Monhegan Madness

Andy Warhol Masterpieces - Complete!

2012-03-02T06:06:00.001-08:00

I had promised I would share the boys finished Andy Warhol pieces... here they are in all their bright and colorful glory!

Dalton wanted to do a sort of "political" piece showing all the crazy obsessions of teenagers (fast food and video games!)

Quinn choose to be very Warhol like and did a sneaker theme... but please note that the sneakers have Mario on them!

Virtual Poetry Class

2012-03-02T05:59:00.003-08:00

As you may well remember, we have been working with the Islesford School once a week on poetry writing and I just have to say, we have some fabulous poets in our midst.

Each week we start our class reading a poem together. We discuss what confuses us or bothers us about the poem and also what speaks to us. We also end up making connections between the poem and our own lives which often leads to inspiration in our writing.

As you can see, working with Islesford almost quadruples our writing class population plus we get another teacher! (not to mention we really like them a lot!)

I couple of weeks back we read the poem "Where I am From" by George Ella Lyon and it really inspired the kids to write poems about the places they are from. There are just too great not to share.

I am from the dinner time candles

From the tick tock of the clock and wish wash of the washing machine

I am from the wooden railing with a rotten seam

(the seaside view and salty seaside smell)

I am the crab apple tree that never fell

The wild lupines that never cease to grow

I’m from whipped cream ‘n’ cookie cake and the big wide shoe

From Daw Daw and Papa

I’m from the loud ones with secrets

The quiet ones who know them

I’m from “never give up” and “try your best”

And the rock ‘n’ roll of the past

I’m from holiday gatherings

I’m from snow blistered Alaska and sea smoked Monhegan

Rich spices and meals from scratch

From personal tragedies

And impossible miracles

What hasn’t been captured through a lens

Floats through our memories

- Dalton B.

I am and will always be

I am from the sharpie and from the paper and the walls covered in posters

I am from the mess of my room and from the smell of the markers I use

I am from the soil of the chestnut tree whose long living arms still greet me to this day

I am from the "Settlers of Catan" and left out of the curly hair of my ancestors

I am from the jazz hands when I was excited and from the "Boulevard Of Broken Dreams" I am from the guns and explosions of my video games

I am from the powder of the snow and the crashes of the ski hill

I am from the beats of music and the rhythm of the tune

I am from the aliens and their enemies

I am from the the books of plot and excitement

I am from Alaska, home to the eskimo, the Mighty Quinn

Music Class with Tom!

2012-03-01T11:42:00.007-08:00

You know another reason why we love our amazing, fabulous TLC coordinator, Anne Bardaglio? Well she just happens to be marrying an amazing, fabulous guy named Tom who just happens to be an amazing and fabulous music teacher!!!!! Anne and Tom came out and visited us this week and Tom was gracious enough to teach a little drum playing while he was here!

We were pretty excited to have a music class... our school has been relatively music-less since our famous ocarina band, which was almost two years ago now!

Tom started the lesson with just reviewing some basic note reading skills.

It was impressive how quickly these kids caught on!

But it might have had something to do with this fabulous teacher! (He is SO funny!)

Then it was time to drum!

Obviously it looks like these kids are not enjoying themselves at all.

They all had to follow the beats that were written on the board. They would change up the tempo and get chances to play individually and as a whole group!

Each of the kids got a chance to play Tom's djembe drum!

There are LOTS of great uses for these drums :)

Tom even came back in the afternoon for an additional "jam sesh" for the boys.

He really challenged them with even faster tempos and adding accents to the music they played!

They got to write in their own accents and then try the new beats out as a group.

These were some happy, drum playing kids!

Check out some of their mad beats!

So many thanks to Tom for taking the time to work with us! We adore you!

TLC Community Potluck!

2012-02-29T05:28:00.005-08:00

This Monday we invited our community to join us at school for a presentation about the Outer Islands TLC! Our fabulous TLC coordinator, Anne, was on the island so it was a great opportunity to take some time to fill in our community on all the amazing things we have been up to this year with our TLC classmates and teachers!

Our school board chair welcomed everyone and gave a little explanation of the TLC. It is so nice to have such support from our school board!

Then Anne and I gave an overview of the TLC mission and goals!

Then the exciting part... the kids got to present. Quinn talked about what an "average week" looks like to a TLC student!

Dalton went over the big highlights we have had so far this year in the TLC, such as field trips, holiday parties, and student council events!

Miss M. talked about her TLC book group and the TLC "color days."

These kids get trained in public speaking from quite a young age!

Quinn talked about some of the field trips we have taken with the TLC over the last two years.

And Dalton added some information about the technology we use within the TLC.

We ended talking about the future of the TLC and how we really want our community to be aware and involved in all the amazing projects and events our school is doing with the TLC!

Hydrosphere!

2012-02-29T03:45:00.003-08:00

Our TLC pals on Islesford led us in a really wonderful lesson about the Hydrosphere in science class on Monday afternoon. The hydrosphere is the combined mass of all the water in, on, and around our planet! Let's just say that is A LOT of water!

The lesson began with Ms. Eysnogle reminding the students that 75% of the Earth is covered in water! She included a visual of if the Earth was four quarters... three of those quarter's would represent our water and only 1 quarter would be the actual land we have on Earth!

The students were then challenged to guess how much of the Earth's water is fresh water! They were reminded that fresh water was any water that was not salt water... which includes lakes, rivers, streams, ponds, and even puddles!

The kids revealed their guesses. Quinn was actually pretty stinkin' close! He knew that less than 5% of the Earth's water is actually fresh!

Ms. Eysnogle showed us that actually only 3% of all the Earth's water is fresh! She is so good at giving us visual representations to understand more clearly!

After our group discussion, two of the older students on Islesford shared with us a slide show they created to teach us even more about our hydrosphere!

More great visuals!

We then got into the concept of the water cycle.

Each school was then asked to created "tableaux" for each of the steps of the water cycle and then come back and share with the group. It cracked me up when everyone covered or turned their cameras so each school could create their tablos in secrecy!

The Islesford School lead the "Water Cycle Tableaux!" Super creative and fun!

You can see all of our water cycle tableaux here!

We ended our lesson with a discussion about why we think the water is so important and what the study of the hydrosphere has made us wonder about. We came up with a great list of questions! I am excited to learn even more about our hydrosphere and how the water cycle effects our life on a daily basis!

Thanks Islesford for an EXCELLENT lesson. You guys are wicked smarty pants.

Thanks Paul!

2012-02-24T15:45:00.004-08:00

A special thanks to my dad, Paul, for building us a ramp for our robotics class this year! Dalton is entering the "climbing" competition at the robotics track meet in May and we needed our own ramp to test his robot out. It came out perfect! It is nice to have our own personal shop teacher at the Monhegan school!

The ramp in action! Pretty cool!!!

Rainbow Day!

2012-02-24T14:48:00.007-08:00

Our last color-theme day for the TLC "youngers" was RAINBOW DAY!

