What's in a Game?

What does it take to create a board game from scratch? Mr. Dawson explained, "Every game can be reduced down to its simple abstract elements." (i.e. rolling a dice, moving a piece one block at a time, etc.) The theme of the game is what makes it entertaining to play, not the actual basics behind it. Besides the typical glue, marker, dice, hard-stock paper, cards, game pieces, and spinners -  it takes creativity, innovation, problem-solving and patience to invent a well-designed board game.

The professionals working with this group are Sam Liberty and Kevin Spak from Spoiled Flush Games.  These board game designers have a few published games either on the market or coming soon, such as Foresooth, Clusterfight (pre-order), Gladiators (coming soon), Cosmic Pizza (coming soon).

Josh, Ian, and James have created a 2-4 player game, which is yet untitled. It's purpose is to out play your opponents by earning more points in each of the four sections of the game board. Economics and real estate development are involved with the theme of this game.

Anh, Frank, and Gavi have crafted a 2-player game which also has no title yet. It is a typical war-type game requiring one player to out maneuver another with better use of resources and plans of attacks.

Abe, Philippe, and Dan are the masterminds behind a 2-4 player game, also untitled.  They described it as a space exploration money-making game, but they are really creating a universe planet by planet.

LEADing by Learning to . . .

. . . be yourself while also being a member of a diverse group.

. . . carefully traverse across a wire suspended between two trees while someone else controls your safety rope.

. . . collaboratively build a fire with wet wood on snow-covered ground in freezing temperatures.

. . . strategically solve a problem which requires all members of the group to participate with focus and control.

. . . accept and appreciate each others differences realizing that these differences is what makes your group an effective team.

Once a Wooden Block

The Turn, Baby, Turn! Winterim group has been churning out wooden pieces that they have crafted using lathes this past week. Types of projects that have been created are bowls, plates, cups, mugs, and goblets, to name a few. These kinds of crafts require intricate and careful cutting and a high level of precision in order to get the desired result. Some students even choose to burn their wood, like on the goblet to the right, in order to add patterns or designs to their project.

The leaders of Turn, Baby, Turn! are Mr. Healy, Dr. Greene, and Ken Lindgren, who is a full-time wood turner and has been teaching lathe work for many years, both to adults and to high school students. His personal work can be viewed on his website.

We look forward to seeing the rest of the finished products from Turn, Baby, Turn! over the next few days as Winterim wraps up.

Yogis Travel the State

Yoga Beyond the Mat practiced basic yoga all of last week and now this week, they plan on going to yoga studios around Massachusetts to see what more advanced yoga is like and to talk to other yogis about their experience with yoga and how it affects their lives. (Yogis are people who practice yoga or who are masters of yoga.)

Today (Tuesday), they went to the Herb Lyceum in Groton, where they learned how to eat healthier and live better. On Thursday, they plan on going to the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health, in western Massachusetts, where they will practice yoga, go for a hike, eat an organic meal, and meditate.

The leaders of Yoga Beyond the Mat are Mrs. Smith and Ms. Kim Johnson, who is a registered Yoga Alliance instructor and Reiki practitioner with over twelve years of experience.

Exciting End to Excavation

Today, Mr. Greene sent us the daily update from the Can You Dig It? Winterim, written by two of the students in the group:


Day 7

Day six at the dig site brought much excitement. Although it was unfortunately our last day digging, we kept up the enthusiasm and hard work. We continued to work in two groups. The group that worked in the barn was able to clear the floor and expose a new layer, and uncover a new wall at the end of the six days. Today the group even found two coins; finds that astonished our archeological instructors. At the end of the six days, the second group was able to find, expose and clear a collapsed wall in a part of the house, allowing us to reach a new layer and this group also was able to uncover another wall. Today, the second group was able to find more pottery and glass. After cleaning the whole site and removing the final loose rocks and soil, the group covered the site with tarps, packed up all the equipment and left the site in great condition for next year's lucky 'Can You Dig It?' members. We are excited to spend our last three days exploring the ancient and beautiful sites of Rome.

