Shortcuts
. . . the roar of the crowd--The final week of the year is full of class presentations and special efforts, designed to allow students to show the world what they have learned in the past nine months. For students in middle school--seventh and eighth graders especially--that translates into two-hour final exams (and for some, a first pairing with the iconic blue book). For our first and second graders, special effort means ending up on the stage of Hill House, presenting their class play to parents and schoolmates. On two mornings this week the students did a fine job, under the tutelage of drama department head Christina Johnston, of putting their best thespian's feet forward in a series of engaging one-act plays. On June 4 Karen Andrade's first grade performed "Stone Soup," the folk tale about the transforming power of sharing. Roselyn Morris' group acted out "The Grouchy Ladybug," about a cantankerous bug who becomes a nicer, happier, and better-behaved insect. On June 5 Kimberly Murphy's second grade performed "The Girl-Fish," about a young girl who gets turned into a fish, rescues a similarly transformed fish-queen, and discovers love along the way. Gail Ruggieri's group performed "The Non-Writing Pencils" (pictured here), a mystery based on a story by second-grader Ainsley Weber, about pencils that wouldn't write, thereby ending all efforts to get homework done (and doing the devouring dog excuse one better).