It is obvious that I do not enjoy these color theme days, at all!

Margaret was looking rather spectacular in her colorful rainbow outfit!

Here is Cliff School looking quite lovely!

And I got a quick look at this little one from Islesford in her rainbow tutu!

Such cute little faces up on that screen!

This little one had rainbow hair, nails, AND makeup on!

Of course the dogs had to have their rainbow colors on too!

All I could find was tie-dye bandanas from kickball... but I think it worked!

My favorite rainbow dragon!

We shared pictures of what everyone was going to do over February break!

It was fun to have the kids share a little about what they like to do with their families!

Another great, fun share time!

QT turns 12!!

2012-02-24T13:42:00.006-08:00

We had lots of celebrations at school the week before vacation... the next one on the list was Quinny's birthday!!!

Margaret made some super sweet cards for Quinn!

And my dad brought him a half-empty container of cashews!

Look at those awesome drawings by Margaret! So nice!

We had some celebratory cake at break time!

My parents seem to always know when to show up just at the right time!

Quinn in his new 12 year old hat!

Aw! A hug from his big brother!! What a birthday gift!

The kids with my parents and Bella!

And us just being us!

It was a great day for a great kid! Happy birthday QT!

Valentine's Cookies

2012-02-16T05:46:00.001-08:00

I have to say, Valentine's Day is one of my favorite holidays. I like a day where it is encouraged to tell those around you how much you love them!

I have three little students who I love SO very, very much!

I also have lots of furry friends I love! Don't they look super cute in their Valentine's shirts!?

Aw, Millie LOVES her life!

When the kids got to school we worked on a special little project for our community members to tell them how much we love their support all year long... the project involved heart stickers... can you find one on Quinn?!

I love love.

For our Valentine's Day project we made our island famous sugar cookies and decorated them all pretty and sparkly and lovey-dovey! My parents stopped in to help with the decorating (and taste-testing) process!

Miss Margaret was on her way back from inshore while we were decorating so it was nice to have some extra hands to decorate the THREE batches of cookies we made!

Getting messy!

Can you tell that Quinn made this one!?

The "stacker cookie" introduced by Papa Campbell!

Yay! Margaret arrived!

Only a few more to go!

Thanks Sheila, for laying them all out so nicely!

Time for the traditional cookies test tasting... they are always allowed to decorate one cookie for themselves after they decorated all the cookies. Obviously Quinn overloads his with decorations and then can hardly fit it into his mouth!

Oh man, priceless!

Margaret is a little more dignified with her cookie eating!

And the traditional mess! But those cookies are worth it!

After lunch we packed up our cookies in little cups and baggies to go out and deliver to the community!

We added little notes, thanking everyone for "loving our school!" We were ready to deliver our Valentine's treats!

It was a gorgeous day to go door to door and deliver some sweet treats!

Margaret was excited to brighten everyone's day with cookies!

We dropped off some for Lisa who was working the election at the library! No one loves our sugar cookies more than Lisa!

Delivering some cookies to Stew and Gina!

It was kind of like backwards trick-or-treating! We were happy to be providing the treats!

We used the underhill trail to cut across to the Lobster Cove houses... we had almost completed our Valentine's mission!

Cookies for Donga and we got hugs in return!

We stopped at the post office to deliver to the post master!

And then found the final few community members on our walk back to school! It took as about an hour's time but we delivered all our cookies! What a fun way to show how much we love our community on such a lovely day!

TLC Virtual Valentine's Party!

2012-02-16T03:58:00.000-08:00

We celebrated Valentine's Day virtually with our TLC friends this year. The holidays are so much more fun at school now that we have more people to celebrate with.

The Student Council organized the Virtual Valentine's party! They invited everyone to wear pink, red, or their pajamas! They also created a "Secret Valentine's Project" where every student pulled a name of another student in the TLC and had to make a Valentine Card for them. The catch was that the students were not to sign their names on the cards and that at the party the kids would makes guesses to who their secret Valentines were! Sounds fun, huh?!

It was time to open the Valentines! Unfortunately Margaret wasn't here for the virtual party, but she still got a pretty rad Valentine!

Whose could Quinn's be from???

Dalton trying to figure out who could have made his lovely Valentine!

We are guessing someone with beautiful cursive.

Iselsford School opening their Valentines!

The Cliff School looking mighty festive!

And the Isle Au Haut boys opening their Valentines!

After we opened the cards the kids took turns making guesses of who made their cards. Everyone got three guesses! It took a while but we got through everyone!

At the end of all the guessing and singing we had one last Valentine's Dance Party!

My dad and stepmom just happened to come in for the dancing portion of the party... so they obviously had to join in... and the dogs too!

Here are some clips from the party! We LOVE the TLC!!!

Fast Processes!

2012-02-16T03:34:00.000-08:00

It was Monhegan's week to host our Monday Science Lesson! Our topic was Fast Earth Processes! We prepped our lesson last week and were excited to share what we had learned with the rest of the class.

While the boys waited for the rest of the TLC to call in they did some light reading. Dalton used Margaret's science easy readers to learn about Plateaus!

And Quinn studied up on Valleys!

We started our lesson by sharing this overview lesson that we created the week before.

The boys gave a review quiz to see if everyone was paying attention!

It was a successful lesson about Landslides, Volcanoes, Earthquakes, and Tsunamis!

Thanks gang, for being great students!

February BINGO!

2012-02-13T13:02:00.000-08:00

We had a lovey-dovey BINGO last week! It was perfect because it was also "pink and red day" on island so everyone was feeling VERY festive!

Pink and red treats are a must for February BINGO!

We even had pink and red beverages! We are SO good!

Special thanks to my mom for the Valentine's prizes she sent to us! It's not easy to get off island in the winter and unfortunately Monhegan has YET to get it's own Dollar Tree!!!

It was a very sad evening due to the fact that Billy B. was no where to be found. He was still inshore... we tried holding off BINGO for him, but as they say, the show must go on! We did put an honorary post-it note on his "special seat!"

Red and pink nails for the big night!

Two full tables! Nice!

Margaret did a great job giving the opening remarks of the night and calling the first game!

Quinn and Brownell calling some numbers! Nice red outfit Mr. B!

Everyone is IN the game!

Lots of team work!

I love our old school BINGO machine!!

Quinn checking some numbers.

Big winner Kathie! Looking good!

Dalton's turn to call.

Quinn testing out a prize Travis won!

I think the dogs were feeling all the lovey-dovey vibes in the air...

That is true love.

Quinn showing off the love "bling" that was one of the prizes.

Everyone was feeling the love!!! Tara ended up winning the "bling" round and she gave her prize to Jes because she wanted it so badly! Such nice BINGO players!

Yes, Jes! That bling is TOTALLY YOU!

Time for the FINAL round! Look at that champion prize!

Lisa REALLY wanted to be the champ! We were all rooting for her!

But it was the super lucky Tara who became the February BINGO champion! Way to go Tara!

And here are all the pink and red participants! What a great looking group. Such great spirit!

