Post Contributed by Jocelyne Adkins, Program Director/Educator
This past Wednesday marked our first class in Beye Discovery for the 2012/13 school year. It was exciting for me to welcome students back to the program and to meet so many of our new students enrolled for this year! It was also wonderful to introduce our new teaching assistants, Mr. Andrew Coppersmith and Ms. Maegan Jenkins, who have so much to share with us in the coming months, including sculpture, fibers, puppetry, performance and much more.
After our introductions, we shared things about our first day of school: some 1st graders were thrilled that they had 4 opportunities for outdoor play and a number of students were very pleased about their new classroom teachers. The atmosphere was very positive, and after eating our snacks, we were eager to go outside for some outdoor fun. Students were quite interested in watching the playground construction, which I must say, is looking great. Other students played badminton, Ogo sport, catch and soccer. It was fun, but hot, so the teachers didn't have to do much coaxing, when it
was time to go back inside the classroom.
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| watching the construction |
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| new playground equipment |
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| this is tempting even for the teachers! |
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| the faux boulders |
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| Emory, a budding field scientist, sifting through the long grass to find which is the longest |
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| Donald |
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| Oliver and Maurice |
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| Sylvia and Suzanna |
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| Mr. Coppersmith and Andrew playing soccer |
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| Cassandra and Ms. Jenkins |
Back in the classroom, after a long stop at the water fountain to re-hydrate, we developed a case of "the sillies", making the silliest faces possible. We then encouraged students to make the silliest collage faces they could imagine for their project.
Mr. Coppersmith and Ms. Jenkins provided instruction on collage techniques and students had an array of scrapbooking paper to choose from. Once the face shapes were cut and glued to the background paper, students were given a variety of materials, from bottle caps, lids and tabs to foam pieces, sequins, buttons and more collage paper to make the silliest facial features imaginable. Needless to say, the students succeeded in their task. Do have a look below:
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| Kasper, Daysha & Max at work |
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| Daysha's silly face collage |
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| Max |
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| Maurice |
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| Kasper & Heidi |
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| Anika |
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| Leila |
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| Emerson |
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| Oliver |
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| Suzanne |
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| Emory, moving on to fashion designer! |
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| Hayden and Dexter |
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| Donald |
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| Laila, Cassie and Jessica |
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| Anika (left) and Sylvia (right) |
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| Jessica and Kasper |
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| Laila |
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| Sylvia |
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| Leila |
After we had enough of the sillies, we moved into free play. Citi-blocks were a definite favorite today. Students enjoyed seeing how tall they could build before their tower would crash. It was also fun to crash them even if the structure didn't collapse on its own.
Also, many of the terrific photos below were taken by 2 Beye Discovery students, Daysha (5th grade) and Jessica (3rd grade). Well done!!!
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| Add caption |
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| Oliver and Ben |
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| Andrew, Hayden (background), Ben & Donald (right) |
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| Kasper (foreground) and Ben (background) |
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| Laila |
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| Cassandra |
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| Donald |
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| Suzanne, Ben, Cassandra and Jessica |
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| Suzanne, Leila, Jessica (background) and Cassandra |
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| Heidi |
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| Dexter |
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| Cassandra, Suzanne, Jessica & Leila |
After a summer of looking forward to this very day, I must say how happy I am to be back in the classroom with such fun and creative children! They are my source of inspiration and provide me with much enrichment every day. I must also share how appreciative I am of our teaching assistants: Mr. Coppersmith & Ms. Jenkins (who worked with us today) and Ms. Hartline, (who will be with us on Tuesdays and Thursdays). This year will be fantastic! Thank you to all : )
