Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Christmas Movie

It's that time of year again, Christmas Play time. Man, our last Christmas Play together on Monhegan... soooo bitter sweet. As you probably remember, the Christmas Play and I have an off again, on again relationship. This year I felt pretty stinkin' good about the play because we were going to do something we have never attempted before... A CHRISTMAS MOVIE!!!!!

The idea was actually developed this summer. I remember being at my summer job talking to a bunch of community members about the last play of the year and wanted to make it really great and different. The idea of the movie came up and I latched on to it.

Next was trying to figure out what the movie would be about. We knew we wanted to try and involve community members in the movie and we knew we wanted to make it some kind of mystery. Anyone who knows me, understands my obsession with crime shows, such as Law and Order... so before we knew it our film was born... "Law and Order: Special Islanders Unit - A Christmas Mystery!"

The boys and I wrote the scenes and figured out the cast. Margaret told us she wanted to be a duck for the movie, so we quickly figured that in to the plot line (much easier than it seems really!) We have already filmed more than half the film and have cameos from several fabulous islanders who are natural born stars!

So... just to give you a sneak peak... here is the starring cast:



Margaret as "Captain Duck"

Quinn as "Alfred Spudnick"

Dalton as "Sherlock Bond"

And Jessie as "Nancy Shrew"


And our opening.... get ready to be impressed...

Don't worry, we will post the movie in it's entirety after our Island premiere on the 15th!

Monday, November 21, 2011

Explorer Videos!

The boys have been working on Social Studies projects researching early explorers. They both choose two different explorers they wanted to research from different time periods and then developed questions they needed to answer for their research. Each of the boys are working with some of their TLC classmates to complete the research for one of their explorer's and then working on the other explorer project independently.


Both boys ended up making movies about their explorers. We are HUGE fans of Imovie here at the Monhegan School! There is just so much you can do!
Quinn helped Dalton with his movie about Marco Polo. They look pretty spiffy, don't they!

Can you tell how much fun we get to have, all the time, at my school. Pictures like these make me really sad to think I would get to see these goofy faces every day next year. I make them promise me all the time that we can be friends from ever and that the will invite me to their weddings, that is normal, right!?





Here is Dalton's finished movie which he created with his buddy, Dylan, from Matinicus! Dylan is a mastermind when it comes to video editing!

And Quinn's video about the explorer, Alfonso de Albuquerque!

I know, I know... what a boring way to learn about early explorers.
No. Fun. At. All.


Friday, November 18, 2011

Millie's First Birthday

Millie's first birthday was Monday, so we knew we had to celebrate BIG! I was inshore for the weekend, so I could pick up supplies for the par-tay!

The day of, Millie had to rest up for the event while we got some work done.

At the end of the afternoon we set up.

I made Millie a dog bday cake! Ingredients include: wheat flour, eggs, beef flavored baby food, and beef jerky! Frosted with liverwurst and cream cheese! Dissssgusting!

We had to supply some people cake as well! This looks a bit more appetizing!

The birthday girl was ready!

Aw, a gift from her boyfriend.

She loves unwrapping!

Scout was intrigued by the smells coming from the cake!

Another present! One lucky dog!


For the last half-hour of school we invited the community to take a birthday dog walk! I was super impressed by the turn out!

Millie wanted to lead the way!

The dogs were pumped.

Who wouldn't want to spend their bday in the woods?

We had quite the trail of people!

They keep going and going!

When we got to the ball field, the dogs went wild!
Billy and Victor! Millie should feel VERY special that she got these fellas to take a walk in the woods :)

The doggy onlookers!

Pure birthday joy.

Wrestling.


I think she was happy!

Back at school it was time for cake!

The dogs totally approved of the doggy cake.

And I think the people cake was pretty good too!

The boys passed out treats.

More cake please!?

Happy 1st Birthday Millie! Thanks to all who came and celebrated with us! So fun.



Monday, November 14, 2011

Dry Pastels!!!!

Another week at the Monhegan School... another fabulous art class with THEE Donga Cundy!


This week's medium... dry pastels. They are like a mix between craypas and chalk and the effect is fabulous.

Perfect for swirling and smooshing. (I love the word smooshing...even if it is not technically a word!)

Beautiful, soft colors. Very calming.

And they are super messy, which makes them all the more fun!

It was a pretty quiet art class, which is a good sign. Means everyone was into it.

Artful mess.

More swirls.

And smooshing.

Final products: Quinn's "Sunset Garden."

Quinn's "Summer Wave."

Dalton's "Abstract Swirls"

Dalton's "Wave Crash."

Dalton's "Color Ying-Yang"

And Donna's masterpiece!

Student Council

We had our first Student Council Meeting with our newly elected officers last week while Anne was out visiting. Pretty exciting.

On the day before the meeting we had a meeting with Dalton, the student council president, and Emma, the VP to discuss the agenda for the meeting. Dylan, the Matinicus Rep. also joined us. We were very productive and set a great agenda for our first meeting!

I really like the "name cards" the Matinicus officers had.

On the day of our big meeting we had a jam-packed agenda which included:
- Going over group norms
- Virtual swearing in all student council members... this was funny.
- Discussion about Spring Field Trip
- Discussion about Charitable Fundraiser
- New business
- End with dance party!

-
As President, Dalton had to facilitate the meeting! He was awesome. But I felt bad since his stinking teacher kept butting in. She obviously has trouble letting go of control!

We decided it would only make sense to end each meeting with a collaborative dance off. Each meeting we would end with a different song. This week's theme song was "Staying Alive!"

It was a great meeting. Our student council rocks!