December 9, 2022
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Second graders were in the Impact Lab this week with Mr. Robinson learning to program Finch robots.
Opening Message
In Preparation for the Holiday Season
Brendan Largay, Head of School
Post Date: December 9, 2022
Let me start with a confession. Like many others today, I have a screen problem. I wish I didn’t, but when I wake up each morning, I immediately reach for my phone to check for … what? The time? Urgent texts that came through overnight? My email? The score of last night’s Celtics game? Honestly, I don’t even know at this point. It has become so habitual that I have lost sight of what is so important. So I’d like to invite you to join me for a Winter Break challenge that I am calling The Winter of Our Disconnect.
First, credit to author Susan Maushart as I have borrowed the title of her book for this challenge. Second, credit to Jen Stine, P ’24 ’28, for tipping me off to Maushart’s book. I haven’t yet read this memoir about a family’s adventures sans screens and the myriad benefits they discovered, but as a Shakespeare fan, the title, inspired by Richard III, was too good to pass up.
Please note: I’m not suggesting we pull all our plugs from the digital world. The internet and productivity tools have become essential for many, from calendar management and working remotely to travel planning and gift purchasing. So, please, continue to use technology when you need to. The challenge here is to consider the benefits of disconnection and take a digital break as we prepare for the new year.
Among COVID’s lasting impacts is our collective reliance on technology as a means to fill time and space. I offer that we would do better to embrace solitude and connect with our own thoughts or enjoy the company and attention of friends and family. Thanks to many articles, but mainly “8 Reasons Why You Should Unplug One Day A Week” from Forbes magazine, I invite you to consider these benefits of disconnection.
- Increased productivity: It may sound counterintuitive, but according to a 2014 Stanford University report, the less tech we use, the more productive we become.
- Greater focus: A 2018 Capstone presentation offered keen insight that just the presence of our phones (even if they are turned off) can be enough of a distraction to inhibit our focus. Part of the challenge might include keeping your phone in another room.
- Better sleep: Take it from someone who endured sleep disruption through the prime COVID years, largely due to my reliance on my phone—the sleep disruption that screens create is real.
- Reduced anxiety: Periodically unplugging can help lessen anxiety, especially for adolescents. The data on this is overwhelming. “Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation?” a 2017 article from The Atlantic, still resonates today.
- More time for core values: The practice of our core values takes intentionality and practice, and time is finite. The absence of screens can provide space for both. How would we feel if we were more deliberate about the practice of respect, caring, or joy? How much time might we find to practice those values if we cut our screen time by 25, 33, or 50%?
This challenge is not a call for a cold-turkey cut from all our technology and screens. Instead, it’s an invitation to join me this Winter Break in being more deliberate about how and when we need and use technology. I suspect we won’t miss it as much as we think, and perhaps we’ll gain more than we expect.
Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!
Upcoming Events
Coming Up This Week
Monthly Calendar
Gratitude Board
The gratitude bulletin board by the front desk is back and is perfectly placed to catch the attention of all who pass through the Schoolhouse! Submit words of thanks and appreciation for teachers, staff members, or even the whole community on the Google form found here, and the PA will print them and add them to the board for all to read and appreciate. You can also submit artwork from your children if that is how they would like to express their gratitude and spread kindness!
PAJAMA DAY
Friday, December 16
We will close out our last day of learning before winter break joyfully!
Students in all grades are invited to wear their coziest, comfiest, school-appropriate pajamas for Pajama Day on Friday, December 16. Slippers are fine, but please send in a pair of sneakers and essential outdoor gear (coats, hats, gloves, etc.) with students for recess.
WINTER CONCERT
Thursday, December 15 at 6:30 p.m.
Downing Gym
This beloved community event will bring us all together through music-making and showcase the hard work of our ensembles students.
Attention to several important logistical details will make this a wonderful evening. Please read the information in the dropdown below regarding the Winter Concert. Thank you!
