Grade 1-2 Archives - Page 21 of 43 - Berkshire Country Day School

Halloween at BCD

I always feel badly for people not lucky enough to work at a school on Halloween. They miss the undeniable fun of reliving childhood’s silliness, fear, and fantasy.

Berkshire Country Day School students, parents, teachers, and staff truly know how to enjoy the day and you can enjoy a small selection of pictures by viewing this slideshow:

For those of you reading this on an iphone or ipad, you can view the pictures here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/bcdtech/sets/72157646730929083/

During the assembly this afternoon, the fifth grade class shared with everyone a video they worked on this fall. To be sure, they are fierce!

In other news, varsity soccer players trounced the faculty this afternoon in the annual students vs. faculty soccer game (pictures in the slideshow above). Congrats to the victors and best of luck to the faculty in next year’s game!

Wishing everyone a safe, spooky, and silly Halloween.

By BCD Blog|2019-01-10T12:39:46-05:00November 1st, 2014|

Open Studios Event this Thursday 5-7PM!

Join us this Thursday as Visual Arts faculty and students lead guests through the studios to see finished artworks and works-in-progress! Observe live pottery wheel demonstrations by Upper School students and test out your skills with a drawing challenge. Read a giant book by the Kindergarten class and see if you can find gargoyles installed by 4th Grade in curious places around Furey Hall. Seasonal refreshments will be served!

By BCD Blog|2016-10-25T15:03:03-04:00October 21st, 2014|

October News

Families:

We have been wonderfully busy learning and developing community. The students are making more and more connections between academic subjects, grade levels, and real life applications.

We are studying sand. For Grandparents’ Day your children performed “The Story of a Grain of Sand”. There were readers, dancers, and musicians. We took the audience through the progression of a boulder to cobble, to pebble, to a grain of sand, which was left on the ocean floor. It was very well received. We looked at sand through micro lenses and compared salt to sand. The children made sand paper, both coarse and fine. We noticed that sand poured like liquid but is still a solid. The children made fantastic sand designs using colored sand and glue. We continue to learn about the history of salt. We read today that the Great Wall of China was subsidized by money made from the sale and trade of salt. The discovery that salt preserved food was one of the greatest events in history. We did an experiment today with sand, soil, and clay. We used water, filters, glass jars, and a timer.
Ask your child about the results of the experiment.

Children in the colonies had to do many chores before school. We read that they started the fire, picked up their beds, made and served food to their parents, collected fruits and vegetables, chopped wood, churned butter, made bread, fed chickens, and the list goes on. Then, after chores, they went to class. They were able to play with friends only on Sunday. We compared chores now with chores then. OH MY! If there was ever a moment that you would want to add a chore or two to your child’s day, now is the time. One day our chore at school was to make butter. We made it in less than 5 minutes with a jar, a marble, and cream. Everyone tried the butter and some even tried the buttermilk. We read a book about making a coat out of wool. Starting with the farmer and the sheep, it took 7 different steps: shear, wash, card, spin, dye, weave, and sew. The children were given sheep’s wool, which they carded and then tried to felt a small piece for a bracelet. It took more than 40 minutes. They are beginning to see and understand how different it may have been in Colonial Times.

When papers come home please take the time to go over them with your child and ask questions about what was expected. It helps to solidify learning when they are asked to explain the process. Then return the envelope empty. We were hoping the visiting grandparent would have taken home their story but some got left behind. Please help us by getting the story to them. Thank you.

Next week we have Mountain Day on Thursday, October 23. We will leave by bus at 10:00. A note will go home on Monday with specifics about what they need to bring. Basically they dress for hiking and carry a lunch in a backpack. Look for the note. October 24th is Pizza Friday!

A BIG HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Gabi, Ben, Libby, and Mrs. Allentuck!

Have a wonderful weekend.

Fondly,
Ms. Milani

By BCD Blog|2016-10-25T15:03:04-04:00October 16th, 2014|

BCD Visual Arts News

Students and Visual Arts faculty will lead guests through the studios to view
finished artworks and works-in-progress.

In just a few short weeks, BCD’s emerging young artists have brought our new integrated Visual Arts program to life! Brimming with sculptures, large-scale drawings, ceramic pieces, assemblages, and mixed media artworks, the studios are full of inspired work of all kinds. See below for a recap of what we have been up to!

Kindergarten students worked with cardboard, paint, fabrics, felt, wire, and found objects to create self-portrait masks.

First and Second graders built sculptures made from recycled materials then applied layers of papier-mâché and acrylic paint in this multi-step investigation of shape and form.

The Third Grade has been working on a collaborative installation piece for Furey Hall. Colorful creeping “vines” made from drinking straws and wire seem to grow from blue cylinders making their way up and across the walls.

In conjunction with their study of contemporary public sculpture, the Fourth Grade class visited The Fields sculpture park at Omi International Arts Center where the class got up-close and personal with larger-then-life works by American and international artists.

Fifth Grade students viewed the documentary film, “Waste Land” which follows artist, Vik Muniz as he journeys to his native Brazil at to the world’s largest garbage dump near Rio de Janeiro. Over 3 years, Muniz works with local ‘pickers’ to recreate photographic images of themselves out of trash. Then, the group visited artist and BCD alum, Eli Merritt, who creates large-scale assemblages from recycled materials, in his West Stockbridge studio. Back at BCD, the class made self-portrait photographs which were then transformed with household and natural materials including rice, beans, sand, sawdust, and pebbles. Their final piece exists as a photographic print of the “2.5-dimensional” assemblage.

After seeing examples of masks and mask-making from a variety of cultures, the Sixth Grade class embarked on a large-scale sculpture project to make imaginary being masks of their own. Using cardboard, newspaper, and tape, forms and features were built up then sealed with papier-mâché, and, finally, painted and embellished.

Mr. Evans’ Ceramics class has been learning about early Greek pottery through the creation of a series of pinch pots that involve burnishing with traditional terra sigillata. Last week, the class built an outdoor kiln for a smoke firing. Bricks, wood shavings, newspaper, and a ceramic covering made up the kiln, which smoldered for 24 hours before the students’ pieces were ready to be removed.

Students of Mr. Spitzer’s Sculpture class have been working with found and traditional sculptural materials to create artworks based on quickly-made maquettes. The group will travel to the Williams College Museum of Art next week to see a Franz West sculpture exhibit.

In Mr. Knoll’s Drawing With Confidence class, students continue to learn formal rendering skills as they draw mostly from observation. The students are working on independent drawing projects with a focus on realism.

Stay tuned for more and be sure to check out exhibits and installations in Furey Hall!

By BCD Blog|2016-10-25T15:03:05-04:00October 8th, 2014|