Last Friday, the Grade 2 classes wrapped up their Unit of Inquiry, “How We Express Ourselves,” by performing Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Our Elementary and Middle School students enjoyed the morning show, with families and friends joining us for the evening performance.

According to Trevor Lindsay, Grade 2 teacher, the production was truly a collaboration between students and the community. “Our two classes collaborated on everything having to do with the play. We also worked with students from the middle and high school. High school art students helped us create and paint the background scenery. Middle school students met with our classes and then created original mood music to play as a soundtrack between scenes. We also made props and costumes in art with Mr. Jay, learned a contemporary song with Shakespeare-themed words in music class with Mrs. Summerville, wrote poems and made a program on the computers with Mr. Hamilton, and designed our own stories and plays using the iPads with Mr. Miller.

As with all our units, we encouraged parents and experts from the community to make presentations to the classes. This year, we had author and parent Tony Doerr talk with us about expressing ourselves through creative writing. Idaho Shakespeare Festival actor DA Smith shared insights about Shakespeare and helped us refine our acting skills. Tony and Caren DeAngelis, parents and former actors, guided our students through improv activities and helped the students to become more expressive in their acting.”

Although the pictures can’t capture the essence of live performance, you can still get a sense of the magic that we all felt watching these amazing students! Thanks to everyone who assisted the students and special thanks to Trevor Lindsay and Pete Burton, our Grade 2 teachers, for guiding our kids through this wonderful process.