After School
Students enrolled in After School until 5:30 p.m. on Thursday will be given a pizza dinner before being picked up by their parents for the Winter Concert. Families should plan to bring a change of clothes for their children so they can change into concert attire before going to their assigned rooms.
If your child is not enrolled in After School and you would like coverage until 5:30 p.m. on the day of the concert OR if your child is enrolled until 4:30 p.m. and you would like to extend that until 5:30 p.m., please email Denali Kikuchi at dkikuchi@belmontday.org to enroll. The deadline to enroll is Monday, December 12.
If your child cannot eat pizza, please plan to have them bring a sack dinner. For questions please reach out to Blair Fross at bfross@belmontday.org.
Winter Concert: Logistics & Directions
Concert Dress: This is a formal event centering on the theme of community. Students should dress in simple patterns and solid dark colors.
Arrival at BDS:
Parking: Please coordinate your plans so that the fewest possible cars arrive on campus, as parking is limited. The procession of students into the Downing Gym will begin promptly at 6:30 p.m.
Ensembles students: Please meet in the following places at 5:45 p.m. with your instruments
- Lower and middle school choruses: Coolidge Music Room (Cotner)
- Modern band: Corner Music Room (Bettinelli)
- Orchestra: Downing Gym
- Wind ensemble: Downing Gym
- Guitar ensemble: Garden Level French Room
- Drumming ensemble: Green Room
If your student is in more than one ensemble, they will have been notified by their ensemble director where to meet first.
All other students: Please meet in the following places at 6 p.m.
- Pre-k through grade 5: homerooms/classrooms
- Grade 6: grade 6 advisory classrooms
- Grades 7 and 8: Kiva
Families and visitors who are dropping off ensembles students BEFORE 6 p.m. are invited to meet in Coolidge Hall. At 6 p.m., we welcome you into the Downing Gym. At 6:20 p.m., we ask families/visitors to find their seats, so students may line up to process.
Concert Seating:
- Pre-k and kindergarten families: Please sit in the first few center rows
- Grades one to eight families: Please sit anywhere in the gym except rows reserved for pre-k and kindergarten families and classes. Seating is first-come, first-served.
Departure: Following the concert, students may be picked up from their assigned spaces (see above). Pre-k and kindergarten students can leave directly with their families from the gym and do NOT have to return to classrooms. Students in orchestra, wind, guitar, and modern band ensembles should make sure to bring their instruments home with them.
Accessibility: To make this community event accessible to everyone, we will provide some material support—supervision, dinner, and transportation—to students who cannot be picked up between the end of school and the start of the concert. Please also review the options being offered by our After School program.
Lunch & Snack Menu
December 12 to December 16
Monday
Snack: fruit cups; Goldfish/Cheez-Its
Lunch: macaroni and cheese; gluten-free macaroni ad cheese; pasta with marinara; maple baked ham; broccoli; greens with balsamic; fresh fruit; canned fruit; yogurt; milk and water
Tuesday
Snack: bananas; Popcorners
Lunch: crispy cheesy chicken; vegan nuggets; herb roasted chicken; roasted potatoes; green beans; garden salad with tomatoes and ranch dressing; fresh fruit; canned fruit; yogurt; milk and water
Wednesday
Snack: clementines; banana oatmeal rounds
Lunch: chicken potstickers; gluten-free chicken potstickers; edamame potstickers; dipping sauceedamame; Asian slaw with sesame dressing; ; fresh fruit; canned fruit; yogurt; milk and water
Thursday
Snack: fruit; pretzel twists
Lunch: cheese pizza; pepperoni pizza; gluten-free cheese pizza; roasted butternut squash; Caesar salad; fresh fruit; canned fruit; yogurt; milk, cider, and water
Friday
Snack: fruit; applesauce; assorted snacks
Faculty Lunch
For a more detailed and updated weekly menu, please click the button below.
