Census! Census! Get your census here!

Hot off the press! The Monhegan Census Questionnaire!!!

The Burrough brothers stapling the packets!

In our civics unit in social studies we learned about the history behind the United States Census, just in time for the 2010 census coming up this spring. We got to see what the census looks like and the results from previous censuses in the past. To end our study of the census we decided it would be fun to conduct a Monhegan census to find out some more information about our community!

The boys brainstormed questions they would like to ask in their census. They then formated the set up of their census, made and stapled copies, made a list of all the residents to send the census to, addressed, stuffed, and sealed envelopes, and then finally mailed the questionnaires out to the community! The kids had fun pretending they were "governmental" workers but didn't realize how much work it was to do a census mailing and we only had 50 census to send out!

Our plan is to graph the data we collect in the questionnaires and present our findings to the community at our open house in December...we will share our results on the blog too! So stay tuned!

The whole gang (including our guidance counselor, Jean) pretending to be governmental workers!

LOOK AT ALL THOSE STUFFED ENVELOPES! (50 to be exact!)

Absolutely exhausted from all of that work! BUT WE ARE DONE!

Gull Rock Poems

To continue our poem series the next poem the boys wrote was about our hike to Gull Rock. We all ventured out on an overcast day and climbed Gull Rock. It was a beautiful hike and the waves were terrific. The kids took some great photos that you can see below!

The kids assignment was to write poems using at least two of the three following elements of poetry: simile, onomatopeia, and alliteration. See if you can identify them in these fantastic poems!

Gull Rock

Dull Demanding Dominate

Dull as an Overcast sky

Demanding as an Emperor

Dominate as the untamed lions

Hidden

behind the Island

Tall

as the cliffs beside it

Eroded

as much as the Grand Canyon

Gull Rock

- D. Burroughs

Gull Rock

The fields are as lifeless as

a dead mouse

The tress are blowing

throw the wind

We reach the rock

Crash, smash, splash

The waves are smashing

Climbing on the rocks

Getting to the top

Water splashing over the rock

Slipping, sliding,

All the way down

- Q. Burroughs

Gull Rock

The sun's warm kiss planted right on my face

Green grows greatly on the ground

Rock as grey as the stormy sky

Whooshing wind howls by

Smiling faces greet the sky

Down we go to the rocks below

Up the winding paths of green

- G. Church

November BINGO!

Our beautiful array of BINGO prizes.

Our beautiful Donga with her lovely hair cut and BINGO face paint!

The dynamic duo: Mr. Boynton and Ms. Hitchcock! They were one unlucky pair though! No wins for them this month.

Tralice modeling her new Turkey belt.

Donna won the drumstick hat!

Gabe and Maya helping out in the kitchen.

Norma won all the food prizes... even though she can't eat any of it!

Tara won the turkey hat!

Quinny calling the lucky numbers.

I can't believe it has been almost a month since our last BINGO! As one community member said last night, "BINGO is such a good way to keep track of the "winter" (AKA off season months) on island." I agree. I know our school always looks forward to BINGO nights. It is so easy and fun!

Last night was November BINGO. It was fun because all of the prizes were home-made, which added even more excitement to winning the prizes. Of course the theme was Thanksgiving, so we had turkey hats, turkey belts, turkey baskets, some home-made cranberry muffins, and pumpkin bread! The championship prize was a home-made "Thanksgiving Wreath" made with handprints. Pretty darn cute if I do say so myself. My other favorite part was that we played Motown music during the games and it was awesome to watch everyone boogie down while eating popcorn and playing some good ol' BINGO!

And the November BINGO champ is...

TARA (T-Dog) HIRE!

Quiet, but awesome, week!

Well, we didn't have a whole lot of posts this week. It was the first week of November and it felt like the first quiet, calm week we have had of school all year long! As much as we love community events, school visitors, and field trips, sometimes it is just nice to be at school, getting work done, and enjoying one another's company!

We accomplished a lot this week. The boys did a bunch of fun experiments surrounding the Earth's processes. They have been writing creative stories about survival that we will have writer's workshop on next week. The boys also wrote letter to our incoming students, Jorgie and Arlo, who will be here in January! In social studies we have been learning about the United States Census! We are excited to make up a census to find out some information about the people who live on Monhegan! We started learning Spanish this week! Dalton and I can almost count up to 100! And the most important thing we accomplish this week??? We came up with our idea for the Christmas play! It is top secret but I can reveal the name of our fantastic production: The United States of Christmas!!! I know I say this every year, but this is going to be the BEST PLAY EVER!!!!!

All I know is it was a nice week to be at the Monhegan School!

I am ending with some pictures from the week... which show some of the things I love about our school!

Donna brought us back a popcorn maker from Reny's! It made Quinn wiggle with excitement!

The puppies napping while Dalton reads.

Maya taking her turn in the bean bag.

Quinn's super cute bulletin board in his "office". He has the "sign" Wyatt made him, his Language Art's To - Do List (which he completed!) and his card from the first day of school!

The gang on top of Gull Rock.

