Easter Service Chills

Dear June, 

All of Mary Deans participated in an Easter service play. Of course, this is really strange for a public school in Florida. It would be pushing the limits to even have an Easter party in your classroom. At Mary Deans, each class performed a little skit about the true meaning of Easter. They sang a few songs and acted out a few scenes from the Bible. Easter has always been one of my favorite holidays. Mainly because my mother would fill my Easter basket with cute bikinis for the upcoming spring break. As sad as it is, this little Easter play made me tear up. The cute little boy with the solo belting out "Jesus has risen!" brought full on crying. I was so impressed with the bravery from all the students at Mary Deans. There was no stage fright or quiet speaking voices. They all got up there and screamed their lines for everyone to hear. The message of the play was really great too. I know this play is definitely something that I couldn't bring home to my school but I do think I want to put on a play in my class. 

Missing you,

Susannah 

Clay Pots

Dear June,

The school days are just flying past. So much happens during the day that isn't possible for me to write everything down. In our classroom, we are making clay pots for Mother's Day (which is in March). Mary Dean's does not have an art teacher so the general education teachers are required to intergrate art into their lesson plans. I was thinking about the mobs of angry teachers that would go running down the streets if Florida teachers were required to teach art. I feel that most of them just wouldn't do it or they would do silly crafts during the art periods. This is not the case at Mary Deans. They first learned the skill of working with clay and then were given the task to create a pot with a 3-D daffodil. The teacher gave them the whole morning before lunch to create the clay pots. 

After they finished constructing the pots, they let them sit for the rest of the week to dry. 

I ventured into the other year 5 class at Mary Dean's to see how their pots turned out. They didn't make flower pots. This class had been learning about volcanoes and the teacher wanted them to make clay volcanoes. Personally, I thought the volcanoes turned out WAY more interesting. 

Today in the classroom, we white washed the pots and painted them.

I can't believe I forgot to take a picture of the finished project. I'll try to sneak one tomorrow. 

Xoxo,

Susannah