Kindergarten Archives - Berkshire Country Day School

Last chance for summer reading materials in French through Bayard-Milan!

Bonjour tout le monde,

Tomorrow, May 15th, I will have a table of sample materials from the French language publishing house, Bayard-Milan, on display for your consideration in the Learning Commons.

My hope is that parents and families of students of all ages at BCD will stop by during or after school to peruse the selections, and consider subscribing to a magazine for your child for some enriching summer reading in French!

From Pre-school through Gr.9, there is something for everyone!

The samples on display will be organized by level and age, and include a plethora of themes, styles, and layouts. Please check out the link below for more information on the different magazines offered, per age.

http://monde.bayard-milan.com/parents/quel-magazine-pour-quel-age/

What is Bayard-Milan? … “We are journalists, graphic designers, early childhood education professionals, employees or freelancers … for forty years we have chosen to put our readers at the center of our editorial thinking. Listening to them, understanding them, astonishing them, nourishing them with inspirational works and accompanying them at each stage of their lives.”

Here’s a short excerpt on the mission of Bayard-Milan:

“More than anything, today as for yesterday, we have a duty of promoting enchantment in the younger generation. And in this particular situation where our magazines are not the voice of parents or teachers, but of caring accomplices, we can highlight the positive force that exists in everyone and in the many situations one encounters in life. And when you have the chance to live through words, thanks to talented creators, characters who can embody all their life experiences, it’s as if we invent small lights that will mark the lives of children and which they are will remember for a long time.”

Please carve out a few minutes tomorrow to check out the selection of Foreign Language materials in the Learning Commons, for all grade levels and interests!

Best,

Mme. Daire

P.s for all inquiries concerning subscriptions, please refer directly to the US agent for Bayard-Milan ;

Ms. Catherine LAMY

catherine.lamy@bayard-may.org

*Orders are not placed through BCD.

http://monde.bayard-milan.com/#

Merci beaucoup!

By BCD Blog|2019-05-14T14:11:59-04:00May 14th, 2019|

Fifth Grade Marks Earth Day with Kindergarten!

Fifth Graders joined their Kindergarten friends last week in a celebration of Earth Day.

The classes have been meeting monthly since September to participate in a peer reading experience. Each fifth grader is paired with a Kindergarten special friend. In addition to peer reading, we’ve exchanged bookmarks and valentines, and last week, each student crafted his/her own necklace from an assortment of Earth-themed beads. Mrs. Patel shared one of her favorite new stories, Stacy McAnulty’s Earth: My First 4.54 Billion Years. Anyone who has had Mrs. Patel knows what a great storyteller she is, and her reading of this funny, yet scientific approach to the Earth made us all smile.

By BCD Blog|2019-04-29T10:40:08-04:00April 29th, 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|

Wonderful Winter Doings

Courage. Love. Alaska. These have been the three topics that have dominated our classroom recently.
First, courage – that was learning about the life and work of Martin Luther King, Jr., Ruby Bridges, and Rosa Parks. And about Bobbi Gibb, the first woman to run the Boston Marathon. And also about the lives of 26 other important and courageous woman leaders, from an alphabet book called Amelia to Zora. These stories naturally led into conversations about our own lives and times when we each needed to be brave in particular situations. Drawings and writings followed. We’ve also learned two poems on courage, which we will present at the soon-to-be rescheduled-because-of-weather Courage Assembly!

And then love – Valentine’s Day! We had fun making valentines for families and for our fifth-grade peer readers. Thanks to all who sent in goodies for the party! We learned that the Magic Valentine Potato (from a story by Daniel Pinkwater) is real! And he (she? it?) brought potato chips for us to share with our fifth-grade friends – how nice!

Then we celebrated Alaska Day – so much fun! Starting with photos of my own trip to Alaska last summer (which I LOVED) included sharing the photo of me doing a polar plunge in 38 degree water (which took all of my COURAGE), the day moved easily between outdoor and indoor activities, all related to Alaska and/or winter. Ms. Doherty and Ms. Heddinger treated us to a delicious blueberry pancake lunch (blueberries being one of the fruits that grows well up there). It was a terrific day!

And then it was The 100^thDay of School! Truly, the fun has not stopped all January and February!

And our amaryllis bloomed! We painted it!

Regular work continued, also, in between all of these special events. Each child is making their own alphabet book, and each has now completed a Venn diagram using colored pasta. These culminating projects hang on our wall. As a group, the class did wonderfully well sorting by one and two attributes. Some even challenged themselves, sorting by three attributes, with great success!

More classroom fun. Enjoy the photos!

By BCD Blog|2019-02-28T17:55:35-05:00February 28th, 2019|