Written by: Taylor Scholefield and Meredith Long

Behind the Scenes of Some Horrible Movies

... horrible, as in full of horror.

Over the past week and a half, the Revenge of The Horror! The Horror! Winterim group has worked on writing, planning, and creating four horror movies. During the beginning of Winterim, the students worked in small groups to create plots for the four different horror movies. These movies contain a range of plots which include characters such as a vengeful doll and a sleepwalking brother.

After writing their movies, the students  then began to plan out the scenes of the movie, considering the angles and other visuals necessary. To help film the movies, the Revenge of The Horror, The Horror! Winterim has been joined by Russ Jaquith and Christy Kovacs, who are both professional filmmakers, and Ben Bornstein, a professional makeup artist. This year will be the third year that the three professionals will be helping the Horror Movie Winterim.

Today, the groups continued to work on their movies by filming the scenes that take place during the day. The groups will continue their filming during the next few nights in order to gather all of the necessary footage for their films. During the last few days of Winterim, the groups will be editing their movies, and putting all of their clips together into a final movie.

By the end of Winterim the group will have completed four finalized horror movies, all planned, filmed and edited within two weeks. In the past the horror movies created during Winterim have been shown at the end of Winterim or when school starts up again in April, so stay connected to find out when you can view this year's movies.

Journey to Big East

Today the Sports Journalism Group departed for Connecticut where they will be visiting NBC Studios and Versus Studio. Tomorrow the group will be traveling to New York City to see the Big East Tournament, which takes place from March 12-15.

Although the tournament continues on through Saturday, the group will only be in New York City for Wednesday and Thursday, meaning the group will only be covering the tournament through the quarterfinals.

While at the Big East Tournament, students will be taking pictures and writing breakdowns or articles on the games that they watch, in order to experience what it is like to be a sports journalist.

All of the articles that the students will write about the games at the Big East Tournament can be found on the Sports Journalism Blog.

Winterim Reaches 2250°F

So far the Clay and Kiln Winterim has worked hard on molding different pots, bowls, mugs and vases out of clay. Over this past weekend, and also yesterday, the group fired their creations so they could begin glazing and finalizing the ceramics into finished products.

Some of these creations included bowls that students in the group created for the Empty Bowls Project. Lawrence Academy is collaborating with Groton Community Dinners to hold an Empty Bowls Dinner in the First Parish Church of Groton on May 9, 2014 from 5:30 to 7:30.

Other creations included small projects that members of the group had created during the first week and final projects that students created on Friday of last week.

For this week the group will be continuing to glaze and finish their projects by Thursday. To end Winterim the group will be having a tea ceremony on Friday.

For more from the Clay and Kiln Winterim, check out the Clay and Kiln Blog.

Quilts are like Snowflakes

After only one week of instruction and practice the students in Quilting is Sew Easy are creating very intricate works of art.

In order to create their designs they had to plan or sketch it out on graph-like paper - paper with small squares - since the quilts are created by sewing together individual squares.  For more detailed designs students needed to draw the correct size image on thin tracing paper and label the sections by using a number-color code. A yin-yang symbol and an ace of spades are examples of some complicated designs.

The colors being used on their quilts are all unique as well. They were able to shop and choose their own fabric and colors. Not a single design is like another - sort of like those snowflakes that we may get later this week - each one is unique and will never be repeated!

Endless Epoxy

Students in the Build Your Own Kayak Winterim have been hard at work crafting their kayaks. As I am writing this, they are attaching the decking to their kayaks. This process requires a seemingly endless amount of peanut butter like epoxy and frustrates the students at times since it is so tedious, but the step is vital since the epoxy is what keeps the boat waterproof, which you can imagine is important for a boat to have.

