Crazy Hair Day

     On the 25th March the British International School of Moscow had its first Crazy Hair Day, organized by one of our classmates - Julien Caron. I think it was a brilliant idea to add a little creativity to our grey school days. At first, I was really lost with which hairstyle to choose, it seemed like every idea I had just wasn't "crazy" enough. Then, I remembered Lady Gaga's "Telephone" video. And there is was, at last - the perfect idea for the day! When I told my friend Karina about the idea, at first she just laughed and thought that I was joking. After trying to convince her to do this hairstyle with me, she finally agreed.
    The night before, we ended up going to my house to practice getting our hair done. I must say, it involved tons of bobby pins, hairspray, and, of course, the actual empty Coca Cola cans. To begin with, I did the hairstyle for Karina, and then on myself. Overall, it was a difficult task, as both of us have long hair, so sometimes it felt like it wasn't going to hold up for an entire day. In the end, we were really happy with the result, as the hairstyle was crazy enough for us to stand out on that day. We had a lot of younger students approaching us with compliments and in the end we ended up winning the competition for the best hairstyle. :)

By participating in the crazy hair day, I have achieved the following outcomes:
- Undertaken new challenges
- Worked collaboratively with others
- Developed new skills

 

Attending Fitness Club

    My friend Karina and I have been aware of the existence of a fitness club in our school, however, unfortunately we had never had a chance to attend it due to the amount of work we had to do after school. This was true until recently, when we finally had a chance to join Mrs Gray during her fitness club. After the lessons have ended, Karina and I changed into ours gym clothes and went to the hall, where Mrs Gray already started setting up for the club.
    As it turned out, we were going to exercise with a special video. She gave us a choice of choosing different styles, aimed at different parts of the body. We ended up choosing the one aimed at toning up legs and butt. Overall, some of the exercises were rather difficult, at least for me, since I don not really consider myself to be a really sporty person. After almost an hour of exercising, my butt was killing me, along with my legs, however I think overall it was really worth it.
   I really hope that Karina and I will get a chance to come to the club every week, thus showing our perseverance and commitment as well as undertaking new challenges by choosing a new video every time.

Here is a link to a segment of the video we used that time:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQGGlZQC4QI

"The Call of the Wild"

   Over the holidays, Karina, Polina and I have decided to pay a visit to "The Call of the Wild" dog shelter in order to give them everything we've bought using the money raised on Valentine's Day.
   After our arrival we were met my a young woman, who turned out to be one of the helpers at the shelter. She had shown us around and asked all the questions that came to our mind regarding the life at the shelter. We were astonished to find out that there are more than 420 dogs in "The Call of the Wild", however our surprise had reached its pique when she told us how much food is required to feed the entire shelter's population - 150-200kg of meat. Every day. Even though after this shocking discovery the amount of food we've brought with us seemed minor, the sincerity with which the woman was thanking us for our contribution to this worthy cause made us feel happy about being able to provide any kind of help.
   We were also told that we were more than welcome to come to the shelter at any time (preferably  contacting the people in the shelter in advance) and help walk with the dogs, feed, clean or simply play with them. After looking in the dog's eyes that stare at you with love, faith and loyalty no matter what, I have made a promise to myself that I will use every opportunity I get to either donate money to this shelter or come there and help take care of the dogs.

   By organizing the trip and donating the necessary goods to the shelter in need, I:
- Planned and initiated activities
- Considered ethical implications of my actions
- Worked collaboratively with others
- Engaged with issues of global importance
 

"Charity sees the need, not the cause."

   As I've mentioned in my post about the Valentine's Day, throughout the way we have managed to raise almost 25000Rub. After doing a lot of research, Polina & Karina Semochkina and I have chosen two charity organizations that we've decided to donate the collected money to.
   One of them is called "Kto esli ne ya?" (Polina is the one to thank for finding this organization). Its main aim is to promote the charity program "Gift celebration", that involves volunteers buying birthday gifts for children from orphanages all over Russia. Since Polina was the one to find this organization, she and Karina were the one who volunteered to find out what kind of presents are wanted by the kids and to go to a shopping mall, buy these presents, beautifully wrap them up and then pass them over to the organization's office.
   The second organization we have chosen to sponsor is the dog shelter "The Call of the Wild" (also found by Polina). It's located 20 km outside of Moscow and consists of more than 400 dogs of all sizes and ages. A couple of days before the beginning of the holidays Karina had made announcements about this shelter being in need of warm blankets, and a couple of volunteers had actually decided to help and brought us some warm clothes and blankets. In addition to that, Karina and Polina had used the money raised during the Valentine's day to buy:

• 40 kg of dry dog food
• 16 kg of conserved dog food
• 27 l of drinking water
• flea treatment
• bandages
• antiseptic
• wound healing cream

   After everything has been bought and packed, Karina contacted the owner of the shelter Elena, asking her about all the necessary details regarding our visit to the shelter, that was scheduled for the holidays.
 

