Learning Updates for March 20 to March 24

March 24, 2023

Fifth Graders Write Free Verse Poetry

Over the past week, our fifth graders have been writing their own free-verse poetry. The fifth graders’ definition of free verse poetry is a poem that has no rules but requires the author to work hard at creating a piece that is beautiful and meaningful without any specific guidelines around rhyme and meter. Students then took this knowledge and took the perspective of an immigrant at Angel Island as they “carved” their own poetry onto paper using sharpies and watercolors. Great work fifth graders!

– Vaniecia Skinner, fifth grade teacher

Second Grade Learns About the Sources of Our Food

This week the second graders read How to Make and Apple Pie and See the World, a story of a little girl who travels the world to get ingredients to make an apple pie. We have been talking about the food we eat and the sources of that food. We are collecting stickers and labels that indicate the sources of the fresh food that we buy. As part of our social studies unit, we will be examining different world maps to locate some of the countries that provide this food to our local supermarkets. We will also look at providing equitable access to food, the nutritional and environmental impacts of transporting food, and local food sources.

– The Second Grade Team

Arts Update: Using New Tech Skills To Help Locally

Students in the grades seven and eight technology arts elective are learning how to use the tools in the IMPACT lab to make objects that will help others in the school. Several students are designing iPad holders to replace the current ones that are used in the library for book checkout. Students are also using the 3D design software Tinkercad to create extra guitar capos for music class. The class is greatly enjoying the fact that their new programming and design skills will have a direct impact by helping their teachers and fellow students at BDS.

– Kurt Robinson, assistant director of innovation and IMPACT Lab

PE Update: Out With the Snow, In With the Mud!

Our physical education classes are used to braving the cold for a winter hike or sledding. But now that the snow has finally melted we are returning outside on a more consistent basis. Whether it is fourth graders flinging frisbees, first graders warming up with hill sprints, third graders running laps around the Barn, or fifth graders crushing a fitness circuit, our outdoor spaces have been full of activity lately. Given the season that also means we’ve had sneakers full of mud, knees covered in dirt, and elbows that dipped into the business end of a puddle. In order to help support all of this outdoor action please help your student remember a change of footwear for PE and perhaps a change of clothes for when we decide to go through rather than around those natural obstacles.

– Alex Tzelnic, physical education teacher and mindfulness director

BDS

September 15, 2023

Second Graders See Themselves, Classmates In second grade, we have been working on building our community and using our collective intelligence to create norms and guidelines to ensure friendship, fun, and learning for all. After reading This Plus That, Life’s…

By John O'Neill, director of athletics |

September 15, 2023

After a handful of years as an intramural sport, volleyball is taking its show on the road and will take on interscholastic competition this year. The transition has moved the sport from the winter to fall season and attracted 23…

BDS

September 8, 2023

Join us in welcoming our 2023-2024 Associate Teacher Program (ATP) cohort! Our five new associates have been on campus since last week, participating in orientation, faculty meetings, and classroom set-up and planning with their mentor teachers. This fall, associates will…

BDS

September 8, 2023

PE Update: Don’t Call it a Comeback! Team Teaching Returns   We are thrilled to announce an adjustment to our physical education teaching model for this year that is actually a return to our roots. Back before the COVID-19 pandemic,…
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Admissions Open House Events

ON-CAMPUS ADMISSIONS OPEN HOUSE FOR PRE-K TO GRADE 8*
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2023, 9 A.M. TO 1 P.M.

VIRTUAL ADMISSIONS OPEN HOUSE FOR PRE-K TO GRADE 8*
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2023, 9 TO 10:30 A.M.
WITH OPTIONAL Q&A SESSIONS FROM 10:30 TO 10:45 A.M.

*REGISTRATION REQUIRED TO ATTEND