Time is Running Out!

Do you want a Perkins' School t-shirt?  If so, you'd better get on it.  Your order form and $14 have to be in the main office by this Thursday. (ps--that's tomorrow!) 

Don't lose this opportunity to have a new shirt for the summer and to help the Perkins School fund their art supplies for next year.

Want a Perkins' T-shirt?

Yup, here is your chance to have your very own Perkins' t-shirt.  It's sort, it's cool, and it helps fund the Perkins' art programs for next year.  

If you can print out this order form, you're all set.  Otherwise you can see more information at the Rightside site or contact them directly.

The People have Spoken!

Well, we have our three winners.

If you haven't been following the t-shirt design story, the Perkins School is working with Rightside Shirts to make t-shirts as a way to raise money for well needed art supplies.  All the kids who wanted to, made a piece of art that could possibly be put on the shirts. 

Last week, the kids voted for their favorite designs.  And here they are...

Or, at least here are the artists showing the winning numbers of the designs that were used to conceal their identities.  

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And now, introducing the decorations for our new t-shirts with their makers!  Pick your favorites, ladies and gentlemen, the order forms will be available soon. 

Voting Day: May the Best Designs Win

As mentioned before, Thursday was Voting Day for the Perkins School.  The whole student body was deciding which three of the nine finalists should be the designs put onto our Perkins t-shirts.  Here are our candidates:

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As you can see, each picture has a number.  That number is an easy way for a student to designate which is his or her favorite choice. It also covers the artist's name so people will vote for the design and not the person who made it.  The three drawings that get the most votes will be the winners.

Learning to vote in privacy so you can keep your choices secret (if you want to) is a little confusing at first.

The kids eventually got the hang of it.

A few kindergartens needed a hand, though, when their favorite picture was labeled with the hardest number to write!

Fold up your ballot when you put it into the box and no one knows how you voted.  That's one of the privileges of our democracy.

Some people didn't mind revealing their choices.  And, that's okay too.  

One first grader announced, "I liked number two."  Then a classmate got angry for a moment, saying, "You copied me!"  Sometimes it takes a while to realize it's good for people to be on your side when you're voting for something.

These kids all went for #5.  "I liked it because it was so creative," remarked one of them.  That unattached hand to the right of the picture is pointing to #7.  That was her choice.  Why?  "I love the earth," she answered.

So many kids, so many opinions.  What designs will win.  Come back Monday to find out.

And the T-shirt Finalists Are...

As you know, the Perkins School is having t-shirts made as a way to raise money for well needed art supplies.  All the kids who wanted to, made a piece of art that could possibly be put on the t-shirts.  If you go back to our posts from last week, you can read all about it.

Rightside Shirts has selected nine designs for us to vote on.  The top three will be offered for sale with the profits being donated for next year's art supplies.

HERE ARE THE FINALISTS...

If you can't get a good look at them from this perspective, a couple of our kids also offered to present them to you.

Start the debates.  Think about your favorites.  The vote for the winners will be tomorrow!!!

A Picture is Worth 1,000 Words

Our last post showed you some of the great designs Perkins kids created for our t-shirt art supply fundraising project.  Of course, there were many, many more, but we couldn't put them all on the blog.  Admiring them would take up your entire day.

We did, however, want to give today's space to some artwork devoted to a special subject.  Several students decided to use their drawings to reflect upon a subject that has been on all of our minds--sad thoughts, but also a celebration of our friends, families and city.  

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ART IS...

 Art is...fun.  inspiring.  creative.  fundraising??

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The Perkins School has embarked on a project with Rightside Shirts.  This young nonprofit company raises money for youth art education by selling t-shirts designed by students.  One hundred percent (that's right, 100%) of the profits are given back to the school to fund art programs and supplies. 

The whole process starts with all our kids drawing or painting or sketching anything they want to.  Here are just a few examples of our kids' contributions.

Jeff and Dylan, the co-founders of Rightside, come to collect the art.  Then they have a hard job as well.  They select five to ten drawings from all these masterpieces as possible candidates for the three(?) to be printed on the t-shirts.  

Normally they would just pick those three themselves.  

We, however, do things the Perkins Way.  