Science Fair in School 4

   On the 15th February, the last day before the holidays, the Year 12 students were invited to participate in a very exciting event - a science fair in BISM 4 (a primary school). All volunteers were more than welcome to spend their day in school 4, showing fun experiments to the younger students. We were told to divide into pairs, each pair being able to choose the year groups(s) they wanted to teach. Polina and I had to come up with an entertaining though educational investigation to show to the nursery + reception and Year 2 students.
   At the beginning we had a lot of different fun ideas that included making a lava lamp, making a vinegar + baking soda volcano, making blue copper sulfate crystals and even "building" parachutes for chicken eggs, however in the end we have chosen to do the "drawing on milk" experiment for the youngest year groups and an "amazing 9 layers liquid tower". I saw these experiments on youtube and we've realized that they would be perfect for the younger kids, because both of them involve doing something colourful and sapid.
   In the morning on Friday we brought all of the equipment needed for our experiment to school, put everything in big plastic boxes and set off to school 4. When we arrived there, we were met my Mr O'Brien and Mr Wilkinson (the science coordinator of school 4), who have kindly shown us around and briefly told us about the timetable for the day. Fortunately, Polly and I weren't the first group to show our investigation, so we had enough time to set everything up. We had just enough time to put everything out of the boxes and become morally prepared for presenting our work when a whole bunch of small children had entered the computer room where we were going to teach them. Frankly, I didn't expect them to be so small and loud and automatically started waiting for something to go wrong, however when we started showing them our investigation, they seemed to get so involved in the process of drawing on milk with food colouring and dish soap that I've realized that choosing this experiment was the best possible choice.
   The next group of students that came to our lesson were older than the nursery and the reception kids, thus they showed more interest in asking the question we've prepared regarding whether two different liquids would mix and layer up on top of each other. To be honest, we really wanted to do the "Amazing 9 layered liquid tower" experiment, however we got to actually rehearsing it only when we got to school 4 this morning, so we weren't quiet sure of what exactly to expect. However, despite our fears, everything went perfectly and everyone seemed to have enjoyed our presentation, even the teachers that were supervising the lesson!
   Overall, the science day in school 4 was a great success and I am extremely glad to have had this amazing opportunity to take a part in this event. For the next time, I think we should rehears the entire investigation a couple of days before the actual performance in order to avoid all the stress.

   CAS outcomes that were achieved:
- Increased awareness of my strengths and weaknesses
- Planned and initiated activities
- Worked collaboratively with others
- Considered ethical implications of my actions

Love is in the air...

   This year's Valentine's Day had been the most celebrated one that I've ever witnessed in BISM 3. Even though it might have seemed easy and fun to the younger students, only the IB students actually know how much work had gone into organizing and making this day unforgettable.
   I've started running around with errands the day before the Valentine's day had officially begun. In order to decorate the school, Polina Orlova and I stayed after school on Wednesday. We ended up staying past 18:00 and, frankly, still didn't get a chance to put up all of the decorations we've prepared. This is why the next morning I got to school at 8:00 and tried to finish everything off as quickly as possible. After that me and Karina had to start going around the registrations to collect the money for the non-school uniform day. Unfortunately, we didn't get enough time to finish it before the end of registrations, so I volunteered to stay and finish our task off myself (previously confirming it with the teacher I was supposed to have a lesson with). Then I finally got time to sit down and relax.