BDS News
GIVING DAY
Please Help Us Meet Our Challenge on Tuesday, December 13
As 2022 comes to an end, there are many reasons to celebrate and be grateful. We are most grateful for our community—always living our values and moving our mission forward! Over the last four years, through some challenging times, this community came together on BDS Giving Day and rose to the occasion, demonstrating our strength and love for BDS. We can never thank you enough for your time, dedication, and generosity. This year we ask for your support once again to make BDS Giving Day a success.
Next Tuesday, December 13, please join us in celebrating the strength of our community. This annual fundraising day supports the school’s annual fund. For 24 hours, we are asking our community—current families, alumni, parents of alumni, trustees, faculty, grandparents, and friends—to help sustain our mission to inspire and challenge every student.
Our goal is to receive 200 gifts in 24 hours. Every gift—no matter its size—will be a joyful shout-out to our meaningful strategic priorities. In the coming days, you will learn about the various challenges, surprises, and prizes to inspire you throughout the day. Thank you in advance for your support, and generosity, and for prioritizing BDS. We are so grateful for our amazing community.
Throughout the day we will be announcing those prizes, challenges, and more so keep an eye out for the emails and be sure to follow us on social media for more updates.
We hope you and your families have a joyous, healthy, and peaceful holiday season with your family and friends!
– Kyle Beatty, assistant director of development
STAFFING NEWS
New Hire
Jessica Halton, director of development
It is with great excitement that we welcome Jessica Halton, Belmont Day’s next director of development. A development professional with over a decade of experience in the advancement office at Berklee College of Music, Jessica has most recently served as their senior director of institutional advancement and has held just about every role one can in development work. Throughout the process, Jessica impressed us with her warmth, vision, commitment to equity, and clear and visible leadership qualities. Please join me in welcoming Jessica to Belmont Day as she begins her work here in January when we return from Winter Break. Welcome, Jessica!
– Brendan Largay, head of school
COMMUNITY SERVICE
Winter Collection Drive in Support of Pine Street Inn
“The time is always right to do what is right.” – Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
This winter will mark the fourth year of our partnership with Pine Street Inn as part of our celebration of the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Once again, we are inviting BDS families to collect and contribute items that those facing the winter without secure shelter find most helpful. As identified by Pine Street, these include:
- warm socks and gloves
- hand and foot warmers
- underwear and T-shirts
- individually packed snacks (sweet and salty)
- travel-size deodorant
- $5 gift cards for McDonald’s or Dunkin’
Collection bins will be located in the front of the Schoolhouse and the Barn from Wednesday, January 4 through the end of the month, with regular deliveries to Pine Street. Matt Ferrer, volunteer coordinator at Pine Street, will join us at our Martin Luther King Jr. assembly on Friday, January 20, and we will keep everyone informed if particular items are more urgently needed. As you enjoy the holiday season with your family, we hope you’ll remember Dr. King’s work and words, and find time to contribute what you can.
If you have any questions, please contact Dean Spencer or Zach d’Arbeloff.
“Everybody can be great … because anybody can serve.”
SUMMER CAMP
Registration for Returning Campers and BDS Families
On Thursday, December 15, registration for Belmont Day Summer Camp will open for all returning camp families, as well as all Belmont Day School families. Our summer camp fills the 10 weeks that follow school graduation. Campers come from many surrounding towns and cities to swim in the pool, shoot bullseyes on the archery range, hit winners on the tennis court, and much more!
We will also be opening registration for our Swim and Tennis Association, a summer pool and tennis membership that is open Monday to Friday from 4:15 to 8:15 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.
Returning camp families can click here to register.
Belmont Day School families who have not attended camp before should email the camp leadership team, Zach d’Arbeloff, and Denali Kikuchi, at summer@belmontday.org and we will get the information we need to get your weeks of camp booked. If you’re unfamiliar with our camp program, please visit the Summer Programs page of the BDS website for more information.
Feel free to reach out to us by email if you have any questions about registration or our program. Thank you!
