exposition party

Let's take a moment to breathe: take in the whole By Hand arc, absorb the two weeks of hard work that the kids did on their incredible projects, revel in the merriment of this evening during the Exposition gathering for parents and friends... and know that in this calm before the holiday madness, we - the kids, the staff, and the parents - can celebrate Arc 2's success with full confidence and happiness at a job well done.It was a night of portfolios......artists-in-residence......and presenting work.Zada and Ben talked about their cooking projects that didn't result in any edible food, but left them with good stories to tell about their foray into culinary arts.The felters - Audrey, Bruno, and Sofia - presented their work in two parts. They told their audience how difficult and arduous their process of felting and creating a nature scene was to accomplish, then acted out their narrative of squiggly things and redwood forest creatures interacting and having an environmental impact on each other.Connor and Henry explained the concept behind their interactive comic and their process of working together to come to make a decision about a project that incorporated both their interests.Kaia, Evan, Quinn, and Coke basked in the glow of triumph as they showed their stop animation movie "Zompples" and told everyone about the steps they took to make their masterpiece and their struggles to get past complications and stresses.Here's a brief preview of the very first public viewing of "Zompples":Lola, Norabelle, Natasha Mei, and Clementine (through Skype video chat, as she was out sick today) talked about their quilt that they so steadfastly sewed together.Last but certainly not least, Ninja Ben, Aidan, and Logan talked about their experiments with water and boating and showed off their handmade, floaty boats.Thanks for all the support and generosity, parents.Post-party dance party.We came together this evening to celebrate the kids' projects and the work they put in to get things done in collaboration, and as we all watched the presentations I could not believe that we're all here together, on this crazy journey of creating a school and learning so much as we do it, and that I get to know all these incredible people as we grow and learn together. As always, I'm so happy that this is what I get to do with my time and that so many have put their trust in us to do what we love, with kids and parents we adore.Happy holidays!