take pictures of the things I see. This summer I have decided to practice my photography skills, trying to take new kinds of pictures that I had never tried before, for instance macro photos of insects. After taking tons of pictures over the course of two months, I then had to spend a lot of time going through numerous photos, choosing the best ones, therefore it required patience. Overall, I am rather happy with the outcomes, even though not all photos I took ended up being great.

 

"Recycled Fashion" Project

    After making a mistake of not choosing an art subject in my IB, I have missed being creative, so I made a decision to be creative and remember all the art skills that I have learned while doing IGCSE Art. One of the on-going projects that I have decided to continue working on during summer revolves around recycled fashion. It includes making pieces of clothing out of "unconventional" materials, such as paper, sweet wraps etc.
    Having spent some time during summer collecting Nespresso capsules, sweet wraps and other "recycleable" materials, I have managed to show my creativity by constructing a dress made out of playing cards and paper clips as well as a jacket made out of cleaned Nespresso capsules.
    Overall, I am going to continue working on this project and then post about the progress made as I have more ideas about what other pieces of clothing can be
made out of recycled materials.

The following learning outcomes were met:
- Increased awareness of strengths and areas of growth
- Undertaken new challenges
- Shown perseverance and commitment in my activities
- Developed new skills 

Summer Fair

    On the 21st of June our school had a great experience of running its first (I'm pretty sure it was the first one ever) summer fair. For the whole day students had a chance to go around and participate in different activities that were organized, such as nail art, face painting, different outside games, football game as well as try out numerous kinds of food that both the teachers and the students brought for the fair that day.
    Karina and I initiated and organized our own activity that combined a few different aspects together - nail art and face painting. We had people come to us to paint their nails in fun colours as well as draw small patterns, while the face painting included us drawing butterflies, flowers, angry birds, sweets, fruits and even flags on other people's faces.
    The other thing we had to do the day before was to bake cupcakes and cookies for the summer fair "food court". We got many compliments for our chocolate chip and strawberry cupcakes and cookies with nuts, which, as we were told, were quickly sold out.
    Overall, I believe that the day was really successful, the kids were having a lot of fun participating in all the presented activities and we didn't seem to have any problems. Maybe for next time it would be a better idea to think of an activity that would be suitable for guys as well as girls (even though we had boys come to us asking to draw angry birds on their faces!).

The following learning outcomes were met as a result of participating in the Summer Fair:
- Increased awareness of strengths and areas of growth
- Planned and initiated activities
- Worked collaboratively with others
- Considered ethical implications of your actions
- Developed new skills

Summer Fair: Planning

    In the end of June, our school is going to have a Summer Fair organized for all the students and teachers. We were given an opportunity to organize an activity that would be creative, fun, entertaining and suitable for different year groups. A couple of Yr 12 girls and I have decided to think of an activity, that would be fun and enjoyable. For now, we have a couple of ideas, because it is still the planning stage. Some of them include nail art, face painting, painting small clay sculptures, cooking summer salads etc. Sometimes it can be hard to choose just one thing, so we are thinking about combining several activities together, so that the students will get a chance to try new things and not focus on doing the same thing for the whole day.
    We have written lists of things we would have to buy for different activities, so that we would have an idea of what we would need to get in each case.
   As well as organizing an activity, we are planning on participating in the baking competition that is going to be on for the whole day. It is a usual thing for Karina, Polina and I to participate in these kinds of things as we are fans of cooking, so we are thinking about baking cupcakes for the competition, however this time we might try baking something else just to try something new.

Creativity Day

    As the summer gets closer, more people can't sit quietly during lessons as they become too distracted. In order to give everyone a chance to show their creativity and have a nice little break from lessons, our school decided to organize a Creativity Day. Our class couldn't miss this opportunity to provide a service for school as well as showing creativity, so our year group has been divided into groups and each group could choose an activity they want to help and supervise.
    Karina and I chose to help and run the activity that involved decorating the empty walls of our school. A week before the creativity day, we had a meeting with the year group that was going to participate in our activity. They were given instructions to design a drawing that would represent the spirit of our international school.
    During the Creativity Day, we had to supervise the kids while they perceived to draw their designs on the walls. We had to mix the paints for them to use, make sure that no one has paint all over their clothes and hair and in between when people had breaks we went around, taking pictures of all other activities that were going on at the same time, for example - organizing an eco-fashion show, making sculptures our of reusable materials, drawing comics etc.
    Overall, I think the Creativity Day was a great success - the kids seemed to be enjoying all the activities and everything went smoothly - the things produced by the students looked amazing!

 

The following CAS outcomes were met:

- Undertaken new challenges

- Planned and initiated activities

- Worked collaboratively with others

- Considered ethical implications of your actions