Another round of community gym!

2012-02-13T12:41:00.000-08:00

We had gorgeous weather for another community gym last week! What a fun day!

Good group to start us off!

We started off with a few rounds of "Cats in the Corner!"

The game is kind of like dodge ball... there are four "safe corners" and one person who is "it" in the middle of the corners.

When the person who is "it" yells, "Cats in the Corner!" everyone has to run to another corner without getting hit with the ball that the "it" person throws at them.

If you get hit with the ball, you are out for the round!

Whoever is the last person to get out wins!

Here's a couple of cute cats in the corner!

Dalton taking a turn being "it"!

Can you tell it was also red and pink day? So festive!

Ut oh! Someone is going to get out!

This little bugger was doing some gardening while the games were going on. So cute.

Quinn diving to get Jes out!

Then the dogs showed up which added a whole other layer of fun and madness to the game!

Next we played "What Time is it Mr. Wolf?"

This game is like a version of "red light-green light."

One person is the wolf and the rest of the group is back behind a line. The group calls out "What time is it Mr. Wolf?" and the wolf gives a time like "4:00!"

Then the rest of the group takes four steps towards the wolf!

The group keeps asking the wolf what time it is and the wolf keeps giving different times that gets the group closer and closer to him. Eventually when the group asks the Wolf what time it is he says, "FEEDING TIME!" and then turns and runs after the group!

If the wolf tags anyone before they get back behind the line they are now a wolf too and have to help tag people out!

I had never played this game before and it sure was fun!!

We definitely got a work out!

Look at those tired faces!

Thanks to everyone for another awesome community gym! We are so lucky for such wonderful folks who are willing to come out and have a fun time with us!

Red and Pink Day!

2012-02-13T12:03:00.000-08:00

Last week we had another "Color Theme Day" for the Kindergartners through Second Graders of the TLC! We chose to have "Red and Pink Day" in honor of Valentine's Day coming up!

Margaret looked fabulous in her pink dress and she brought a red lady bug to show the group!

Look at all of those fabulous red and pink outfits on Cliff Island... is that a red cape I see?

Millie looked lovely in her red attire! Is she not the most beautiful dog you have ever seen?

We had a Valentine's Song the entire group practiced in order to sing together during our share time!

Cliff Island school showing off their pink and red socks!

This guy ALWAYS wins my best dressed award! He has STYLE!

Some of the Islesford kiddos showing their "100" day creations!

We also shared pictures of things we LOVED!

Cute little pink and red faces!

Our group was looking MIGHTY fine! Yes, that is Quinn in a red wig. He can't help but get in on some of the fun!

And for your viewing pleasure, a little glimpse of our red and pink day!

Family History Project

2012-02-13T11:42:00.000-08:00

In Social Studies we are learning about the Colonial Period. We started the unit off talking A LOT about immigration and how the Colonists were really the first immigrants in America. This conversation led to a lesson about the kids learning a little about when their families first immigrated to America. The boys did some research and interviewed their family members to learn a bit about their family history. Miss M. is writing a story book about her family history that I think will be a best seller!

The boys final project for their Family History Research. It was cool that they could work on the research together! Great job guys, as usual!

The Man Cave!

2012-02-13T11:41:00.000-08:00

My poor eighth grader. It is not easy being the only 8th grader on this little island. He holds his own but I know there are days when he just wishes he could move time along more quickly and be off to high school where there are way more kids his own age to spend time with. Sometimes I wish I could speed things up for him, but I know you should never wish time away, because at some point, you are going to want it back.

So, I just try to give him space and time to be a middle schooler. He has his office in the back room this year, which is nice since he can listen to his own music and have a little peace away from the hustle and bustle always going on the in the main room. I have been calling his office "the man cave" in the mornings. He shuts the door when he needs to read for book groups. He is reading The Scarlet Letter, so he needs to have it pretty stinkin'' quiet in order to focus!

My favorite moment last week was when Dalton invited Quinn back into his "man cave" to read while Margaret and I used the Tanberg to meet with some of the TLC youngers. I think Quinn was pretty pumped to be welcomed into such a prestigious area of the school... "the man cave!"

Fly A Kite Day!

2012-02-13T11:26:00.000-08:00

Last week we celebrated national "Go Fly a Kite Day!" The kids assignment was to use any materials in the school to make a kite in less than 10 minutes!

The boys went the traditional root and created a kind of cross-frame to hold their kites!

Then they went for the lightest material they could find in the school to go on top of their base... tissue paper!

Margaret was more concerned about the color scheme of her kite than the structure!

Her's was so small and cute!

Time to test them out... the ending of this video is my favorite!

Sometimes, it is the smallest activities that can be the most fun!

Lesson of the day... enjoy the little moments.

Andy Warhol Art!

2012-02-13T06:51:00.000-08:00

The theme of last week's art class was inspired by the famous, fabulous artist Andy Warhol! I have always loved Andy Warhol's work! One of my good friends in college was a big Warhol fan and covered her room with Warhol prints. I loved the bright, vibrant colors he always used and how he was so different than anything I had seen before!

Donna talked to the boys about the idea of "pop art," which is the style Warhol is known for!

She showed the kids some of Warhol's most famous creations as inspiration!

And then it was time for them to get to work... they had to pick a design to repeat and alter on a big poster.

Quinn picked some pretty sweet Mario sneakers.

Dalton did a food and technology theme print.

They had to work with a color scheme... stay tuned for their final products!

Weathering and Erosion!

2012-02-10T11:59:00.000-08:00

Another week, another science lesson on the Tanberg! This past week we learned about Earth's SLOW processes, such as weathering and erosion!! The Isle Au Haut school was our host school this week!

Mrs. Greatorex on Isle Au Haut started the lesson with an overview of what weathering and erosion can do to the Earth's surface!

You know it is going to be a great lesson when Bill Nye the Science guy is apart of it!!!

After our quick overview, it was time for some fun experiments involving the concepts of weathering and erosion! Pretty cool that a teacher on another island can lead my students through hands on experiments and then have a group discussion about it with kids from FOUR OTHER ISLANDS! Yeah, you should be impressed!

The first experiment was to show how weathering, such as rain, can cause the earth surface to change! The kids used eye droppers to drop water onto sugar cubes... changing the way the sugar cubes looked. See the connection?!

Dalton wanted to change how the sugar cubes looked by dissolving them in his mouth! He is like a big giant model of weathering!

Next, Mrs. Greatorex led the kids in an experiment about erosion using soil and straws! The kids tried to cause erosion by blowing the soil using the straws!

Look closely and you can see all of the kids trying to erode their soil!!!

Isle Au Haut ended their lesson by sharing pictures of erosion and weathering that they found on their island!

Here is the lesson in action! Pretty cool stuff here!

Happy Birthday Elmo! (Dalton is going to kill me!)

2012-02-10T05:48:00.000-08:00

Last week was Elmo's 40th birthday! Well, according to sesamestreet.com Elmo is always 3 and 1/2 but really he was "born" in 1972... which would have made this his 40th birthday! Wow! Of course we had to celebrate during morning project last week!

