What a wonderful surprise all the parents and students had this past Monday morning as they came into school and saw the gorgeous new walkway and flower beds. Everyone is thrilled with this amazing gift and excited about the plans to continue around the back of the school and to replace the deck outside Kathey’s room. A big thank you for your generosity!
It has been really great having Jill and Robin back this week and they have both been working really hard. I know from experience that getting back into the swing of things after an absence from TNS is like jumping into a fast moving river. It will also be really good to see Meeta back next week. The three weeks have gone by very fast and yet it seems ages since we saw her. As I said before it’s been really great having Mo in Kathey’s class on Thursdays and Fridays and the art work she has done with the middle class is really quite spectacular. Kathryn’s Prism City, a unique, creative city evolved from her math work with them on circles, cones, etc. is also taking on quite a life of its own and I can’t wait to see the finished product.
Last week on Thursday and Friday the older class did a wonderful impromptu play reading of a 10 minute version of Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream for the younger and middle classes. I had asked them to just do a straightforward play reading for the younger class as a prelude to the younger classers writing a narration for their puppet play. They only had the scripts Thursday morning but by the end of the day they had improvised costumes and actions and put on quite an extraordinary show, which we then asked them to encore for the middle class on Friday morning. Happily Since Robin was back Friday she was able to see the play as was her mom who was visiting for the morning. At the Thursday performance a few of the older class had taken two parts and I was really pleased to see that they happily shared them giving parts to L and J who had been away. This week they have all been busy doing the haunted house for the Younger and middle classes as their Halloween day treat. They showed it to groups this morning and it was a terrific hit. They had 4 levels of scariness, 2 with the lights on and 2 with the lights off—each getting more intense than the one before. E was the guide and visitors were treated to a tour of an insane asylum that was supposedly closed years ago but still held many long forgotten and very weird inmates. Screams and cries of delight were the “music” of the morning and Jay and his class deserve a lot of credit for their hard work and another successful Halloween adventure.
On Tuesday the younger class, dressed in their Halloween costumes, went to the nursing home to sing, Helen, Robin and I accompanied them and it was really one of the best performances that we have done there. The children all looked wonderful in their costumes and were a big hit with the residents and I was very proud of the way they behaved and how each one went round and shook hands with our audience afterwards and wished them Happy Halloween. We were also very grateful to add seven students from Kathey’s class at the last minute to help us with the singing. We encouraged the residents to participate with us in singing the songs and they did so very enthusiastically and said afterwards how much they enjoyed it. We told them that we will go back at the holidays and perform for them again.
Despite the Halloween goings-on I have still managed to do some of my Shakespeare work. The younger class has started work on the narration for their puppet play; with the middle class I have started a simplified version of Hamlet (their choice) We have also talked more about the characters in the Midsummer Night’s Dream play and watched part of the video we made the last time I did Shakespeare called The Boisterous Bard.
We are all looking forward to a long weekend next week and I know that several families will be going away. With the holidays coming up soon we would appreciate people telling us well in advance if they are taking time out of school for trips. Much of our work is done in groups and this is affected if one or more of a group is missing. Knowing in advance helps us with our planning and avoids the frustration of groups having to work with someone missing or wait for them to come back.
Happy Halloween!