– Zach d’Arbeloff, director of summer programs
BUSINESS OFFICE
First Trimester After School Program Payments Are Due December 15
Families are reminded that payments for the After School program and enrichment classes for the first trimester are due by next Thursday, December 15, 2022. To view invoices, and initiate an online payment, log into the Parent Portal and click on the “Invoices and Payments” button. Payment may also be made by check made payable to Belmont Day School—please mail or drop them off at school.
For those registered for automatic payments, they will be processed on Thursday, December 15. Please contact Blair Fross or the business office if you have any questions about your invoice or payment.
EIB BOOK GROUP
Books Selected for the January and February Meetings
Join us each month for an informal, parent-led equity, inclusion, and belonging book group focusing on books written from the perspectives of marginalized communities. All parents/caregivers and faculty are welcome, and we choose our books democratically.
For our January meeting, we’re reading The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters by Priya Parker. That meeting will be held on Thursday, January 5, at 7 p.m. Book group meetings are held on the first Thursday of every month via Zoom. The link is available on the Parent Portal.
Want to get a jump on February’s book? We’ll be reading The Grimkes: The Legacy of Slavery in an America Family by Kerri Greenidge for our meeting on Thursday, February 2, at 7 p.m.
Please contact Danielle England or Christina Cosman if you have any questions.
Learning Updates
PE Update: Winter Sports for the Win
Now that December is here our lower school athletes are getting in the spirit of winter sports. In the Barn, our second and fourth graders are using pillo polo sticks to practice their hockey skills. They are learning how to defend, how to pass, and how to score using controlled dribbling and precision.
Our first and third graders are also working on dribbling, though with a basketball, using their fingertips and staying low to maintain control. They are also sinking (and missing) shots, driving up from the legs to power the ball towards to basket, and using their hands to guide and aim.
Over in the Downing gym, fifth grade is getting after it with volleyball and basketball units. They are learning to serve and swish, bump and box out, and communicate and compete. Our PE spaces are full of winter athletics these days, and despite the cool weather, our students are bringing the heat.
– Alex Tzelnic, physical education teacher and mindfulness director
Fourth Grade French Classes Share Their Feelings
The fourth graders have been hard at work in the first trimester. Among other things, they learned to express their feelings and others’ feelings. This unit was an opportunity to discover many French grammatical specificities such as: adjectives agree in gender and number and they can have an inclusive spelling, there are more pronouns-subjects than in modern English, and, lastly, each subject-pronoun is matched with a specific verb form. Is your head spinning yet? Not the fourth graders’!
To wrap up the feelings unit, the students were given the challenge to use the six forms of the verb “être”, eight different subject pronouns, and eight different feelings agreed in gender and number with the subject pronouns. They were then split into random groups, and they chose elements from their writing pieces to include in a performance. It could be a slam, a chant, a play, or whatever came to their minds. We all had a blast!
Please use the QR code to check out the six performances in the early (#A) stage and in the final (#B) stage after the student received positive peer feedback
– Nathalie Pellenq, French teacher
Athletics Update: Girls’ Varsity Basketball Opens Season With Win
The girls’ varsity basketball team squared off against Park in their season opener this week. With the Barn bleachers full of fans, the Blue & Gold controlled play from the jump and held a lead for the entire game. Team captains Avery Schneider and Quincy Treisman led six players in the scoring column in what proved to be a balanced Belmont Day offensive attack. Defensively, the Blue & Gold locked down Park’s offense, standing up to their physical play and aggressive rebounding. Sixth grade rookie, Sara Colangelo, was dynamite off the bench, forcing six turnovers and burying a pair of jump shots. Likewise, eighth grade veteran, Ilana Brauner’s feisty defense and calm offensive presence helped set the tone for the victors throughout the contest. The team will take their 1-0 record on the road to Charles River next week.