We made fun little masks of our favorite Sesame Street Character! You would think that my middle schoolers would hate a project like this... but sometimes I think they are more into it than my kindergartner!!!

Any guesses whose Dalton's favorite Sesame Street character is?!?

Margaret's Elmo Mask! He doesn't look a day over 3 and 1/2!!!

My mask... I always loved Big Bird because he was so tall!

Feeding Cookie Monster his favorite treat!!

C is for cookie! That's good enough for me!

First TLC VGC Meeting! HA!

2012-02-06T08:06:00.000-08:00

Last week we had our first TLC Virtual Games Club (VGC) meeting after school. I just love all of our acronyms, just cracks me up.

The idea for the VGC came from the TLC Student Council who wanted to try and create an after school chess club for interested students! While looking for online chess site, Dalton and Quinn came across the website gamexn.net where you can not ONLY play chess online with other people but all kinds of other games like checkers, bingo, battleship, and more! The Student Council decided on creating the VGC for any students in the TLC who wanted to play games after school every other week with each other! Cool idea, huh!?

We had our first meeting on Thursday. Dalton plugged his computer into the Tanberg so the other schools could see how to set up an account!

He lead all the kids on the other islands through the steps of creating an account and adding each other as "friends" so they could play games with one another!

Here Quinn is playing online BINGO with a partner!

His partner was none other than Miss Margaret! She was testing out some of the games with Quinn before playing with the other island students!

This eighth grader on Islesford was following Dalton's directions and then helping his classmates on his island set up their online accounts.

D & Q playing with kids from Islesford! Dalton played a game of pool and Quinn played some checkers!

Margaret got to play some checkers with a third grader from Cliff Island!

Dalton playing with an 8th grader from Islesford!

And Quinn playing with a 2nd grader from Islesford!

Margaret's checkers partner was such a great teacher!

Our first Virtual Games Club was a super success! We hope for even more kids to join us next time! Great idea student council and way to make it happen!

Community Gym!

2012-02-06T07:30:00.000-08:00

We had a super fun community gym last week. Gym class is way more fun with a few extra community members!

We knew we needed some activities that would be good for all ages!

Travis was PUMPED to play outside!

We first played a few games of "Kick the Board Walk" which is much like kick the can! Millie and Quinn hiding!

Jes using her hood for extra coverage!

Margaret making a run for it from her super secret hiding spot!

Love this photo! You can tell we were not having any fun!

The dog house is a PERFECT hiding spot for this trio!

Quinn's turn to be it!

Ut oh, Brownell found Dalton!

Lining up for the next game, "Sharks and Minnows!"

Tara was the first shark!!!!

Look at her going after those minnows!

Ut oh! Run little minnow, run!

Gina was added to the shark team!

Go! Go! Go!

Last three minnows left!

Sneaky little minnow!

Ha! This minnow was alllll over the place!

Thanks to all who joined us! It was a blast!

Slam Poetry!

2012-02-06T07:27:00.000-08:00

We had our second poetry lesson with Islesford last week! Such fun stuff happening it is hard to keep up!

We started as a large group and Ms. Esynogle shared a poem with us that was about writing poetry! We share our thoughts and opinions about the poem as a group.

Then we split into the 6-8th graders and the 3rd-4th graders. I took the olders and we took a look at Slam Poetry! Slam poetry can actually be ANY kind of poetry (limericks, sonnets, free verse, whatever) but there is a focus on expressing that poetry through spoken word.

We took some time and looked a clips of different teenage poets presenting their work at poetry slams! Pretty inspiring stuff. We brainstormed a list of what we thought were elements that made really strong "slam poems."

Here was the list the kids came up with:

Elements of Slam Poetry:

- emotion

- fast speaking /rhyming

- an idea!

- poem needs to breathe

- rhythm

- feeling

- care

- energy

- passion

Then it was time for the kids to write. They did an exercise called "Then... Now..."

They wrote furiously until the end of the period. We are going to take some time this week to share our poems and then work on a different exercise. We want the kids to have a few different poems to choose from to present at our first EVER Virtual Poetry Slam at the end of March! SO cool! Stay tuned for details!

Blue Day!

2012-02-03T13:15:00.000-08:00

Last week we had BLUE day for our TLC "youngers" share time on the Tanbergs!

It was like looking at a sea of blue on the big screen!

The kids got to step forward and share their blue outfits!

Raising their hands to share! Can you find the "Park Ranger" on Cliff Island!?!

Look at the beautiful blue jewel this little one had to share!

Then it was time to share poems! This was my favorite poem read to us by the Islesford youngers!

Obviously this teacher does not enjoy these color theme days at all! Too fun!

Groundhog Day!!!

2012-02-03T12:48:00.000-08:00

Our morning project on Ground Hog Day... obviously had to be about our pal Phil the ground hog!

We made some predictions on the morning message... I love how many times Quinn crossed his answer out!

Time to make some ground hogs.

Dalton may be too cool to admit it, but he loves morning project!

My finished ground hog!

Oh man, Dalton's army ground hog.

I guess this is what you get when you ask middle schoolers to make ground hogs.

Aw, finally a sweet ground hog! But look at those claws!

Looks like Phil wants six more weeks of winter... but with all the fun we have been having a school lately, I guess I don't mind :)

Plate Tectonics!

2012-02-03T11:08:00.000-08:00

This week was week #2 of our TLC geology unit in science! Matinicus Island School was our "host school" this week! We met on Monday via the Tanberg for an introductory lesson about Plate Tectonics!

We watched a spectacular "Brain Pop!" explanation about the different "boundaries" that take place during plate tectonics. There are three main boundaries: divergent boundaries, convergent boundaries, and transform boundaries!

We watch some pretty cool animation of how plate tectonics have created the landforms we now know as the world's continents!

The Matinicus School then gave a little quiz "review" of the information their presentation covered!

I love how BADLY Quinn wanted to answer all the questions!

A little sampling from the quiz! Did you know any of the answers!?

Great lesson, Matinicus School!

The assignment of the week was to research some of the major terms that Matinicus taught us about in their introductory lesson and to also create some visual representations of the different boundaries that were discussed!

There was lots of paper cutting for this project... BUT we have a rule that if anyone leaves the paper cuter up after they use it they have to put their hand or head under the blade when I put it back done... okay, it is not a rule... just a threat. I know, bad teacher.

Adding to our science bulletin board!

Looks good, huh?!

Dalton did some great paper cuts to display the different boundaries he researched this week.

Great visuals!

Subduction!

And Obduction!

Quinn's visual representation of Pangea! I just love learning about Pangea! So crazy to imagine all of our continents connected together!

And Transform Boundary by Quinn!

Great work this week! Learning LOTS of new information! I can FEEL our brains growing!

Going "Wild" in art class!

2012-02-03T10:24:00.000-08:00

Donna had another fun assignment for art class this week... the focus was ANIMALS!

