Millie’s Time at The Phoenix School in Salem, MA, USA. Millie was part of our school family for a few short weeks but she did so much with us before we had to send her on her way to China! Here are just some of the wonderful things Millie experienced while she was with us.

READING: Millie read like she was reading for eons! When she opened the book she started imagining that she was in the book watching Jack and Annie complete their adventure. Suddenly she found herself standing in a tree house filled with books. She opened one that said Bear Land. “I wish that I could go there”, said Millie.

And the tree house began to spin. It spun faster and faster until it was still absolutely still. She got out of the tree house and there were bears all over the forest. She realized she was home and ran outside only to find herself running in the pathway at school. I guess that she was just dreaming. She will go do some math with her Phoenix kids.

DRAMA: Some of our youngest students created a puppet show for Millie. She got very excited to be a part of it.

ENGINEERING: Building a Bat With Millie

Wow, she gets herself in glue. She still jumps up with excitement. Ready to go she helped me cover up all the staples. She also attached the whole mouth, even though she was afraid to touch it. Wow, she made it so scary. Mille was so scared that she did not want to be cut by the sharp teeth. She made it look real, so much I would not be able to do that. She didn’t let it bug her, even though it was scary. She was still attaching the eyes and when we finished, the bat face scared her. Now it was time to attach the ears, but she thought that the ears did not look that scary. When we looked the picture of the bat we realized that we had not put on the orange nose. As we make it she thinks of making a mask and as a master she makes it in 10 minutes. After we put the nose on she had a feeling the mask was watching her. Now that we got the head done. It was time to move on to the wings Millie was always afraid of bat wings, so she was not sure of making this. Millie was scared of the wings, but the wings were not scared of her. While she was building the wing she felt like it was getting closer. Now that the wing structure is done. We moved on to the legs. Then the bat jumps on us, but Millie does not get scared, but we do. Then Millie makes that bat freeze and saves everybody. Then she opens up her eyes and realizes she is still building the bat. Since she used to be afraid she was not brave at first. Then we came up and made her build. That made her brave again. Then we started building the bat leg, but because she was no longer afraid she was capable of building the batwing. Wow, she puts the mask on and everybody is scared and then she took it of. The batwings grab her and the bat swallows her. Then she opens her eyes and realizes it was a daydream. She sits in a bat chair and keeps on building. She never gets scared in her day again and has a great time.

BEYONG THE CLASSROOM LEARNING ADVENTURES: Millie At The Peabody Essex Museum

Millie jumps with excitement as she enters the doors Wild Designs the biomimicry exhibit at Peabody Essex Museum. She hopes there is a section about bears. She looked at a section called a jube. The jube is a hand woven contraption that traps bugs for food.

She is fascinated but she was anxious to find an exhibit about bears.

Second an exhibit called Warka Towers caught her eye she liked how people are finding a new water source. There is a net on the tower that collects moisture and brings it down by gravity to the people. She is fascinated but she wanted to see an exhibit about bears.

Next there was an exhibit called geckskin. It was about a new strong adhesive that can hold up to 700 pounds on a smooth wall. Crazy, right?, the craziest is that it’s inspired by nature. Millie was starting to think there is no bear section. Sadly, there is not one, but Millie is okay, but she doesn’t mind at all. She was so fascinated at all the things humans have been inspired by from nature. Millie will definitely come back to the PEM in the future.

OUTDOOR TIME: Millie At The Park with Us

Boom, Number 3, Millie The Bear with the first goal of the game. Everyone including her jumped up in happiness for the amazing goal she had just made. Half way into the game her and her team was getting very tired but Millie was still trying her hardest and pushing everyone to still keep trying their best as we always try to do. Soccer just finished and even though her team lost she still had a positive attitude.

Millie was so excited because they were playing her favorite game at recess, Freeze Tag! Millie was super excited but tired at the same time. It must have been her lucky day because she got to be her favorite person in the game, The tagger. She gave everyone five seconds to run and after those seconds she was going super speed, tagging people all over the place. It must have been the quickest game of Freeze Tag ever thanks to her. Great job tagging, Millie.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING: Millie is Cooking