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!