Hartshorn’s Classroom News
October 20, 2010
Dear Families,
If you'd like to observe the children make wonderful discoveries about nature, please consider helping Sharon with the monthly lessons. I will continue to help Sharon, but children love to have their parents come in as well. There is a complete script for you along with pre-made materials! You can also attend a monthly training for the lesson if you wish. This is an easy way to be a part of your child's education as you receive complete guidance! Please let me know if you would be able to help out.
In preparation of our fieldtrip on Monday to the Flynn, we read several stories about the character known as Harold from the book Harold and the Purple Crayon. This character is in other settings as well such as an enchanted garden and outer space. We have been practicing pantomime and also using just our faces to convey emotions such as sadness, angry, and happiness. The highlight of last week was having Sophia's Mom, Karen, lead us in activities preparing us for the Harold show at the Flynn Theatre. We used “neutral” masks while we conveyed facial expressions to show emotions. However, we soon discovered that we couldn't tell how someone was feeling with the neutral mask on, so we had to use our WHOLE bodies to convey emotions. We became eager to see how the Harold on stage will show emotion using a neutral mask. Karen talked to us about some things we will see on stage, such as the use of a smartboard and computerized drawings. Karen explained that there are some simple techniques we can practice so that it looks like magical writing using a purple silk and large crayon. We had fun practicing this with her, and looked forward to seeing if we could see this happen on stage. Thank you, Karen! We all had a blast, and want to do more theatre work together. We also worked with Mrs. Harvey to integrate Harold and the Purple Crayon into a studio art lesson. The children drew scenes on giant paper with a purple crayon. They are precious! Thank you, Mrs. Harvey!
By the way, the show was fabulous! There was the use of some high-tech "drawings," some techniques the children saw that they had practiced with Karen, and even some magic!
We spent part of an afternoon with our 5th and 6th grade Assembly Buddies from Mrs. Puffer's class making dog biscuits. These dog biscuits and the recipe traveled home with your children last Friday. The remainder of the biscuits are being delivered to the Vermont State Police as a thank you to Dasha and Reko , the two K-9 police dogs who visited us last week and showed us some of their amazing skills.
During the teachers' convention I have two workshops I'm really looking forward to: Science and Mathemagic and New Art Techniques to use with children and to display their work. Next week I plan to spend an evening at the Flynn Center taking part in an Iroquois Song and Dance session for educators. I hope to bring back some Native American culture and tradition to share with your children in the following days.
Please take a peek at the new photos I've posted above in this week's album.
Enjoy the October weekend~
Brenda
