Short Dramatic Pieces

A whole BUNCH of our Barnies were in the Short Dramatic Pieces on Friday night, and some of them were hard at work behind the scenes with sets and costumes. Here are some pics from the evening's performances!

Barn Adventure Challenge Winners Declared!

The Barn adventure challenge has concluded! After a last flurry of activity on Monday, the points were calculated and the winners were declared. The RED TEAM (Asha, Cheyenne, Mijia, Sarah H-F, and Victoria) came in second place, with 185 points. The winning team, by a mere SEVEN points, was....

the GREEN TEAM! (Briana, Cynthia, Felicia, Riz, and Rowan H.) They've earned a three course meal prepared and served by their dorm parents. It seems likely that it will include steak and some very fancy dessert. Their team collage will also be framed in the common room! All members of both teams won a "get out of warning free" card. =)

Here is some of the "evidence" submitted as part of the quest:

1) Students were asked to write and perform a Barn related cheer or song at assembly:

2) They made snow monsters:

3) They saw how many words they could make from "I Love The Cambridge School of Weston." (The Red team made over 320 and the Green team over 400!)

4) You saw Green Team's music video in the last post. Here's the Red team's video:

whip the door

5) They were asked to write a Barn-themed sonnet. Here's the Red Team's:

Let not the matter of befouled dishes

Rend this dormitory of ours in twain

I need to make this damn line rhyme. Fishes!

Counting out ten syllables hurts my brain.

Some might say we have a few too many

But that's not true at all, if the zombies

Came in hoards we'd have the best of any

Dorm's chance at survival, it's true. Ombies. 

Shakespeare liked iambs. The Barn likes the sorbet

fruit things. Dorm snacks bring us together

after long hours of study. Ole!

We hope for more snow days and bad weather.

This sonnet has been lovingly written 

In hopes of victory. Want a mitten?

And the Green Team's:

We like to live at barn the greatest place
We love to dance and sing, away the stress
School gets tough but life is grate no disgrace
And when we sing, our heart goes ring for rest
Because my ears cant take the noise below
I sit, I run to keep my sanity
But Barn stays true with in everything games show
This challenge hurts my love for profanity
Cant wait until it ends, yes, lets go home
I wonder which team rule, oh yes Green
I love barn better, no matter the snow
No need to prove we’re great, lets be serene

Green team will always be the best my friend
We passed the test, all to the very end

6) They wrote Haikus about their dorm parents:

ORANGE TEAM'S:

Julia:

You are Julia

You play lacrosse and Soccer

We love you so much

Lee:

A mother you are

A mother to all us girls

And Toby as well

Jordan:

You are good at math

And play with your son Toby

We are glad your'e here!

Michael:

Michael likes to fish

Someday he will catch a fish

So he can feed us!

Melissa:

You make pretty glass

What will the baby be named?

It should start with "M"

Toby:

You run down the halls

And play with your trains with me

We love your laughter.

RED TEAM'S:

Julia
Julia is cool
Her name rhymes with cool-i-a
Thats 'cause she is cool

Michael
Michael lives upstairs
He will be a new daddy
Congratulations!

Melisa
She is Michael's wife
She is having a baby
How awesome is that

Lee
Lee, lee, lee, lee, lee
Her name has just three letters
But that is okay

Jordan
Jordan lives downstairs
With his one son and his wife
They are a great fam

7) They made human Barnie pyramids:

8) They took pictures of Gryphons around campus (The Blue Team found the most) and they took pictures of "secret" letters around campus to spell CSW. Here's the Red Team's:

Nice, huh?

They also drew portraits of dorm parents (and Toby!), made a Barn logo, made group collages, solved math and logic puzzles (Kudos to KyoungHee who solved ALL the math and logic puzzles!), collected and returned over 50 dining hall dishes, and figured out that Sarah is the most popular first name among CSW students.

All, in all, they were awesome.

And, even though the Orange Team didn't win, we think their Barn Song is ridiculously good, so we put it together with some Barn pictures from this year to make the following video:

Thanks to all who participated...we're really proud of your vibrant spirit and creative thinking!

Happy Birthday, Riz!

Riz's birthday was on Friday, so while we celebrated the end of the Adventure Challenge with a huge ice cream sundae buffet, we also celebrated Riz's birthday with delicious cakes that she made! YAY RIZ!

Barn Adventure Challenge!

January is typically the month when we all go a little stir-crazy in the dorm. With the days ending early, the worst of the low temperatures, and months to go until spring break...well, things can feel less than uplifting at times. So the Barn dorm parents met and brainstormed a list of activities to do over the coming months that will keep our spirits high. First on the list: our own version of the Amazing Race. For those of you unfamiliar with this popular reality television show...contestants pair up in teams and race all over the world solving clues and completing challenges.