   However, the serenity didn't last for long. The lunch was quickly approaching and we had to set up for the bake sale. Thankfully, our French teacher Mme Merlet had allowed us to leave her lesson earlier in order to get ready before the end of the lesson. This way, at 13:20 we were ready to roll. We had all types of sweet treats ready for the costumers - sugar cookies, cheesecakes, a banana cake and cupcakes (muffins). Despite how much food we had prepared, the demand for the decorated treats was so high that everything ended up being sold out in the first 10 or 15 minutes. The only problem we had was the lack of change we had to face.
   The last two periods of the school day became the busiest time of the day - everyone from Years 12&13 were doing something, carrying chairs out of the hall, setting up the DJ equipment, putting up the decorations in the hall etc. Due to good communication (finally) and global eagerness to help, by 15:40 everything was ready and the disco had finally begun.
   During the disco, a couple of Year 12 students, including myself, were making milkshakes (strawberry, chocolate and vanilla) and selling them to students and teachers (another fundraising idea that came to our mind a couple of days before).
   In my opinion, even though there was a lot of running around, shouting, pulling all nighter and simply nerve racking last-minute problems, this Valentine's Day was a great success. Everyone, including the teachers seemed to have been enjoying themselves, thus making all of us feel that our pains were worth it. Overall, throughout the day we have collected more than 24000Rub, all of which is going to be donated to charity.
   If we were to organize an event like that again, I would make a couple of changes to the planning. For instance, I would start putting up the decorations earlier in order to finish on time. As well as doing that, I would make sure that for the next bake sale there is plenty of change available in order to make everything go quicker and smoother.

   I believe that as well as making this day unforgettable, by getting involved in organizing this event I've achieved the following:
- Increased awareness of strengths and areas of weakness
- Undertook new challenges
- Planned and initiated activities
- Worked collaboratively with others
- Considered ethical implications of my actions
- Developed new skills (making milkshakes)

V-day decorations

   Since I'm the one responsible for decorating the corridor, I've tried to do some research and look for some good ideas for the V-day decorations. After looking at dozens of different pictures, I've decided to decorate the windows near the corridor with pink heart-shaped garlands. In addition to that, there are also going to be pink, red and white balloons everywhere in the corridor as well as pictures of cute little cupids and love quotes printed on red paper cut into heart shapes. Another option would be to use pink paper to cut out price tags for the bake sale in order to emphasise the sense of rejoicing.
   Another thing I had to take upon myself is making the crowns for the king and the queen of the day, who Dina planned on announcing during the disco. I spent some time thinking about how to decorate them, and I've remembered that a couple of years ago I've made a crown for the school play "Alice in Wonderland" and I still had it somewhere, so I decided to find it and slightly re-do and re-new it and then make a male crown that would be of the same style. The materials I used for the crown are: really thin metal wire; golden spray-paint; a lot of red beads and one big heart-shaped one; sellotape.

Valentine's Day planning

   Valentine's Day had always been celebrated with giving out valentine cards, roses and just the feeling of love being in the air. However, unlike anything that had ever organized before, this year's Valentine's Day celebration is going to include a themed baking sale, organized by Karina, Polina and myself and a celebratory disco after school. Not only am I directly involved in organizing the bake sale, I'm also planning on decorating the corridor with heart-themed decorations as well as being the person responsible for the Valentine's Day being a non-school uniform day.
   One of the first things that had to be done in preparation for the bake sale was to think of where and when to set it up. According to our plan, the bake sale will take place near the canteen on lunchtime. We believe that this will be the best time and locations for this fundraising event, because that's where most people spend their time on lunchtime, so our sale will be noticed by everyone, thus attracting more customers. The next step is producing posters to advertise the event and putting them up all over the school.
   As well as putting up the posters, I was thinking about going around the registrations in order to make announcements about no school uniform and the bake sale. At the beginning we couldn't decide whether we should be the only ones to bring our baked treats to the bake sale or whether we should ask any volunteers to make a contribution. After a thorough discussion with Karina and Polina, a final decision has been reached - everyone who is willing to participate will be more than welcome to bring their treats and either give them to us to sell on lunchtime or sell them themselves. I've written a letter addressed to the tutors, announcing that everyone has a chance to make a contribution to this worthy cause.
   I tried to come up with a list of things I need to do for the Valentine's Day:

• Print posters and hang them around the school + send out letters to tutors
• Make announcements during registrations (bake sale + non-school uniform day)
• Cut out at least 50 differently sized pink (or red?) hearts for the decorations
• Buy pink, red and white balloons
• Menu for the bake sale + price tags

   This is what Karina and I came up with for the tutors' addressed letter regarding the bake sale:
"Dear Tutor,
   I'm sure most of your class has already been informed about the upcoming baking sale on Thursday 14^th of February. We are giving everyone an opportunity to contribute towards this event and bring some home-made treats to the baking sale. Just to remind you, all the money collected will go to charity, so everyone should try to contribute to this worthy cause. Please bring the treats you cook to Mr Carruthers' room before lunchtime on Thursday. Each student has a choice of either giving their food to us to sell or selling the food on lunchtime themselves. Your participation would be greatly appreciated!
Thank you for your attention. :)
If you have any questions, please ask Alyona, Karina or Polina from Yr 12."

