Room 1: 9-2-11

Friday, September 2, 2011

Hi, Folks,

I took an acting class in college that fulfilled every stereotype of an “acting class”. Black turtleneck wearing teacher? Check. Long haired boy with a nose ring who said to me on the first day, “Call me Paprika”? Check. Instructions to “Become a tree. Now stroke your bark. Love your bark!” Oh, yeah. In the end, I realized that the stage probably wasn’t for me.

Until now. Between the “Behavior Brothers” daily shenanigans and “Three Little Pigs” Oscar worthy performances, I’m ready for fame, fortune, a cover of People Magazine, multiple face lifts and a few unsuccessful stints in rehab.

But I’m nothing compared to your budding thespians.

After multiple (and I do mean multiple) read-throughs, the Predator Playhouse was ready to start rehearsals of “Three Little Pigs” this week. Day 1: Kind of a mess. Engines were a bit high, lines were forgotten and a whole lot of time was spent reeling everyone back to the stage. Day 2: Much better. The focus was there, but there were still some technical issues to work on. We taped the rehearsal, watched it back, and reflected on the good parts and the parts we needed to work on. Day 3: Awesome!!! So good, in fact, that we have recorded it for you pleasure. Once we figure out a safe online site to share it on, you can watch it from the comfort of your home theater.
Next week we hope to be bold enough to try it without our scripts in hand!

We also had a good giggle saying “Not by the hair on my chinny-chin-chin!” using different emotions. Ask your piglet to try this at home. Have them think of a feeling (angry, bored, frustrated, tired, scared, happy, silly, excited, content and embarrassed were the ones we used) and say the line using that feeling. Your job is to guess the emotion they are trying to portray.

Our pals, the Behavior Brothers, stopped by each day with a new problem. That darn Unexpected Man, he just keeps getting in trouble at school. A couple of behavior questions he had this week were:

1.How can I let a teacher know I am thinking when they call on me or ask me a question? Sometimes I’m not ready to answer, should I just ignore them?

2.How can we figure out who gets to go first in a game?

Talk about these questions at home. Can your child tell you or act out what Unexpected Man and Expected Man would do in these situations?

For the past couple of years, we have had quite the zoo in this classroom. Fish, silkworms, hornworms, butterflies, and frogs, to name a few of our pets. The kids have been really excited about getting some new animals this year. Money is tight in the Predator class, though, so we let the kids know that we would need some help this year. Aidan H., Max and Gabriel were very excited to help raise money and quickly came up with some very creative ways of doing so. Using their own interests and talents, they decided to create a market to sell art. Who wouldn’t want to buy cat sculptures and maps of the United States? Good question--one that we asked our fellow schoolmates and teachers/therapists. Each child was requires to conduct a survey:
“Would you pay $______ for ______?” and “How much would you pay for_______?”
One budding entrepreneur even started taking orders for custom made sculptures.
In addition to selling their wares at the “Predator Market”, each child will earn a paycheck (from Predator Inc) at the end of the week for all of their hard work. Of course, this check will need to be deposited in the Predator Class Pet Savings Fund.

There is so much more I could say about this week, but I’d rather say it in pictures: