[kim vennerholm]

Hi all,
 
I am wondering how your plays went/are coming along? We ended up doing Stone Soup. I took two long songs that told the story and the play became a musical. We added a dance and some movement. It was very joyful. The class made stone soup the day of the play and served it to their families afterwards.
 
I have my last parent evening coming up. We are meeting in a picnic shelter on the beach. We're starting with an all family potluck and then holding the meeting. Some of my graduated students will be helping with the class at that time. I am looking for some inspiration for the evening. Does anyone have some fun activities that they've done with the parents or suggested readings, etc...?
 
I hope you are enjoying the spring with your first graders!
 
Warmly,
Kim
(Madrona School, Bainbridge Island)

[lisa bartmann]

Hi, 

Can you draw some of the form drawings in the sand?  My parent group walked some of them and they became very reverent.   Ask them to be quiet while a few volunteers do it and then end it.  Watching was appropriate for some.  You can read one of the eurythmy verses beforehand to get them in a quiet mood.  You can end with showing some of the best drawings done by a teacher -  

Best,

Lisa

[Mrs. Giulietta Garland]

Hi Kim -

With great appreciation to Lisa Archer, who wrote the play, my class performed Puck the Gnome.  Lisa and I collaborated, but she wrote the bulk of it.  Both of us agreed that it was a little long (I think mine was even longer because she ended up cutting out my section) but I was surprised at how well it went!  My students loved doing it, they looked adorable (what's not to love about 24 seven year olds in gnome hats and beards?) and the play had enough comic relief, music and great characters to make it interesting to the audience as well as the children.  The parents in my class and my colleagues were all very impressed with it!
Tomorrow our class is going on an overnight camping trip in Big Sur (we're in Monterey, CA).  The parents are all coming, we'll share dinner and breakfast and spend the rest of the time playing in the river and exploring.  I'm looking forward to it!

By the way, I will not be at the training this summer, but I hope to stay connected to you all through the 2nd grade year.  I'll adjust the yahoo group and I hope everyone will continue to participate and share!
Blessings on the remainder of your 1st grade year!
Giulie

--

“....We are all meant to shine, as children do. We are born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us, it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”   ~Marianne Williamson

[kim vennerholm]

Thanks Lisa-great ideas!
 
Kim
 

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From: lisaba...@gmail.com
Subject: Re:
Date: Tue, 29 May 2012 08:47:35 -0500
To: aotg...@googlegroups.com

[Heather Kidd]

Hello first grade teachers,
We just performed our play yesterday, The Devil With Three Golden Hairs.  I adapted it from Hawthorne Valley's collection of plays.  My class and I loved the story from the get go, when we heard it in the fall.  When I found the play in February, I loved it and cast it and blocked it immediately in my head.  The children loved to learn the words and gestures during circle in March and April and I simplified the blocking in my head.  But in May, when I began to share the blocking with the children, I began to worry that it was too much and too long.  They're energy level drooped so dramatically after 15 minutes of anything.  And it was taking 40 minutes to get through the entire play.  (It was 22 minutes on my slow, gestured read through).  I worried that I bit off too much to chew.  I took a step back and really looked at how they were taking it in, looking forward to the performance, and really coming together as a class through this work.  They loved it.  So I began to trust (and count a little more heavily on the first grade adorability factor).  Onward ho!

The performance was a grand success!  They are so incredible and capable.  Every one of them stepped up, even those struggling with movement regularly.  Even with two unexpected absences and a teacher who almost skipped ahead and missed the main plot, they performed this complicated play with solid grace.  I could not be more pleased.  Little Gabriella looked up at me and said, "Ms. Kidd, you look so happy today.  I have never seen you look so happy!"  I knew that I was beaming.  (And I will do my best to beam as brightly more often in the future, they deserve to see it).

I will be exploring the east coast flavor for my second grade training.  I will miss you all!  I do plan to stay connected to the Sacramento group.  My sister just had a baby in Brooklyn this spring, so I will be spending much of the early summer with her.  See you in February!

Warmly,
Heather Kidd
Eugene Waldorf School

On Tue, May 29, 2012 at 6:32 AM, kim vennerholm <kjvenn...@hotmail.com> wrote:

[Heather Kidd]

Our performance took just under 30 min.  :)

[lisa bartmann]

Hi Heather,

Thanks for your explanation on process with first graders and plays - whew - I love how they stepped up for the occasion.

I'm curious about how one finds the Hawthorne Valley's collection of plays.  Is that something that is accessible to all?  

Thanks,

Lisa

[Lisa Archer]

Heather,

I can empathize with your struggles with the length of the play. At times during rehearsals of our play Puck the Gnome I, too wondered if it was just too much for them to do, but like you I persevered and they did a fabulous job at the two performances, so it was worth all the hair-pulling and worry in the end. I do have to say though that in retrospect, even though they could do the longer play (ours was 20 minutes long approximately), I would probably not choose something so long next time around because it is a lot to expect of these little ones in rehearsal, even though it really impressed the parents and other students and teachers who saw the performance

I, too,  will not be at the Sacramento training this summer because my family will be getting together in Maine this summer that same week. Instead I will be doing the Renewal course in New Hampshire on Child Study with Christoph Weichert. I hope that people can share with the group what they learn in the various trainings they do, especially for those of us who will not be doing a 2nd grade intensive. Although I have taught 2nd grade before and feel confident in the curriculum, I have always appreciated the gems I would glean in training, so I hope this group will continue to be a place to share what we all have.

Have a great summer. (Now I must get back to report writing!)

-Lisa Archer

---

From: Heather Kidd <heather...@gmail.com>
To: aotg...@googlegroups.com
Sent: Saturday, June 2, 2012 12:23 PM
Subject: Re:

[Heather Kidd]

Hawthorne Valley Harvest:  A Collection of Plays for the Elementary Grades by William Ward.  I saw it at RSC. :)

-Heather

[Felipe Ferraz]

First of all, sorry for being out of the loop. I chose to go with a play that was performed by one of our First Grade classes last year. I thought it would be nice to have most of the costumes already made. The rehearsal the day before was bad, I mean  I didn't like it. Some say this is a good sign that the actual performance will be great. It did work that way, we had a great performance. If interested, please take the link to a gallery of more pics than you might want to see. We'll have one more performance before the end of the year. The play became a bigger project than I had imagined. It was done in a format of a triangle, with 10 characters times three, which gave everyone a part.

https://www.dropbox.com/gallery/47419089/1/Nixie%20and%20the%20Mill%20Pond?h=25ff94

Felipe

[Mrs. Giulietta Garland]

Thanks for all of the great descriptions of plays.  Yes, The Hawthorne Valley Harvest is available at RSC bookstore (I bought a copy for my school) and has some great ones for 2nd, 3rd, and 4th grade too. There's also a couple for 5th and 6th, but I haven't gotten a chance to review them yet.
Ok - now back to reports and end of year gifts....
Giulie

[sea.el...@gmail.com]

Oh yes, end of the year presents... Does anyone have some ideas to share?

Sent on the Sprint® Now Network from my BlackBerry®

---

From: "Mrs. Giulietta Garland" <mbcs.t...@gmail.com>

Sender: aotg...@googlegroups.com

Date: Sat, 2 Jun 2012 19:21:28 -0700

To: <aotg...@googlegroups.com>

ReplyTo: aotg...@googlegroups.com

Subject: Re: My experience with the play

[Giulie]

My end of year gift is their report verse written beautifully on pretty painted paper. I'll present them to the kids on the last day. 

Giulie

Sent from my iPhone