Kindergarten Archives - Page 20 of 46 - Berkshire Country Day School

Never a dull moment!

We had a wonderful trip to Ioka Valley Farm last week. Thank you to our drivers – Barbara, Didier, and Allan. A hayride, a corn maze, picking pumpkins, feeding animals, and having an outdoor lunch were among our activities, but the highlight was undoubtedly the long slide. No words necessary here – the pictures say it all!
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Twelve healthy butterflies were released last week and and are now on their way to Mexico! Sharp eyes in the classroom noticed when three of them were emerging from their chrysalis and all got to see butterflies with wet and crumpled wings slowly drying into gorgeously big butterflies. I took one butterfly out and put it on the table where we could observe it closely. The children painted what they saw and this was the final stage in creating their life cycle posters, which are now hanging on the bulletin board. We hatched seven male and five female butterflies (I just learned how; ask your child to tell you the difference!)

For those of you viewing this blog on your iphone or ipad, you can view the pictures here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/bcdtech/sets/72157646474933003/

As our butterfly unit wraps up, we’ve also started our unit on the human body. Over the next few weeks, we’ll go into depth, learning the functions of different systems and the names of many bones.

Just their size!

Grandparents’ Day was another wonderful event in the classroom. Kindergarten performed three of their favorite poems for their guests at the LS Assembly, and then we returned to the classroom where children and guests worked on special necklaces together. We also read a class book that had been written earlier in the week entitled, “What We Like to Do With Our Grandparents.” A fun day was had by all!

October is half over – I’m not sure how that happened so quickly. In between all of the events above, we’ve also begun our handwriting practice, learning numerals first, and are continuing to work on patterns. Intricate jigsaw puzzles get solved, paintings and drawings are created, and during free time, many have started to write their own books. What fun I am having with this class!

Andrea

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|

October – already!

Amazing how quickly the weeks pass now that we have established a rhythm and an order to our days. The children are happy and engaged, and are really coming together as a cohesive group. More and more, I hear them spontaneously say to each other, “I can help you!” or “I can teach you that!” There is an atmostphere of caring and cooperation that has become the norm.

The class has finished distilling their “32 Grumpy Rules” to “30 Good Rules” to “3 Fabulous Rules.” Here they are:

1. Make good decisions.

2. Be nice and be friends with everyone.

3. Treat our stuff with care.

These have been signed by all and are now posted in our classroom!

We were able to observe many our of our caterpillars hanging in a “J” shape prior to going into a chrysalis. We even – amazingly – caught two of them as they were shedding their skin for the final time and building the chrysalis itself. We are now harboring 13 soon-to-be butterflies – maybe some as early as next week! Stay tuned.

As out butterfly unit winds down, we now begin a study of the human body. Alongside of this, October is a month where we also start to talk about the things that make us unique – things we’re good at, things we wish we could be better at, things that frighten us. By now, the children have a sense of trust in one another and are usually very honest with their feelings. We read books that support this unit and have some great projects and poems lined up, too. I think October may be my favorite month! And Halloween is of course a BIG topic of conversation. Costumes have already come up, so a few words of guidance – please no excessively scary or gory costumes, and no masks (they make it too hard to see when we parade around). I’ll send more details about the logistics of Halloween as we get closer to the actual celebration.

We had our first Lunch Bunch today – how fun! Thank you, Barbara and Zora for planning such a delicious meal for us. It was a great way to end this week!