Trail Poetry

With only 4 kids this year, gym is a tough, but that doesn't mean we don't need to get outside and get our exercise. We came up with a plan to take bi-weekly hikes around our beautiful island to ensure we are moving and also taking in the gorgeous nature that surrounds us. We call them our "gratitude hikes" because we sometimes forget how lucky we are to live in such a beautiful place and the hikes remind us to be grateful of our surrounds.

During our hikes the kids bring along their cameras to capture the beauty and then back in the classroom the boys are writing poems to complement these photos. This activity is helping us meet out poetry standards this year and also our plan is to compline our poems and photographs into a book that we can give to the library at the end of the year so others can see what kind of beauty we get to experience on Monhegan all year long.

For our first hike we went to the Maple Trail which is so beautiful in the fall. The boys took gorgeous photos and after they were asked to write free verse poems. 

What they came up with was just beautiful...

The Maple Trail

So quiet...

So beautiful...

Birds chirping and insects buzzing

Hills of moss all around

So calming...

So peaceful...

Tall pines and colorful maples

The wind whispers to me

So soft...

So gentle...

That's The Maple Trail

- D. Burroughs

The Maple Trail

The leaves are falling

the animals are hibernating

the people are leaving

the forest is silent

the snow will be falling

i imagine wolves are howling

the leaves are changing

green to yellow

yellow to red

red to brown

it is Fall

it all just happens like that.

- Q. Burroughs

Maple

yellow and red surround me

a paradise in a world of grey

leaves carpet the ground

instead of the concrete vail

that engulfs the rest of the world

but not here in this place

with the familiar sweet smell that hangs in the air

this is where the animals run free

happy forever in the red and yellow world

of fantasy

- G. Church

The Case of the Stolen Pumpkins!

So, it is Monhegan tradition that every Halloween the teacher's pumpkins get stolen from his/her house and are brought to the school house. Once the pumpkins are stolen the teacher has 24 hours to guess who stole the pumpkins. If she guesses correctly... she is wins the title of smartest teacher ever. If she guesses incorrectly, the children of the school do not have to have homework that night.

Well, since I have been teacher I have enjoyed trying to make it difficult for my pumpkins to be stolen. Year one I covered my pumpkins with vaseline and duct taped them to my stoop (they still got stolen). Year two I put my pumpkins on my roof (they still got stolen). THIS year I planned on MacGyver-ing up a way that when the thieves took my pumpkins took my pumpkins they would get drenched with water. Well, this plan fell through, so I ended up covering my pumpkins with ketchup, just so I could potentially catch the robbers "red-handed".

Well, long story short. My pumpkins got stolen... and ended up back on the school stoop Monday morning! I thought I figured out "who dun it" because I saw the vehicle bringing the pumpkins...however I still guessed wrong!

Who was the culprit you ask? None other than our beloved, yet super sneaky former teacher, Sarah "Sneaky-Pants" Caban! Who thought such an innocent face could be so darn sneaky! Well, I have only one thing to say to you Mrs. Caban.... "I will get you, my pretty! And your little Lilly too!" 

Yet again, the pumpkins showed up on the stoop of the school house!

Upon further inspection my pumpkins got turned into a pumpkin bug!!!!

New Addition: DOG HOUSE!

The before: loads of scarp wood...all found on Monhegan!

Quinn's up first with the chop saw!

Watch out for your fingers Paul!

Gabe with the drill!

Daltini looks like a pro with that saw!

The Wy man using his first power tool!

I couldn't believe how steady Quinn was!

Hammering the frame

Time to put up the siding!!!!

Quinny "working for Paul!"

Dalton wearing Paul's super cool protective eye-wear!

The dog house has walls!

Seems like Maya approves so far!

Getting so close!

The boys have been asking me if they could do shop for a special for a very long time now. Unfortunately their teacher can hardly pound a nail in straight, let alone build any kind of functioning structure. That is where my father comes in! Last week my dad, Paul, came out to teach an intensive shop class to the boys of Monhegan. Their task : to build a dog house for Maya, Schooner, and all the other dogs who work and visit us at school. Their challenge: construct the house in a day in a half, using only scrap wood found on Monhegan!

Thankfully my father is a very talented carpenter and an extremely patient and kind teacher. The boys (and men) did great! They measured, cut, screwed, nailed, re-measured, leveled, stained, and "accessorized" the most amazing dog house this little island has EVER seen! It was awesome to see the boys faces as they used those power tools! Something about boys and power tools! I, of course, was the photographer and the supervisor. At one point I was telling Quinn that they should put down a flat piece of ply-wood to finish off the floor and Quinn's response was, "Well, I don't know about that. I work for Paul." Needless to say the boys loved working with my dad and they did one heck of a job building that doghouse!

Time to stain!

Staining is a three man job.

Final touches.

Signing the board.

They let me screw in the sign so I could say I helped. Aren't they sweet?

The ladies in their new home. They seemed pleased.

The construction team and their piece of art!

(They called themselves Beavis and the Buttheads. My lord, they are such boys!)