Winter Day

   Finally, after all the planning and postponing, the Winter Day had finally taken place on Friday, 8th February. Our initial planning had to be slightly changed due to the fact that we were given only one slot in the timetable, however we weren't the only group who was planning something for it. As a result of this poor planning, we had to divide the students coming to our activity into 2 groups - one group would go participate in our activity while others would enjoy themselves with Natasha and Polina. After 20 minutes we would change. Overall we would have 6 sessions with each year group, each 40 minutes long.
   My group ended up mixing up some of the initial activity ideas and came up with a list of different snow games, that included searching for plastic shapes in the snow and running to "capture" plastic poles. The day before the Winter Day took place Mark, Maans, Polina and I stayed after school to borrow all the things we needed for our activity from the school gym and assemble them in the outside space we have chosen for our activity. Even though we knew it wouldn't take much time, we decided to do everything we could in advance, so that we wouldn't be faced with any last-minute problems on Friday. As for making the hot chocolate for Karina's group activity (they decided to do a quiz instead of story-telling), I decided to prepare everything in the chemistry lab and heat the drinks up in a microwave. I had also baked cookies to serve along with the drinks.
   Overall, I was really happy with the way we've handled everything for the whole day. We were running our activity until lunchtime and we had enough time to entertain 6 groups of students - Years 7-9. The first session turned out to be quiet challenging as it was hard to explain the rules to some of the children, however after some time it was going really well. Everyone (including us) got so involved in the activity, that when "our" 20 minutes had passed, we totally forgot that we had to send the students to Natasha's and Polina's activity, so they had to come and remind us about it (which frankly they didn't seem very happy about), however after the first session we've learned our lesson and monitored the time very precisely.
   Even though most of the things were going perfectly, I was having some issues with getting involved in two activities at the same time - our outside games + making hot chocolate. I had to leave my group for almost 10 minutes during every session to go to the chemistry lab and prepare hot chocolate for Karina's group. At the beginning I couldn't do it quickly enough, however with practice I got more and more confident and were able to cook the tasty drink in no time. In order to make it more special, I decided to put some marshmallows and whipped cream on top. The word quickly got out and in between the sessions and on break/lunch I had teachers as well as some students coming up to me asking for hot chocolate.
   Everything was going according to the plan until after the lunch. That's when things got out of control. According to the timetable that we were given, everyone had to go outside. However, after several attempts to find out what exactly we were going to do, no one had a clue. This lack of planning had resulted in complete chaos. Children were doing whatever they wanted and a massive snowball fight (students against teachers) ended up taking place. Pretty soon it got crazy - students were almost attacking the teachers, forcing them to surrender. Those few who managed to run away and hide inside the school building could consider themselves lucky, because those, who didn't manage to escape from this battlefield... Oh, well. Being hit everywhere by the snow (or even ice), getting pushed, falling down. These are only some of the things they had to experience. One of the teachers even got hit in the face with a chunk of ice, ending up with a black eye. After that, all students were told to go to their tutor rooms, where we had to evaluate the Winter Day. It's very unfortunate that such a great day had to end so badly.
   If we were to have the Winter Day again, there would definitely be a couple of things I, personally, would try to improve upon. One of them would be the whole planning. It has to be much more accurate and, in my opinion, should be done well in advance. Another thing I would do differently - I would bring some extra warm clothes with me, because frankly, after spending so much time outside, even considering that I had to go inside to make hot chocolate, I was freezing to the point where I couldn't feel my legs for some time.
   By getting directly involved in initiating this event, I've achieved the following:
    - Increased awareness of strengths and areas for growth
    - Planned and initiated activities

    - Worked collaboratively with others

  