If there is one thing the Monhegan School loves, it's ANIMALS!

Miss M's FABULOUS polar bear!

Donna working on a spectacular rabbit!

So weird... Dalton is drawing a tiger! He NEVER does that!

These kids look like they are having way too good of a time to be at school!

Margaret's elk! Look at the picture she was inspired by! Too cool!

Lots of detail in Dalton's tiger!

This is a super awesome book to be inspired by for drawings!

Quinn working on his amazing lizard creature!

MORE cats!

Adding final touches.

Obviously this is Quinn's drawing... he seems like he is always able to fit in a lightsaber!

Craft Night!

2012-02-02T09:43:00.000-08:00

It is fun to have lots of community events during the dreary winter months... even if our community seems to get smaller and smaller with every passing winter week!

We had a "craft night" at school last week. The focus was bracelet making! We wanted to pick a craft that would be fun for all ages! And although some people had more success in their bracelet making then others, I think a fun time was had by all.

Love that Quinn wore he PJ's to craft night.

The little ones crafting!

Lots of teamwork happening at craft night!

Lots of laughing and crafting!

Millie was too tired to craft. I couldn't blame her. We had a busy week!

Travis modeling a lovely earring he crafted.

Craft night quickly turned into "run around and giggle night" for these three little monkeys!

Focused individuals!

Dalton was the bracelet making machine! I was impressed by his skills.

Look at that pretty bracelet!

Angela's skills were also very impressive. I guess it runs in the family!

And then there was Travis... no skills at all.

Brownell was super helpful in finding JUST the right beads and he was also really good at cookie taste-testing!

Some of the final products of the night!

Wowsers! Look at Gina's masterpiece!

Thanks for all who came and gave it a try!!! It was a fun night!

Winter Book Groups!

2012-02-01T09:39:00.000-08:00

It's another trimester, so that means it is another round of book groups! We have new students and teachers in our book groups this trimester which just makes it all the more fun!

Quinn is back in my group this trimester with three students from Islesford and three students from Matinicus! We also have Ms. Rogers, from Matinicus, co-teaching with me! Super fun!

We are reading "The City of Ember" by Jeanne DuPrau! A super fun and interesting read.

Then we have Dalton who is reading "The Scarlet Letter" with another 8th grader from Islesford! I am very excited for Dalton to be pushed a little out of his comfort zone in book groups and this book is doing just that! He is lucky enough to have our AMAZING TLC coordinator, Anne, leading his book group! She is a first timer in the area of book-group-leading... but she is totally ROCKING IT! Dalton is super excited to be working with her.

And then of course, the best book group of all... Miss Margaret's!

Margaret uses the Tanberg for her book group and she had students on Islesford and Cliff that she works with twice a week!

She even has a FROG PARK RANGER in her book group! I mean, can her book group GET any cooler?!?!

Book group time is pretty a pretty awesome time at our school!

Poetry through Music!

2012-02-01T05:47:00.000-08:00

As you may remember, Islesford School is one of our favorite island schools to collaborate with in the realm of writing! Writing was actually the FIRST subject that we ever collaborated on and what much of our collaboration through the TLC was built on! Pretty cool that we are still finding time to do it, three years later!

This past week we started in on a new writing project... POETRY! (insert student groans!)

At the beginning of our lesson, we had the kids go in rounds saying the first thing that came to mind when they heard the word "poetry." I typed the words they said into the super cool site, wordle.net, and we created this word collage! As you can see some of the words the kids brainstormed were pretty out there... my personal favorite is "ugggggggh."

We took some time to look at the collage we created and thought about our ideas of what poetry means to us and our own personal lives. THEN we broke up into two groups. One group stayed on the Tanberg with Ms. Eysnogle from Islesford and the other group skyped with me.

Quinn was with Ms. Eysnogle and three other Islesford students.

Dalton was with me and these good looking kiddos! We had asked all of the students to bring either a favorite song or poem to class that meant something to them. All but one student ended up bringing songs which sparked some very fun conversations about how songs really are poetry set to music.

In our small groups each student took a turn sharing their song. After the song was shared, the person who brought the song remained silent while the rest of the group answered the following three questions:

1. What do you think the song is about?

2. What in the song did you relate or respond to?

3. Why do you think this person wanted to share this song?

After the whole group answered all the questions, we invited the presenter to share their answers. It was a really fun activity to hear how different people respond to written word and it also ended up being a really fun exercise for the kids to learn new things about each other!

We looked at the lyrics up close and were able to identify many elements of poetry in the different songs! We found metaphors, similes, alliterations, and even personification!

Here's my group listening to a jamming tune! I love how into this lesson they all were!

At the end of the lesson we came back as a whole group and created another word collage... this time using words we think of when we think of poetry now. Although, "boring" still made this list... I think, overall, we got the kids excited about the types of poetry we are going to be studying and writing this trimester!

TLC K - 2nd Grade Yellow Day!

2012-01-31T18:20:00.000-08:00

The TLC kindergartners and second graders are having color days each week on the Tanberg!!! We get together with our other younger pals and have fun with a color theme. Last week the color was YELLOW! I perfect color during the dreary winter!

The Cliff kids were looking very bright and shinny in their yellow attire!

My favorite little yellow bundle of joy. Oh man, I love this guy.

Our screen was just SCREAMING with happiness!

The Islesford kiddos looking super cute in yellow!

I wore some yellow tights... but it was too cold to not wear pants too! I obviously need to add more yellow to my wardrobe.

We ended our yellow time with a dance party... make sure to notice Margaret's hair clips!

GOOO BANANAS!

And this little bugger made an appearance during the dance party... tutu and yellow shirt! LOVE IT!

Louise Nevelson Art - COMPLETE!

2012-01-30T17:01:00.000-08:00

The boys finished up their awesome "Louise Nevelson" inspired sculptures on a nice, windless day last week!

Donna came in on the perfect afternoon with spray paint and a fun attitude!

They had gold, white, and black spray paint to choose from! And man, what a difference the spray paint made to their art creations!

And... really who doesn't have fun spray painting?!?

Dalton went with a gold theme! It looked awesome.

The dogs liked the extra cardboard we had outside for them.

Quinn's snowy white structure! I am digging the sunglasses!

Donna's creative creation!

And the full view of Dalton's!

They turned out awesome! Can't wait to show them off at our art show in the spring!

Layers of the Earth!

2012-01-30T16:19:00.000-08:00

We started our geology science unit last week with a group TLC meeting on the Tanberg!

It was nice to see all our science classmates on the big screen!

For this unit, the island schools take turns teaching a lesson to the rest of the group at the beginning of each week. Cliff Island started off the unit by teaching us all about the different layers of the Earth! Mr. H had the group draw a picture of what they THOUGHT the inside of the earth looked liked.

Everyone got right to work! (P.S. I love that both the boys were wearing their Monhegan School Sweatshirts! So cute!)

Millie took a nap while everyone worked... all this learning really wears her out!

Dalton's earth looks pretty good!

So does Quinn's!

These kids are smarter than they look :)

Then the Cliff School gave us a fantastic presentation about the layers of the Earth! Even when you think you know all about a certain topic, there is always SO much more to learn!

Here is part of our lesson together! So much more fun learning as a group!

The final slide of Cliff's AWESOME presentation!

Then it was time for the boys to get to work on displaying what they had learned!

Each of the boys researched two of the different layers more in-depth and created a visual representation of the layers for our science bulletin board!

Putting up their model.

Miss M. also worked on learning about and labeling the layers of earth! I am not sure if all kindergartners get to learn about such things! Pretty cool!

Some of the information the boys found about the layers!

Pretty interesting stuff, wouldn't you say!?

The hottest layer! Yikes!

Our bulletin board is going to be JAMMED packed with geology information for our Open House in March! YES!

Art-o-la!

2012-01-30T14:19:00.000-08:00

Last week's art class was fun for several reasons....

#1. Art class is always fun!

#2. Margaret joined us!

#3. Donna was there!

and #4. We got to paint and draw on realllllly long strips of paper.

I know I have said it before, but I will say it again. Donna gives the BEST art assignments! Last week she said... "Either draw something from a dream you had OR draw on these long sheets of paper." Plain and simple. And then we just got to create art! There is nothing better.

I loved Margaret's long people she painted. So awesome.

Dalton's amazing fish!

Art class is one of the ONLY opportunities for me to have a "free period" during the week to get work done and I almost always end up participating in art class instead! That just goes to show how wonderful Donna's classes are! What do you think of my dog parade!?

Awesome weather scene by Dalton!

Beautiful works of art! Cannot wait to hang them all in the classroom!

Black History Month - A Little Early!

2012-01-30T13:59:00.000-08:00

We decided to honor Black History Month a little early this year due to the fact that we knew we were going to be working with the TLC schools in February studying Immigration and Colonial America.

So when we got back from our holiday break we spent some time studying the Civil Rights Movement and famous Black Americans who were influential during that time. After working as a class the kids each picked one famous Black American to study more in-depth.

Quinn picked the famous athlete Jesse Owens who won FOUR gold medals at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin!

Quinn created a timeline to show the major events in Jesse's Life.

Dalton chose to research James Meredith who was the first African American student admitted into the University of Mississippi and was a Civil Right Leader who had to over come much adversity in order to reach his dreams! His story is SO inspiring!

Dalton's detailed timeline for James Meredith, which includes how he was shot during a Civil Rights march. He survived the shooting and rejoined the march after recovering! Now that is determination!

Margaret studied the life of the ever inspirational, Martin Luther King Jr. She learned about how from a very young age Martin wanted people to treat others with love and kindness.

The finished projects! Margaret's beautiful poster about MLK Jr!

Quinn's finished poster about Jesse Owens!

And Dalton's final project about James Meredith! What amazing individuals these men were!

Moon Phases!

2012-01-27T06:52:00.000-08:00

A couple of weeks ago we finally finished up the last of our space studies... better late than never, right!? We finished the unit by studying the phases of the moon and their relationship to the tides!

Quinn had never really learned much about the phases of the moon and their different names so he created a chart labeling how the moon changes from the new moon, to waxing crescent, to first quarter, waning gibbous, and then full moon. From there it changes to waxing gibbous, last quarter, and waning crescent before going back to a new moon and then starting the phases all over again!

Dalton already knew about the names of the phases and what they looked like in the night's sky so he made a chart showing the relationship between the ocean's tides and the phases of the moon!

He also included information about human behaviors and their relationship to the phases of the moon. For instance, did you know that during the new moon humans tend to exhibit more dull behavior such a calmness or even depression. While during the full moon humans tend to have a more energized and anxious behavior!

Quinn and his finished "Phases of the Moon" chart!

I think he was trying to be a crescent moon in this photo!

Dalton's chart almost complete! That is a whole lot of information!

Color coated and everything!

Well done! Way to end our space studies!

Happy Peanut Butter Day!

2012-01-24T09:34:00.001-08:00

Today, January 24th, is national peanut butter Day! Now this is MY kind of holiday! There is nothing like the sweet, sticky deliciousness that is peanut butter.

So how did we celebrate national peanut butter day?

By sharing our love of peanut butter with some of our favorite birdie friends.

Okay, I have a confession, this is not peanut butter... it's almond butter and it has been expired for two years! But when you live on an island and you need to clean out your pantry... two year expired almond butter will just have to do. I don't think the kids or birds will notice!

Time to get sticky!

mmmm.... fishing for peanut butter!

rollllll.

Miss M wasn't afraid to get her hands dirty!

Millie wanted to try and make sure the birdies would like it!

Careful not to drop them!

The peanut butter was kind of dripping everywhere!

Where to hang them???

Big decisions!

It is nice to have tall friends!

Happy Peanut Butter Day to All!

First BINGO of 2012

2012-01-20T07:50:00.000-08:00

We were excited for our first BINGO night of the new year! It can get a little dreary around these parts in the winter... so community nights at school are especially important during the slow moving month of January!

Whipping up some super yummy brownies for the event!

The dynamic baking pair of Quinn and Margaret! They would be a pretty funny cooking show!

Extra fudge? Yes please!

Taste testing is always the most important step!

Time to play!

Dalton with the opening remarks and a few wee ones who were particularly excited about this months prize selection!

Mr. B helping to give out BINGO chips.

Margaret's time to call numbers.

Good turn out.

The theme for this month's prizes was "things to entertain you on Monhegan in the dead of winter!" You have no idea how handy these prizes can be :)

The champ prize was pretty fitting for the theme!

Mr. B showcasing one of the fabulous prizes!

Big winner, Stewie, with some sweet shades and stick-on mustaches!

Classic.

Gina with a mini version of the champion prize!

Quinn checking out Chris's cards! She was a TWO-TIME winner!

Margaret helped to hand out prizes!

Apparently we were keeping Quinn up.

Happy BINGO players.

Showing off their prizes... what a goooood lookin' family!

Dalton... this is your future.

Billy B. is that a WHITE stick on mustache!!??? Cool.

Time for the final round!

Oh man, LOTS of cards to check... who will be named champ?

According to Margaret's story she wrote in writing center that morning, her Mama was going to be named January BINGO champ...

AND she was right!!! We had a THREE-WAY TIE for our January Champ...

Jenn, Gina, and Mary! Way to go ladies!!!!

Starting to get silly!

Tara thought she would clean up her teeth with her new gigantic tooth brush she won!

Millie sporting a new mustache.

Favorite photo of the night!

See... these prizes really ARE entertaining!

Hmm?

Happy Static-Electricity Day!

2012-01-10T09:49:00.001-08:00

Oh sorry, did you not know that there was such a important holiday as "Static-Electricity Day?" I have this fabulous calendar at school that lets me know of such days and I have decided to let the kids in on the fun as well.