We taught our kindergarteners the basics of democracy by having them vote to name the crane that helped build Phase One of Old Colony.  We reinforced the lesson for Ms. Murphy's second graders when they learned how to campaign, vote, and win or lose gracefully while deciding their class pet.  Now, Leo the leopard gecko is beloved by all.

This time we will have a school-wide election.  We will vote to select which designs will appear on our t-shirts.  Democracy at work.

 Once the t-shirts are made, Perkins kids and our community will be able to buy them for $14, with the profits of that sale feeding our budget for next year's art supplies.

Jeff and Dylan will also decide if one of those designs will go onto the Rightside web site (www.rightsideshirts.org) to be sold to the world!  Again those profits would come back to the Perkins to fund art.

What's going to happen?

Which designs will be voted on?

Stay tuned.

Plants AND Language Skills Grow in Spring

It's spring and many Perkins kids are studying units about plants, the earth, water and how things grow.  Imagine trying to understand all these new subjects when you have to learn the words that describe them at the same time.  That's what's going on in Ms. Enos's class of English language learners.  Many of these kids are newcomers to our country and to English.  So there's a lot of learning going on.

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Here are some of the new vocabulary words they must learn to even start their units.

 

Sometimes it's easiest to connect a word to a picture.

A simple sentence in English often starts with the subject (I, in this case), follows with a verb or two (can pick), an article (the), and noun (carrot).  It seems simple when you grow up with this pattern.  

Most languages have different forms of every verb and you must learn which one is used with which subject.  Some languages often don't bother with the subject because they just change the verb.  Still other languages think of nouns as feminine or masculine and you must know which they are to put the feminine version of "the" or "an" in front of them.  

Sounds hard, doesn't it?  Any language is hard when you don't know its rules (or its words!).

Luckily the English language learners at the Perkins have plants to look at as they study how things grow.

 

They also have Ms. Enos to help them study English and watch their skills grow.

It's Spring!

Sadly in Boston, you can't always tell it's spring by looking through the window.  Or, by the date on the calendar.  Or, by the jacket you choose to put on.

If you look at the front hall in the Perkins School, however, you can see signs that spring has sprung.

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 First, there's Mrs. B working in the hallway, assembling the belts for Dragon Tail Tag.  

 

There are so many variations to the game.  It could be two or four teams of one color against the others or every dragon for her- or himself, dashing around snatching as many Velcro'ed tails as possible to win.  The important thing is the running, the dashing, the dodging--fun and exercise outside.

 Baseball is another sign of spring.

 

It gave Ms. Harden's class a more exciting way to learn to make diagrams than flowcharts or electrical systems.

If you still had any doubts, here is a plea posted in our hallway--a poem by Valerie, one of our second grade students.

Thank goodness, the weather has finally cooperated.

Ready, Aim...FOCUS!

Sometimes so much is happening all around you that it is hard to concentrate upon one thing--even if you are supposed to.  It's true for adults, and it can be especially true for kids.  

So, how can you help them?  

You can click on any photo to make it larger.

One way is to remind them about places in their lives and their minds that are calm and quiet. Some times, we can learn to go to our real life places (like a closet or a bed) in our minds.  It's a great way to relax and be able to focus on what's important wherever you are.

It's not always so easy.  Practice, however, can help.  A lot. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls. let us introduce you to some of the kids who have made it into our Focus Hall of Fame.

"Throw the bums out..."

These kids look like they are scowling at the camera or giving the photographer the "hairy eyeball." No, they are actually American colonialists who are getting increasing angry at the British.  Very, very angry, especially about taxation without representation.

You know what these feelings lead to, don't you?  You're right, one answer is the American Revolution.  Another is the second annual production of...

 

Some of our readers may already know that the Perkins School kids (and parents and teachers) have published a book called Why Do We Celebrate Evacuation Day? It tells the story of George Washington's first victory against the British during the Revolutionary War. Even more exciting, this victory took place right behind our school. Our book was published in 2007 and is in its third edition.


Last year, we took this story and turned it into a musical play.  This year, we're doing it again.

 

The rehearsals have begun.  Ms. Lynch is using some music classes to teach or remind the kids of all the original songs written for the show.  Reverend Burns Stanfield, a local pastor and professional musician, is helping the kids learn their lines and dance moves. It doesn't quite look like an uprising yet, but it's amazing how things come together.  Just look at a scene from last year's production... 

Work hard, kids.  We don't have too long until showtime.