Bergamo Spotlight

As we all know Bergamo had a wonderful May planned.

A quick recap - they had a garden going in, chickens that were coming, and would eventually be born, doing an art project as a class for the Art Show, caterpillars and the butterfly release, a play, and hoping for a chicken coop.

With that said, the chickens arrived after 21 days in the incubator to keep the eggs at the perfect temperature. Before the arrival, the Bergamo class was able to step into a dark room and see the embryos inside the eggs using a high powered flashlight to candle them. This is where we learned that we would hopefully have 11 out of 12. Within the last few days, we had eight baby chickens hatch their way into the world.  We have four types of chickens that made a showing. We have Welsummers, Rhode Island Reds, Single Comb White Leghorns, and Light Brahmas. 24 hours after birth the eight chickens were moved into a big plastic tub as a brooder and living happily at 100* degrees with food and water and filling the room with sweet sounds.  For the last few weeks, they have spent their time under the heat lamp and chirping and cheeping their way through lessons. Summer living arrangements have been made and about four chickens will return in the fall once the chicken coop is here. Thank you Gilbert Family for being their summer family!
 

I stopped by and checked in on the five caterpillars, and all of them are in the chrysalis stage of their lives. At the end of this stage - they will be butterflies. The butterflies were beautiful at final pic and were released at the end of last week. May their wings spread into this beautiful world.

In between watching the new aspects of life for the garden, the chickens, and butterflies, all of Bergamo has also been preparing for their play. At this point they are moving beyond the scripts and practicing without them. Costumes are in the process of being made and will be ready for the big production.

Bergamo Theater Presents: “Vacation on Mars”

I cannot wait to see what Vacation on Mars is going to be like.

The play was quite musical - a really fun way of learning about the Solar System. A few lessons I learned: The Moon loves his phases. The Sun can be a little gassy and often has hiccups from solar flares. Venus is hot and loves her place by the Sun. Earth is the best place to live.  Jupiter loves a crowd with her over 60 moons. Neptune is a great place to live; as long as you do not mind the windy atmosphere, negative temperatures ALL the time, and willingness to lose your asteroid belt. I also learned that Pluto is still sore about losing her planet status and would make a great vacation destination if just given the chance. Lastly, I learned I still have no idea what a vacation on Mars would be like, as we never actually made it there - due to the poorly chosen Travel Guides.

Thank you to all of the parents that helped with costumes, pictures, videos, and the cast party food!


            

Within their art unit - Bergamo took on the artist Van Gogh. Ms. Penny had a print of his most famous painting " A Starry Night"  cut into 24 squares.  The children then in turn recreated their own square with the use of pastels and blending techniques.
The question is - Van Gogh or Bergamo. You decide.

The original from the art show.

After the art show, Ms. Singer raffled the original art piece and was able to sell it for enough money to purchase a chicken coop. She took a picture of the original and made a poster sized print.  She can order a copy if you would like for $20 - that includes the 16 x 20 poster and a list map showing the location of each child's work. (If you would like one, please let Ms. Heather at the office or Ms. Singer know).

The replica - get your own copy.

And if all this was not enough, in the midst of preparing for the birth of chickens and butterflies - the Bergamo class was able to welcome the baby brother of Camryn - so precious. Congrats on being the "big sister", it is quite an honor! Plenty of love from all of us to the Goodwin family.

With that said, what a fun month Bergamo has had. Thank you, Ms. Singer and Mr. Chip. And, a quick shout out to Ms. Kelly and her artistic abilities; the backdrop for the play was amazing. 

I cannot wait to see what the next school year holds for Bergamo. Have a wonderful summer.  We are excited to see if you are spending it with us. If not, have a wonderful summer and we look forward to seeing you on the 14th of August - the FIRST day of school for MSM.

May Is Here!!

May is Here!!

May is going to be a busy month for MSM, so stay tuned for all of the details!

First and foremost: Class pictures are here and are $10 - payable at the office.

And, this is Teacher Appreciation Week. I have a list of our teacher's favorite things at the office. Please stop and get a copy for your teachers and important staff in your children's lives.

Secondly, we have the Annual Art Exhibition on the 7 May from 2 - 4 pm at Brennan Hall. All Primary and Elementary art projects will be on display.




Muffins for Mom - a chance to say thank you to all of our mother's!! May 12, from 7 - 8:30 in the main building.

Happy Mother's Day. 14 May. Thank you in advance to all of the mother's who love us, help us and do so many things. We truly appreciate all that you do for the precious ones, and all of MSM!!

Bergamo and Brennan Hall will be performing their theatrical performances - more details to come!!


Last day of School is 26 May!!  In honor of this day we are have a fun time planned. Join us for Splash Bash - Discovery Island from 5:45 - 7:45. Three different prices - details at the front office.



Memorial Day - a day to remember. We will be CLOSED.

First Day of Summer - 30 May. Summer Camps begin and there are a plethora of events for both Primary and Elementary students. Schedules will be available at the office. Any questions, comments, and/or concerns please contact me at the office.

And lastly, I have picked my Spotlight Class early - due to all of the wonderful things that are going on with this group!! Bergamo!! Ms. Penny, Mr. Chip and all of Bergamo has a fun-filled month planned and I am overly excited to see everything that is going to happen!!

Spring has Sprung in Bergamo: Info for Ms. Penny directly. Look at all the wonderful things happening.

Some of you may have already seen our new raised bed garden that is going in, if not stop by! It is so nice and we are looking forward to getting sweet potato slips in a few weeks to plant. The weather has not been cooperative with our installation, but Mr. Chip has been working hard with the children when it decides to cooperate! 

Our embryology unit is underway! We received a dozen fertilized chicken eggs on Tuesday and put them in the incubator.  We are studying daily about this process and have a large checkoff calendar counting down the 21 days until hatching with pictures of what the developing chicken embryo looks like. The kids have LOVED this. Some children have even started research on the many different chicken breeds.  For example, in our twelve we will be having Welsummers, Rhode Island Reds, Single Comb White Leghorns and Light Brahmas. 

Tying together both the garden and embryology units, in botany we dissected seeds this week to find that they too have embryos (little baby plants) just waiting to find the right conditions to begin to mature.  Many of you saw these in your Friday folders, and many will continue to come home as they were still a little wet to travel on Friday.  We also did an experiment to prove that plants have "mouths" called stomatas on the undersides of their leaves.  They not only take in carbon dioxide and hydrogen from the atmosphere, they expel not only oxygen but water!  We learned where much the humidity in our air comes from...leaves!

To top off the wonderful springtime season, we received five caterpillars this week that will become Painted Lady butterflies.  We will watch and learn from the whole process until we set five new butterflies free!  Can you tell this is my FAVORITE season??!! Pictures and updates to follow!!

With that said, May is going to be a fun and busy month!!