Back when I first started teaching on Monhegan we had a time every morning for a little "morning project" that gave the kids a bit of time to get into the school day, laugh a little, and do something as a big group. As the kids have gotten older and our school has gotten smaller I have moved away from such activities and gotten straight to work when we start our day at school.

Now with Margaret coming in the mornings I feel like it is important to build in this time once again, not just because it is a fun way to start the day but it is a time to work in some classroom community building!

Our morning project usually only lasts about 10 minutes and focuses on whatever random holiday may calendar tells me about! On "Static-Electricity Day" we watched a short little video from Bill Nye - the Science Guy explaining exactly what static-electricity is!

Then it was time for us to try and make our own static-electricity!

Good thing I had a stash of balloons in the back closet!

Time to make some charged ions!

Hey look! It works!

Millie was kind of confused with all the balloon rubbing!

Of course, Quinn was the one who was most into this morning project!

Another holiday we celebrated during morning project was "National Egyptian Pyramid Day!" Who knew!?

After we talked a little bit about what the Egyptian pyramids were we got a chance to try and build our own! We had a little pyramid building contest.

I won most "colorful pyramid".

Quinn got the "most symetrical pyramid" award!

We obviously gave Dalton the "highest pyramid" title.

And Margaret won "most creative pyramid!"

The most random holiday we have "celebrated" was "National Jump in a Puddle and Splash Your Friend Day!" We were a little surprised that this holiday fell in the middle of winter since most of our puddles are now patches of ice! We decided to honor this day by making comics of ourselves jumping in puddles and splashing our friends! Quinn's comic not only involved splashing a friend using a puddle, but also using a super soaker!

I had fun making my comic about splashing Quinn!

In Margaret's comic she splashes her teacher! So cute!

Celebrating these silly holidays have been a super fun way to spend a little extra time as a class and to start the day with a little extra fun on this extra dark and chilly mornings!

Louise Nevelson Art - Phase 1

2012-01-10T05:33:00.000-08:00

First art class of 2012 started off BIG... like 3-D BIG! Donna came in with a super fun art assignment for the boys. She talked to them about the famous abstract artist Louise Nevelson! This woman was AWESOME! She did some crazy abstract sculptures that really push the boundries of the age old quesiton of "What IS art!?"

Donna brought in lots of different sized boxes to create a base for their sculptures...

Some of the boxes she brought already had lots of different shapes and sections within them... but the boys assignment was to create an original structure.

Off to work they went. The cool thing about this assignment was D & Q had seen some of Louise Nevelson's work up close and personal a couple years back during a field trip to the Farnsworth!

Quinn was taking his assignment very seriously... look at all of those unique sections!

Now that the structures are built the next step will be to find materials to place in their structures to create their final sculptures... their last step will be to paint the sculptures! What a wacky and fun art assignment this will be! Stay tuned!

New Year's Resolution's

2012-01-10T05:07:00.000-08:00

Happy 2012 Blogger Friends! We were happy to get back into action last week after a wonderful two week vacation! The kids came back with tales of a wonderful holiday and had all their new Christmas clothes and toys to show off! I like this time of year at school because we usually get into a pretty regular routine with a few less interuptions than in the Fall! On our first day back I wanted to do a fun activity with everyone to celebrate the new year and to give us a chance to chit-chat about our vacations. So this is what we did...

We talked about New Years and how different people around the world celebrate the new year.

We also talked about New Year's Resolutions and what a resolution is and why people make them.

Then we brainstormed our own resolutions and picked our top resolution we want to try and stick to for 2012. I don't know what it is, but I have always LOVED resolutions. Too bad I like making them more than I often like keeping them!

Once we picked our resolutions we created little New Year's masks of ourselves... that was the fun part.

We attached speech bubbles to our masks saying what our resolution is for the year!

I love how creative Miss M's mask is!

Dalton's resolution is all about his teeth!

Finish products! They are now hanging in our school door window, reminding us everyday of our goals!

Bring it on 2012! It's gonna be a BIG year!

PRESENTING... THE MONHEGAN SCHOOL CHRISTMAS FILM! Law and Order SIU - A Christmas Mystery!

2012-01-02T11:36:00.000-08:00

I am SO pleased to finally share with you all our FABULOUS, AMAZING, AWARD WINNING Christmas Film! We worked for a month on this film and finally got to show it at the big holiday party right before Christmas break. It is the first time anyone on island could remember not having a Christmas play... but a movie instead, and I think everyone was impressed with the final product! We got LOTS of laughs and I have to say it was SO fun being able to involve community members in the movie! Thank you to everyone who took part and for all the community who came out for the premiere! It was quite a treat to not have to be completely stressed out the night of the Christmas party, worrying about the play and remember all our lines, instead I just got to sit back and enjoy the film with everyone else...

So, without further adieu...

The Monhegan School Player's 2011 Christmas Film:

Law and Order SIU - A Christmas Mystery!

Make sure to leave us a comment and tell us what you thought!!!!

Monhegan School's Christmas Morning

2011-12-30T13:40:00.001-08:00

It is our tradition to have a big holiday celebration on the last day of school before Christmas break! We only have school in the morning because we take the afternoon to rest up for the Holiday play and party which always happens the night before break...

The last few years we have kicked off our holiday party with a BIG breakfast! Students and their families are invited! This year our guidance councilor, Jean, was here for the event as well!

Angela and the boys played a round of Rummy before breakfast we served!

Cheers to a happy holiday!

MMMM! Delicious breakfast!

And I almost ate it all!

After breakfast it was time to open gifts! Not many schools have the tradition of getting presents for all the teachers AND students!

Margaret gave out her presents first!

I got BEAUTIFUL handmade ornaments for my tree! There was an ornament for each member of our school family... even Millie! It was the bestest gift I could ask for!

Daltini got a new puzzle! He looooves puzzles!

The boys gave Margaret her present... first she had to figure out what it spelled...

Then she opened them! PET ROCKS! It was a Millie pet rock!

Look at all those amazing pets!

And if you flip them over... you have MARGARET! Such creative gifts!

Jean opening her gift from the boys... a beautiful handprinted pillow!

And a lovely box from all the school with the kids pictures on it!

Donna's gorgeous pillow from the boys!

Dalton's pillow to me (the #1 in the WORLD, might I add!)

And Quinn's beautiful pillow for me. Have I mentioned I am the luckiest teacher ever!?

The kids opening their gifts from me... new MONHEGAN SCHOOL SWEATSHIRTS!

Ooo la la!

Hats and mittens from Donna! She's the best!

Looking wicked sharp.

New game for the whole school from Santa! That Santa... he is too much!

And another gift from Santa... another new puzzle! We are going to be BUSY this winter!

All of us in our new school sweatshirts!

The backs have our "class number" on it.

Margaret's back is my favorite!

Names of the sleeves... they are pretty sweet if I do say so myself!

After presents we moved on to gingerbread houses!

Any project that involve sugar and messes have our name on it!

So grateful Donna stuck around to help with this project! We needed all the hands we could get!