For our version, we split the girls up into 6 groups and gave them a list of 30 riddles, problems, and activity challenges--with a week to work on them. The green group was ahead, after getting this picture with Jane:

In case you can't tell, they are spelling out the word "Barn" with their bodies. Too bad about the finger in the picture, but we were still impressed that they compelled our head of school to participate. =)

They also submitted this original Barn music video, which earned them 20 points:



But then, the red team found 33 dining hall dishes around campus and returned them to the dining hall, which earned them a tie with the green team. Currently both teams have 53 points and are tied for first place. The event ends Monday at 7 pm, and at 9 pm on Monday, we'll have a special dorm meeting where we will reveal the winners and have a super-fancy ice cream party.

In case you were wondering, the second place group will receive a "get out of warning free" card for each member of their group. The winning team will win that PLUS a three course gourmet meal prepared (and served!) by their dorm parents.

Good luck to all of the teams!

Happy 1/2 Birthday to Asha and Victoria!

We love to celebrate birthdays in the Barn, and we don't want those born in summer months to be left out of the fun of having us all sing a horribly off-key rendition of happy birthday to them! So...we celebrate half-birthdays for those with summer birthdays. This week we celebrated the half-birthdays of Victoria and Asha (complete with off-key song, cupcakes, and cherries)!

PS...it's a boy!

We recently shared with the girls that Michael and I have found out we're growing a wonderful little boy! The girls are helping us brainstorm names! =)

Baby Kjellander

Theatre!

Cynthia, KyoungHee, Vicky, Victoria, and Ronghao were all in our International Theatre Company this year, which gave three amazing performances last night, each of which was a modernized version of a cultural fairy tale. Julia and KyoungHee also helped to write and direct two of the pieces. Then, Sarah H-F was in Act II of "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" It was a VERY entertaining night of theatre featuring our girls!

Snow Day!

First, we have to apologize because Michael's birthday was January 2 and Julia's was January 7, and we had a cute video of their birthday songs but it accidentally got deleted. But we DID celebrate!

And we celebrated today, too, because we had a SNOW DAY at CSW, with about 20" of beautiful snow--lots of great sledding! And, of course, an extra day of rest and fun midweek is never a bad thing. =)

End of Mod 4 Art! And Birthdays!

Sorry this is a bit late...

Mijia's portrait painting

Riz modeling Mark's creation

Beechna's photo

Flo's photo

Julia models in wearable art

Julia acted in and directed this Korean folk tale

Kirin models in wearable art

Lili's photography

Mijia's painting

Shari's wearable art

We also celebrated Vicky and Ellery's birthday, which was December 16th!

Sarah H-F in Student Directed Play!

Check out the CSW facebook page to see pictures of Sarah H-F starring in our student-directed "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf: Act I." She was AMAZING. Hysterical. So expressive. Wish you could have seen it yourself!

Barn Holiday Party 2010

We celebrated the end of a wonderful week of Secret Snowflake subterfuge with our holiday party last night. Our decorating committee outdid themselves and we had wonderful finger foods and ice cream and exchanged lots of gifts and merry laughter. We celebrated our successful fundraiser--we were able to sponsor THREE homeless children AND buy 7 extra blankets for the shelter with the $250 the girls raised with their candy cane grams. It was a wonderfully festive and spirited night! The dorm will seem so empty next week, as our Barnies spread out to their homes all over the globe!

We're wishing happy holidays and a peaceful 2011 to all of our families and blog readers!

Cheers from the Barn at CSW!

Getting in the spirit...lots to celebrate!

Sorry we haven't posted for a while. It's been very busy in the barn! First, the girls have decided to run a candy cane gram fundraiser to raise money to buy winter clothes for 2-year-old twins who are homeless just now. The girls worked really hard on this project and raised enough money to buy LOTS of warm winter things for the girls. Maybe we can even buy a little toy or two. =) We're going to go shopping on Thursday to pick stuff out, and then we'll still need to do a lot of work to deliver the candy canes next week before everyone leaves for break. Special thanks to Lili, Riz, and Rowan who took on an organizing role with this project...though nearly everyone in the dorm got involved either with marketing, selling, shopping or getting ready to deliver!

Meanwhile, Asha, Rowan S., Rowan H., and Briana are meeting tonight to plan our holiday party on Sunday! They'll be in charge of planning and decorating and shopping for snacks! The party will celebrate the end of a week-long "Secret Snowflake" event in the dorm. Everyone is participating, by leaving small gifts and notes for their person each day. At the party on Sunday, we'll all try to guess who our secret snowflake was and we'll exchange slightly larger gifts and celebrate the end of the year. It's always great fun, because the girls go to great lengths to keep it a secret--they could be future CIA agents! =)

We've also been celebrating Hanukkah, which ends tomorrow night. We like to learn about and celebrate ALL the holidays that our residents celebrate.

Finally, you may have heard that we've been celebrating some more good news in the Barn...Michael and I shared with the girls that we'll be expecting a new addition to the Barn in early June. The girls were so excited that you might have heard the cheers at YOUR house! We're feeling very lucky to be part of such a wonderful extended family, and we're excited to share this adventure with our "other" 29 daughters! =)

Here are some pictures of our dorm getting in the holiday spirit...

Secret Snowflake present spotted on a desk!

Melisa's new favorite holiday decorations

The newest addition to our dorm!