SDFAS Pre-Elementary section is getting ready to present its art productions at the annual school Gala. Our students are lucky to get the expertise of some of our talented parents. Let’s look at a couple of projects: Emilie’s class will offer a blue, teal, and turquoise tree inspired by Kandinsky’s round geometric shapes under the direction of well-known artist and parent Kerry Richer.

Anne-Sophie’s Kindergarten will present a collective self-portrait: it’s a rhythmic assemblage of a savvy juxtaposition of colors and shapes completed entirely by the children with the help of another one of our talented artist, Mireille DesRosiers, who is co-chairing the gala art projects committee this year.

With the arrival of January comes another French celebration with the galette des rois – the “king cake.” It’s a flaky, sweet cake served warm, straight out of the oven. But the pleasure brought by a galette des rois isn’t merely due to its delicious taste – it’s also the anticipation of wondering whether you will be the lucky one to discover la fève, a tiny charm, buried inside one of the slices. If you are, you’re “king for a day” and take your place in a 700-year old French tradition! Each class had a galette des rois, and we had a lot of royalties this week at SDFAS. In Sophie’s class, the king was Mattin, and he picked his queen, Stella.

This week our PK2 students discovered a classic game “le beret” or “steal the bacon”. Each player has a number written in his/her hands. The “bacon“ is placed in the center of the playing area. A teacher calls out a number and all students with that number run to pick up the “bacon.”

It is a lot of fun and a great way to demonstrate the advantages of kinesthetic learning. In kinesthetic learning, movements and actions replace more passive forms of learning, such as listening to the teacher explaining a concept. Our young students work on numeration, are active participants in their learning and even more important in PK, they enjoy learning!