Quinn was not enjoying this morning at all!

Margaret worked hard on her house... it was a piece of art!

Dalton just put as much frosting as possible on his!

Love the little people... Quinn said this was Millie and I on the top of his house :)

Quinn and Donna trying to fix my house. I was having lots of issues.

This makes me feel ill just looking at it.

Dalton's finished product.

Scout kept eyeing the houses.

Quinn being Quinn!

Proud of his masterpiece.

Teacher's house.... it was a joint effort!

Margaret with her perfect little house.

Gingerbread house village!

We ended the day playing our new school game!

I love this picture AND this game!

And a quick game of Rudolph Monopoly to end the morning! A perfect holiday morning of fun and celebration!

MERRY CHRISTMAS ALL!!!!!

Virtual Secret Santa!

2011-12-29T14:05:00.000-08:00

The Inter-Island Student Council had the BEST idea EVER... have an Inter-Island Secret Santa to celebrate the holidays across our island schools! YES! I couldn't have been MORE on board for this idea! SOOO FUN! When the Student Council met to talk about the rules and plan for the project they decided that we would do the Secret Santa by islands so each school would get the name of another school and have to put together a package to send with lots of goodies and surprises! The catch was, the packages could not cost the schools more than FIVE dollars! That meant all of the goodies and surprises had to be handmade and crafted... ALL THE MORE FUN, if you ask me!

The teachers pulled the school names so the students would not know who got who. I told my kids who we got and we went straight to work! Monhegan got Islesford School (the largest of the TLC schools) so we had a lot of goodies to make.

We spent some time initially brainstorming what we could make for the kids and teachers on Islesford that would not cost a lot and would be fun for them to receive! Dalton came up with the idea of making and decorating paper airplanes for all 12 students on Islesford! Lots of folding for Dalton!

We also came up with the idea of making pet rocks! We had done some sluething and had found out what every Islesford student's favorite animal was... so it was fun making personalized pet rocks for them all!

We also made a DANCE PARTY CD for the whole school because we KNOW how much Islesford loves a good dance party. Lastly, we make little mini sugar cookies for all of the kids and teachers!

Time to pack up our gift box!

We had an assembly line going to back this monsterous box of goodies!

Individual cups of cookies! YAY!

Paper airplanes on top!

Margaret rolling out paper for wrapping!

Stickers are obviously a must! We sent off our package and then waited anxiously for ours!

A few days later all the island packages had been received and it was time for our VIRTUAL Secret Santa PARTY via the Tanberg!

We pulled names and each school got to open their packages! Matinicus was up first!

Cliff's turn! These kids were PUMPED to open their gift!

And then Islesford's turn. I think we were more excited for Islesford to open their gift then we were to open our own!

The Isle Au Haut boys opening their awesome gift package!

Monhegan's turn to open!!!!!

Our package was from Cliff and we were SO excited!

Even Millie enjoyed our Christmas package!

We then had Mr. President (Daltini) read some holiday riddles for the group!

And of course we ended our party with...

Some holiday dancing!

Jingle bell rock!

Even our friends from the Island Institute joined us for some Christmas fun!

Bust a holiday move!!

After our super fun party it was time to enjoy a homemade cookie from our secret santa, Cliff Island!

So much fun! Happy Holidays TLC! We love you all!

Tree Hunting and Holiday Decorating!

2011-12-29T08:58:00.000-08:00

With Christmas getting closer and closer it was time for the Monhegan School to take the yearly pilgrimage out to find our Charlie Brown tree!

Off we go... hunting for trees!

The kids picked which trail they wanted to go on to find our tree. They have quite a bit of experience with tree hunting!

It didn't take long to find our beautiful little tree!

The boys working together...

I don't think our tree was very heavy!

The kindergartner taking a turn hauling it back to school.

Tree trimming time.

Millie protecting Quinn and the tree!

Aw, she looks good!

Time to break out the Christmas decorations!

Decorating some pine cones for our tree!

Margaret loved the tree decorating!

Dalton was in charge of lights... he looks confused by this assignment!

Quinn putting up the garland!

The tree is looking better and better!

Haul out the holly....

More decoration making!

Okay, enough with the photos... I get it!

Christopher Columbus Trial!

2011-12-29T08:43:00.000-08:00

To end our Social Studies unit about Early American Explorers we participated in a super-fun and interesting mock trial where we put Christopher Columbus (and others) on trial for the tragic crimes that were committed over 500 years ago to the Taino people. We joined up with our TLC classmates on Islesford for this project which, of course, meant lots of technology!

The boys were partnered up with students on Islesford and assigned different groups of people who they were to represent/defend at the trail. Quinn and his partner were given quite the tough assignment... they were to represent Mr. Christopher Columbus and try to prove that it was not ALL his fault for the crimes that were committed against the Taino people.

Dalton and his partner were asked to represent Columbus's men. These were the men who actually physically committed many of the crimes against the Tainos... yet it was Dalton's job to try and explain why they should not be held entirely responsible for their actions.

The other people who were to go on trial were The King and Queen of Spain, The System of Empire, AND the Tainos themselves! The students had to develop opening statements to explain why their defendants were being wrongly accused and then had to develop questions for witnesses they wanted to call to the stand during the trial to further prove their defendants innocence!

On the day of the trial we met with Islesford via Tanberg... Ms. Eysnogle and I were the honorary Judges who ran the trail and the students were the representing attorneys for the different people being prosecuted.

The Monhegan Attorneys dressed up for the trail.

Even Millie was dressed for the trial!

Quinn was up first to give his opening statements. He talked about how Christopher Columbus was just doing what the King and Queen of Spain had told him to do... find new land and bring back gold! He had a lot of strong points about how Columbus did not actually physically commit many of the crimes against the Taino people... he just gave the orders. He also discussed how it was because of the System of Empire and the explorer's who had gone before him that he felt it was okay to treat the Taino's the way he did, because he did not know any better.

Quinn virtually called the Tainos to the stand... Ms. Eysnogle represented the Tainos well.

Some of Islesford students representing the King and Queen of Spain.

And then some of the other students representing the Taino people.

Prosecutor Daltini makes his open remarks... he was pretty stinkin' convincing right off the bat!

He talked about how Columbus's men were just "pawns" in the event that Columbus used to get what he wanted. Columbus threatened his men with their lives if he did not follow his orders. Most of Columbus's men were just trying to survive and make money for their families and did what Columbus told them because they were afraid for their own lives. I see a future in law and debate for D. Burroughs, Representative at Large!

Closing remarks from the group.

We then had the group take off their "prosecuting hats" and become the jury. They had to work together to assign percentages to each of the groups depending on how guilty they believed they were for the violent acts committed.

The reading of the final verdict! Pretty cool stuff! These kids took their assignments very seriously and I was super impressed how well they were able to articulate their ideas and represent their defendants! Job well done!

Special thanks to Ms. Eysnogle on Islesford for letting us take part in such a fun and engaging project!