The leaders of the Build Your Own Kayak Winterim are Mr. Mucha, and Chris Balch, who is a boat builder and teacher. Chris builds boats for his business, Balch Boats, when he is not building boats with groups at various summer camps and schools, like Lawrence Academy.

For more information about the Build Your Own Boat Winterim, check out their blog here. For more information about Chris Balch and his boats, check out his website here.

A Bowling Blackjack-playing Movie Goer

Week two of Winterim brings with it more fun activities for those spending their Winterim on-campus.  The fun ranges from tubing to gambling and from taking in a movie to viewing fine art. Check out the full list of activities below.  Be sure to be in your dorm on time each night after the activities and sleep well for your next day of Winterim adventure!

Monday - March 10

9^TH GRADE- TUBING at Nashoba Valley Ski Area, Littleon, MA

 Bus leaves at 6:30

10^th GRADE- BOWLING at Harvard Lanes in Harvard, MA

Bus leaves at 6:15

11^th and 12^th- GRADE- SURF AND ROCK CLIMBING at Skyventure in Nashua, NH

Bus leaves at 6:00

Tuesday - March 11

CASINO NIGHT in Grey Building 7-9 PM

Turn in chips for raffle tickets and win PRIZES. (Really good prizes…)

You are required to attend until 8:30 PM. Raffles will be drawn at 9 PM. If you are not there, you forfeit the prize!

Wednesday - March 12

Movie and Dinner at Chunky's in Nashua

Buses leave at 5:00

Thursday - March 13

MFA - Museum of Fine Arts in Boston

Buses leave at 6:00

Broken Glass Turns into Fine Art

Over the first half of Winterim, the Stained Glass Creations Winterim has worked on learning the techniques necessary to create different pieces of stained glass art. Students worked by cutting pieces of glass, grinding the pieces down to fit each other, and then connecting the pieces to form their final products.

Some of the types of projects that the group worked on during the first week were: light-covers, or window type pieces, such as the pieces with the dolphin and the teddy bear, which are meant to have a light shined through the back of them; three-dimensional hummingbirds, which are made of different colors of glass and are meant to hang in mid-air; and color wheels, which will eventually go on kaleidoscopes.

For the rest of the week, students will be continuing to create their own stained glass pieces using the same techniques they learned by creating their first required projects.

Dancing With the Locals

After working hard at the community center and the local school, the From the Ground Up Winterim group departs El Mango and heads up the coast for their final two nights in the Dominican Republic. Mr. Moore sent us this update to let us know how everything went and what their plans are for the coming days:


Hello everyone,

Our final day in El Mango was fun and productive.  One group finished up at the school,  and the other worked at the construction site. Farewells at the school were emotional, and we have seen tangible results at the construction site that have given this community great momentum. Just our being here has motivated the people to come together to get this center built.

Dinner tonight was spectacular and our cooks pulled out all the stops and treated us to one incredible Dominican meal of arroz con maíz, carne de pollo guisado, puré de papas, arrepitas de yuca, pico de gallo, ensalada de tomates con vainitas, y ensalada rusa, y jugo de jagua. (Rice with corn, roasted chicken, mashed potatoes, deep fried yuca, Dominican hot sauce, salad with tomatoes & green beans,  Russian potatoe salad, & jagua juice). And then we were served a Dominican sweet bean and sweet potato dessert  that was phenomenal! We have eaten very well!

After dinner entertainment included merengue dancing with the locals. Everyone in our group danced. Our guides commented that it rarely happens with a group of Americans that they all dance. We are very proud that our kids can step out of their comfort zones and have fun. And they've got good rhythm!

Tomorrow we head up to the coast for our final two nights in the DR.  The students have loved their time in the mountains and especially their work in El Mango at the school and at the construction site. We said goodbyes today in El Mango, and have given cards and gifts to some of the people that have made our wonderful experience possible.

We'll check in again tomorrow.

All the best,

Kacey and Rob