Saturday, April 26, 2008

Closing Ceremony.




































We had our Spring Closing Ceremony with our local homeschooling group. It was the first time Leonka got to be on the stage and participate in an activity with the group. She , and the rest of the kids, were so cute. All you could hear in the audience was "ahhhh" and "ohhh' every time a child took a microphone and said his/her part. They acted out the book "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, what do you see".

Ivana's class had a play to perform. It was "A boy who cried wolf". Even though they had only six classes to practice, the kids did a great job! Ivana was chosen to be the Announcer as the most articulate child in the class (Thank You! It is always flattering to hear that your child is a bit better! Smile!). However, she was not happy about it at all. Guess what part she wanted to play!.. A sheep!

I tried to talk to her and explain that her role as an announcer is extremely important, that the teacher thinks nobody else can do the part, but her. That didn't work. She could care less for that. All she wanted to be was a sheep!

I decided to talk to the teacher (since I was the aid in this class) and see what could be done. Because when she was practicing her part as an announcer, you could sense that she did not like it. I came up with a solution and the teacher agreed to that. Since the part of the sheep and the part of the announcer do not overlap, she could do both.

And she did a fantastic job! With such vigor she memorized her lines for the announcer and had a blast being a sheep!

I ended up being a "costume designer" and spent a couple of evening sewing and making the sheep look "fleecy". I sewed the hoods and glued the cotton balls and ears. Then I took my Tshirts and applied a double stick tape to the back and front and then attached the polyester fiber to the tape. To add a bit more fun, I got the girls to wear the black socks, to imitate the sheep's feet.

The wolf was everybody's favorite. A gray Tshirt with a real fur tail attached in the back. And the hat was the most fun to make. I just took a baseball hat, cut out the teeth from a white foam sheet and hot glued them to the rim, added a tongue, nose, eyes and ears. The boy who was playing the wolf was so excited to wear the costume that he asked me if he could keep it. I couldn't resist! I gave him the hat as a present.

I had a blast making those costumes and that reminded me a lot of my childhood. We were always putting up performances, making costumes from scrap fabric or our Moms' old clothes.
Another Spring Concert is coming up, and I can't wait to tell you about the costumes I have come up with for that play!