Winter Day plan

   One of the events that have been timetabled for February of 2013 in BISM 3 is the Winter Day. Initially, a couple of the Year 12 students, including myself, were planning to organize it before Christmas, however, unfortunately, it had to be postponed for after the Christmas holidays. Finally, we've been given with the exact date, which means that it's time for some heavy planning.
   My group - Polina, Mark and Maans - decided to initiate an outside activity. We haven't decided on a particular game yet, however with the pressure of time, we need to do it as soon as possible.
   Also, I volunteered to help Karina's group, who are doing the story-telling activity and prepare hot chocolate for the students who are going to get involved in their activity. I still haven't figured out how or even where to prepare the hot chocolate or even how much ingredients to bring, so this is another thing that has to be done.
   This is the plan I have so far:

Photography on Cuba

   During the Christmas holidays, my family and I went to Cuba. I've been really looking forward to this trip, because I was told that there are a lot of tourist attractions that would take our breath away, so I saw it as an amazing opportunity to finally practice my photography skills.
   As always, I was taking my camera with me everywhere, even to the beach, making my mum laugh like crazy. I've taken almost 700 photos over 3 weeks, however after a strict inspection of the outcome, I've deleted almost half of them and kept only my favorite ones. After that, I had to face another challenge - editing them. This is something I had never felt particularly confident about and I had to spend a lot of time on trying to make them look the way I really wanted to. Surprisingly, despite the despair I felt at the beginning, I ended up being quiet happy with the result of my Cuban photography project!

Helping out at a parent-teacher meeting

   In the end of January (22nd January, to be precise) a parent-teacher meeting took place at our school. A couple of Year 12 students, including me, found it a great opportunity to provide service to teachers and parents by serving tea, coffee and biscuits.
   As there were quiet a lot of Year 12 students staying after school, we decided to divide the different roles between us - some were taking care of the dirty cups by washing and drying them, some were preparing everything to be ready for serving (e.g. boiling water, making sure there was plenty of extra coffee/sugar/milk etc) and some were preparing the actual drinks and serving them. Personally, I was the one who was going around asking teachers and parents whether they would like anything to drink, then preparing the desirable drink and serving it to them.
   Another thing I had to take upon myself was to work as a translator for some of the parents whose knowledge of English wasn't strong enough. Surprisingly, this was the hardest challenge of the evening. Russian is my native language, however because of the fact that I don't study it as one of my IB subjects, I am starting to feel like it's getting harder for me to communicate in Russian and therefore sometimes it was hard for me to think of a good Russian translation for some of the words.
  
   By getting involved in this activity I believe that I've achieved the following:
   - Increased awareness of my strengths and weaknesses
   - Worked collaboratively with others

Bake sale

   On 19th December we have organized a bake sale in BISM 3. We decided that it would be a very efficient way to raise money in order to help Guzal' - a young girl with vascular malformation, who is in need of an urgent and very expensive surgery.
   To begin with, the day before the bake sale took place, Polina came to my house, so that we would spend the whole evening baking cupcakes, cookies, cakes and other sweet treats for the following day. The though that we had everything planned, but our time management became an issue and we ended up spending not only the evening, but also almost the whole night baking. However, in the end it was all worth the time and effort.
   Overall, the bake sale itself was a great success and in the end we've raised more than 8000Rub. Personally, I was really motivated by the feedback we got from the happy customers and it made me smile for the whole day even despite how sleepy all of us were. Natalia Ivanova (http://nataliaivanovacasmoscow.blogspot.ru/2013/01/charity-donation.html) then transferred the money to the charity organization "Alen'kiy Tsvetochek", who then gave the money to Guzal' parents.

   At the end of the day we've decided that having a bake sale was probably the best fund raising activity we could have held. If we are going to do it again (and we are definitely going to), we should plan our time better to avoid pulling all nighter.

   By getting directly involved in this activity, I have:
       - Planned and initiated an activity
       - Worked collaboratively with others
       - Engaged with issues of global importance
       - Considered ethical implications of my actions

Attending Mr Harper's drawing club

   As I have recently found out, every Thursday lunchtime there is a drawing club (organized by Mr Harper) taking place in the art room. I've always been very passionate about art and drawing in particular, so obviously I couldn't miss it and as a result me and a couple of other girls went to this club.
   When we came to the art room, we learned that there is going to be a person who would act as a model and sit in front of everyone pretending to read a book and we would have to draw her (or him) with charcoal. This was the part I wasn't exactly happy about since I remember not being very good at drawing with this particular material. However, surprisingly, it turned out to be better than I expected.
   I actually ended up drawing a cement bust of a man that we found in the art room and not Polina Orlova (who was the model). Overall, I was quiet happy with the outcome of my work, however, the only problem I was faced with was the time limit. I didn't manage to finish my drawing during lunchtime and therefore decided to take the drawing and the charcoal home and finish it in my spare time. As a result, inspired by the whole drawing with charcoal theme, I have produced two more black and white charcoal drawing, thus improving my drawing techniques.

