Middle School Students Take on Math Competition
On Monday, eighty middle school students participated in the American Mathematics Competition’s AMC8, an international math competition on an eighth grade level. Students from around the world took part in the online, 25-question, 40-minute-long competition. The organization encourages students to develop and enhance their problem-solving skills. This marks the largest group of BDS students we’ve ever had in the competition. We’re excited to learn our results in the competition but more excited about the students’ growing enthusiasm for mathematics. The middle school math department would like to thank the community for supporting students in developing positive identities as mathematicians. At BDS, we believe that everyone is a math person!
– Brittany Ryan, sixth grade math teacher
Third Graders Design, Build Communities
Third graders have been busy planning, designing, and building their own communities. They first decided if they wanted to design a rural, suburban, or urban community and then made plans for their community. They decided what laws would protect their citizens, what services their government would provide, what utilities were available, accessibility features, and much more. Then, they learned a variety of cardboard engineering techniques and used at least two of these in the construction of their community. This week, they presented their communities to their classmates. These projects will be on display at the STEAM Expo on February 27. Come by and take a look!
– Larissa Rochford, third grade teacher
Kindergartners Ready for a Trip to Outerspace
This week, the kindergarten classes started a project about astronauts and life in a space station with the innovation team. Students brainstormed with Teacher Conroy about what they would need in the space station, including everything from a toothbrush and toothpaste to a rover and satellite. Once they decided what to bring to the space station, students took the first step in their innovation lab—drawing a design. When the designs were completed, students created a prototype out of Play-Doh. Next week, we’ll take another step forward and make those items out of Model Magic again with the help of Teacher Conroy and Ms. Fuerst. The final step in our space plan is to build our space station with the large blue blocks in Downing Gym and use our tools for a fun, dramatic play activity.
– Paige Maguire, kindergarten teacher
Parents Visit First Grade to Celebrate Lunar New Year
A few first graders’ parents joined our classes this week to teach students about and celebrate the Lunar New Year. We watched a video about the traditions of the Lunar New Year, learned a traditional dance, and got an opportunity to explore Lunar New Year items such as a dancing lion costume, drums, and cymbals. Students then created woodblock prints using red paper, stencils, and gold paint. They also wrote their wishes for the new year on charms we hung up in our classrooms. Happy Lunar New Year from your friends in first grade!
– Geoffrey Fox and Julia Fox, first grade teachers
PE Update: Pre-k and K Roll into Biking Unit
Come winter, if you listen carefully, you can hear wheels rolling over the Downing Gym floorboards during pre-kindergarten and kindergarten physical education classes. Of course, those sounds are often drowned out by the excitement of our students as they embark on their two-wheeled adventures.
We launched our biking unit for our youngest classes last year, and it was a pure delight to watch our students learn to ride or improve their shredding skills. Seeing them in action again this year reminds us how joyful and important this skill is.
Pre-k students courageously took hold of their balance bikes in the first lessons and progressed through activities like Follow the Leader and Around the World as they learned the basics. Kindergarten students got right back into the swing of things with a smile (riding a bike is like riding a bike, after all). We look forward to seeing them progress throughout the winter!
– Alex Tzelnic, physical education teacher
