Grade 5 Archives - Page 2 of 39 - Berkshire Country Day School

Please vote for our Grades 7 and 8 French students!

Dear families and friends of BCD,

There’s one week remaining to vote for our Upper School French students!

Our 7th or 8th-grade classes are in the running to win $ 1,000 for the ‘Prix du Public’ award through the Centre de la Francophonie des Amériques Slame tes Accents challenge!

Last month, the 7th and 8th-grade classes each submitted a video which met the requirements of the slam competition (length of the video, vocabulary, and content.) The themes that each of our classes chose to promote in their poetry include unity, respect, and acceptance.

Voting for the ‘Prix du Public’ award began on April 15 and nearly 29,000 votes were received during the first week of voting!

Please help us to increase our chances of winning by inviting your family, friends, colleagues, etc. to vote for BCD and to encourage the hard work that our students have put forth in meeting the challenge of creating their personalized ‘Slam’ in French!

The video that receives the most votes in the 12-14 age group will be declared the winner and that class will win a $ 1,000 grant (Canadian dollars) to use towards an educational event. S’il vous plait, spread the word and vote for our students!

Here are the details to vote:

The voting period is April 15, 2019 at 10:00 am (EDT) on April 30, 2019 at 11:59 pm (EDT);
1 vote per day, per IP address and per category is allowed;
The voting platform makes it possible to share each video on different social networks. It will be possible to share your video to the maximum!

Our 7th and 8th-grade French students video projects can be found in the ‘Catégorie de 12 à 14 ans’ (web address included below) … among dozens of videos submitted by students from countries all over the world! Canada, USA, Mexico, Haiti, Costa Rica, Brazil, Peru and Colombia just to name a few…

http://www.francophoniedesameriques.com/slame/presentation-des-videos/

On behalf of our dedicated and dynamic students and myself, merci beaucoup for your support!

Best,

Madame Daire

By BCD Blog|2019-04-24T09:22:31-04:00April 23rd, 2019|

Fifth Grade Winter Update

Dear Parents,

Hope you are all enjoying Spring Break!! Here’s an update on our activities!

History: We completed our study of China this week by taking a closer look at Taoism and Confucianism, and by trying hands at painting on silk. We also began to explore the origins and practices of Islam as a way to provide context for reading I am Malala by Nobel Peace Prize Winner Malala Yousafzai.

English and Writer’s Workshop: Students enjoyed reading and discussing Bridge to Terabithia as well as viewing the film. We have completed our mini-unit on Word Choice, one of the 7 traits that good writers use. Each student outlined and wrote a process essay with a focus on word choice.

Math: Fractions have been the topic of conversation in math class. We’ve been working with mixed numbers and learning to regroup in order to subtract. Students will continue to explore operations using fractions in April, as well as begin to play with measurement conversions. We had some fun before vacation using fractions to bake chocolate chip cookies. However, in the consumption of these, I must admit there were no fractions of cookies left uneaten!!

Enjoy the slideshow and have a restful break!

Jilly

By BCD Blog|2021-09-13T10:00:12-04:00March 17th, 2019|

Mois de la Francophonie in full swing at BCD!

Good afternoon all,

Before we part ways for Spring break, I wanted to share a brief update on what the different classes in the French curriculum here at BCD have been up to lately.

From poetry writing and presentations, cooking demo’s, PenPal exchanges, cultural and geographically themed projects, and learning songs, French students of all ages at BCD have been busy abeilles! (bees)

The 7th and 8th-grade French classes are now putting the finishing touches on their Slam Poetry videos – for submission to the Slame Tes Accents! international competition proposed through the organization, Francophonie des Amériques. The students were challenged to create a poem as a class and choose how they wanted to Slam their poem, employing the pre-requisite vocabulary and meeting other requirements for the contest. The 7th grader chose a theme of ‘unity through different accents’ and ‘self-confidence’ under the umbrella of the international French-language community. Their project was filmed in a casual, walk-through style in the Learning Commons.

For their part, the 8th-grade class embraced a ‘high-tech’ approach, using a drone, filmed outside, and with voice-over audio. Their message is aimed at the importance of recognizing the shared community of the French-speaking community around the world, no matter skin color, orientation, religion, current events or other cultural facets.

I’m very proud of the energy, enthusiasm and quality of work that these students brought to their projects. The organization will announce the winners in April.

For more information about the contest, please visit : http://www.francophoniedesameriques.com/slame/

The 6th graders took a cultural microscope to the different regions of France, each choosing a region of the Hexagon and shining the spotlight on and outlining notable facts for each. If you are looking for any fun + tasty recipes to try over the Spring break, have a look at their posters for guidance!

Our 4th and 5th graders have prepared their third round of letters to their friends in France. It has been an incredible experience to see the connection grow between these classes on both sides of the Atlantic as the school year has evolved. This project strengthens not only vocabulary use, sentence structure, talking about oneself, asking questions and letter writing, but more importantly, it brings the ‘human element’ into our French language learning experience. The children have been able to establish a relationship with their PenPals and with the Ecole Montessori d’Uzès since September; learning more about ‘a day in the life’ of their pen-friends, both personally and academically. Through these letters, here are some of our takeaways : we were all saddened to hear of the tragic deaths by fox of two of their school chickens, Le Chef and Flash, 🙁 we were intrigued to learn of shared interests in Harry Potter books and favorite flavors of ice cream, and felt a general curiosity and interest about the importance of the celebration of Carnevale in France.

I welcome you all to visit the French classroom in Ryan 22 to see our PenPal board, read the letters and see the beautiful drawings done by our PenPal friends.

Our Kindergarten and grades 1-2 friends are starting to prepare for the performance of a classic French song at the Spring concert. More on that to come!!

Best wishes to everyone for a safe and fun Spring vacation.

Bien cordialement,

Mme. Daire

P.s.. check out the BCD photo album to see some pictures of our continued adventures in French!

https://photos.app.goo.gl/Y8axH9vNz9NtJCs57

By BCD Blog|2019-03-15T12:43:41-04:00March 15th, 2019|

Hinduism Exploration in Fifth Grade

Fifth Grade students have been studying the rise of civilization in the regions of the Indus and Ganges Rivers. This week, we focused on the beliefs and practices of the world’s oldest religion, Hinduism. We welcomed Preeti Kedia to our classroom to share with us her practices and beliefs, and to answer our questions. While each student prepared at least 2 thoughtful questions, her visit sparked so many questions that we ran out of time to ask them all. Students were interested in topics ranging from life cycle rituals of birth, marriage and death to what gods are favored in Mrs. Kedia’s family, what a Sanskrit prayer sounds like and where she buys all those spices she brought for us to smell!

By BCD Blog|2019-01-26T15:09:30-05:00January 26th, 2019|