Horse stable

   As I've mentioned before, there is a horse stable very close to my house and for the last 6 months or so I've been using this to my advantage.
   Along with horseback riding, I've been coming there almost after every school day and on the weekends to help clean the stables, wash, feed and saddle the horses, taught children coming to the stables how to horseback ride and even attempted to train a horse to steeplechase. Even though I find these activities very enjoyable, teaching a couple of particular children came as a real test of my nerves. A couple of the younger children thought of themselves as experienced riders and ignored my instructions at the beginning, so I had to repeat them again and again. However, no matter what, I did my best to remain patient.
   Furthermore, another challenge I was forced to face at the very beginning was overcoming my bad memory (yes, I have the attention span of a goldfish, nothing new here) and learning the names of the horse saddle parts and what the saddling steps are. Even though at that time it seemed impossible to remember everything, now I can do it in my sleep. Another proof that practice makes perfect :)

 
 I am really enjoying spending time at this horse stable and I am currently increasing my knowledge of the equestrian sports as well as developing new skills, showing perseverance and commitment, undertaking new challenges and working collaboratively with others.

Tutoring Russian

   There are a lot of new teachers in BISM 3 this year. Most of them are from the UK and therefore their knowledge of Russian is either non-existent or really weak. Since Russian is my native language, I decided to undertake a new challenge and test my skills in an area that previously I had never gotten involved in - teaching my mathematics teacher Mr Bruce some Russian to make his life in Moscow a bit easier.
   Every Wednesday we've been staying after school to have our lessons. On our very first lesson I was very surprised to find out that he already knew the alphabet and could read and my job was to teach him useful phrases and how to pronounce and use them in sentences correctly.
   At the beginning of every lessons I always ask Mr Bruce whether there are any specific topics or even words that he would like to know the translation of. The first couple of lessons I taught him how to ask for help, greet friends and order food in a restaurant and then we moved on to learning different types of food such as vegetables and kinds of meat.
   I am very pleased to say that Mr Bruce turned out to be a very good and talented student, who had shown passion for learning, so our lessons were very enjoyable for both of us. His knowledge of Russian is improving so dramatically that during our last lesson he even attempted to translate whole sentences. Surprisingly, he got most of the sentences written by me right and even got me really impressed by attempting to form some sentences in Russian himself.

   By getting involved in this activity I believe to have achieved the following CAS outcomes:
   - Undertook new challenges
   - Planned and initiated activities
   - Showed perseverance and commitment
   - Developed new skills

Cooking with Karina and Polina

   Back in November, Polina and Karina came to my house for a cooking sleepover. We had almost immediately  decided that we wanted to improve our skills in making éclairs and then show our talents by bringing some for the next baking sale.
   The first thing that we did was making the pastry. Here is the recipe we've used:

• 3 eggs
• 1 cup of flour
• 1 cup of water
• 1/2 tea spoon of salt
• 100 g of butter

   The pastry then had to be piped onto a cooking tray using a piping syringe. The tray should then be put in a pre-heated oven for 30-40 minutes so that the éclairs become golden.
   While our elcairs were in the oven, we decided to make the vanilla custard filling. The ingredients for that are:

• 1 cup of milk
• 1/2 cup of sugar
• 2 egg yolks
• 1 1/2 tbs of flour
• vanillin

   We finished cooking the filling and when the eclairs were ready filled them with the custard using the same piping syringe. Normally, eclairs would then be covered with melted chocolate, but personally I don't like doing that, so I proposed to use colourful icing instead. Luckily, Karina and Polina were up for being a little bit creative with this, so we used blue, green, purple and pink icing to put on top of our eclairs.
   Next day we brought our masterpieces to school in order for other people to try them and tell us what they think. A couple of people complained about the toxic colour of the icing, however overall we got complimented on our work, so it made us feel like all our work was worth it.

   This activity helped us achieve the following:
   - Increase awareness of our weakness and strengths
   - Develop new skills