– John O’Neill, director of athletics
Athletics News
- Park toppled boys’ varsity basketball in their season opener. Andrew Green carried the offensive load, while Rami Flummerfelt chipped in with stout defense and rebounding.
- Vicente Aguerrevere and Mylo Rosenfeld have been working hard during JV basketball practice and are hoping to earn some playing time in the team’s season opener next week.
- Clem Cradick and Roudi Yousef have entered their second season of JV hoops on a mission to be impact players on this year’s squad. The duo has been playing great at practice.
- The fencing team will kick off their interscholastic season next week. Newcomers Hughe Marsan, Adam Ahmed, Vatche Balikian, and Jonathan Laipson are eager to compete.
- The wrestling team will be without top performer Alexander Meredith this winter following a season-ending injury. Alexander was primed for a breakout season with the Blue & Gold.
- First year players Melisa Adhikari, Penelope Bern, Cordie Goldstyn, and Isla Smith have been learning the ropes on the volleyball courts and are anxious to receive their team placements.
- PEAK athletes traveled to Community Rowing this week for an introductory workout. Lavina Frazzoli-Cassi and Maraki Shiferaw both impressed on the indoor erg machines.
- Owen Bantham-Livermore and Eleanor Stine have shown marked improvement on the court following two weeks of IMBB. The team will start full court games after winter break.
Arts Update: New Soft Sculpture Class Begins
Seventh and eighth graders began their new trimester of arts classes last week. One of the new offerings is a soft sculpture class. Students are working with a variety of materials including fabric and wool. For their first challenge, students designed a six-sided sculpture made from cloth. After creating a lifesize paper model, they used fabric to create a cube, a rectangular prism, or any form that is six-sided. The surfaces of their sculptures include top stitching, embroidery, applique, and painted details. With sewing machines, artists sew together the fabric and will add stuffing to create these three-dimensional artworks.
– Kathy Jo Solomon, visual art teacher and sustainability coordinator
Parents’ Association News
Faculty Appreciation Fund
The school respectfully asks that families not purchase gifts for individual teachers. Small, handmade gifts and cards from students are very welcome! For those whose traditions include gift-giving around the holidays, the parents’ association has organized a faculty and staff appreciation fund to which you may contribute. Contributions to the appreciation fund will be distributed to faculty through gift cards to local businesses, per faculty request. Gifts can be made by cash or check, which you can leave in the PA box by the front desk—or you can give online. The last day to contribute to the gift cards will be Monday, December 12, so that we have time to purchase and distribute them to the faculty before winter break. Donations made after that time will go towards another faculty appreciation event later in the year. Thank you.
New Baby Books
Help us welcome fifth grade teacher Emma Nairn’s baby to the Belmont Day School community. We are collecting baby books to give to Ms. Nairn before we head off for winter break. If you would like to donate a favorite baby book, please drop it off with the development team by Thursday, December 15.
If you have any suggestions or questions about parents’ association-related activities, please contact us anytime at bdspa@belmontday.org.
Beyond BDS
MUSICAL MILESTONE
Fourth Grader Plays Way To Gold
Congratulations to fourth grader Nemanja “Nem” Zivanovic who recently won a Gold award at the 2022 American Accordionists’ Association Competition in the open solo category for the nine and under age group. Nem wowed the judges with an accordion version of Mozart’s Turkish March.
CHILDREN’S THEATER
Elf: The Musical
TODAY AND TOMORROW! Friday and Saturday, December 9 and 10
Menotomy Musical Theater, Medford
Two seventh graders, Brynn Franklin and Grace Sullivan will help tell the tale of Buddy the Elf in his quest to find his true identity. Menotomy Musical Theater in Medford presents the heartfelt tale of a would-be elf raised at the North Pole whose enormous size and poor toy-making abilities cause him to embark on a journey to discover who he really is.
Maybe you’ve seen the movie more than a few times. Now see it on stage. Guaranteed joy and laughs for the whole family. Click here for ticket and theater information.
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