Benjamin Franklin International School

As many of you already know, last Friday was a big day for the Elementary community. Ms. Tiffany displayed a variety of artworks from students in grades K-5 including drawings, paintings, ceramics, weaving, paper-mache masks.  Also on Friday, ES Student Council put on an amazing talent show. Students participated in a variety of acts including playing the drums, piano, saxophone and violin, singing and dancing, rollerblading, reciting poems and drawing! The students had unlimited ideas for organizations to donate to but in the end we decided it was best to help both our local and global communities simultaneously by donating to BFIS Habitat for Humanity. We were able to raise 600 €! Thank you to all who helped out by volunteering, performing, donating, baking and encouraging students to participate!

On Friday, May 18th, BFIS will host the delicious annual International Food Fair–a wonderful way to showcase our amazing multicultural community. With one ticket, you can try American BBQ, Dutch pancakes, English teas, South African candies, Greek salads, Turkish meats, Brazilian desserts, Mexican tamales and more!
A successful IFF depends on the time and dedication of our wonderful volunteers. Each country, led by a volunteer captain, is independently organized and free to showcase whatever menu and regional decorations they choose. If you’d like to sign up to be a Country Captain, you can find a link to volunteer on our website, www.bfispta.info. Don’t want to organize your fellow citizens? Sign up to bring in your favorite national dish, and spend an hour volunteering at the event at your country’s table.

IFF is the ONLY fundraiser for the BFIS PTA, and with the funds we raise from ticket sales, we support the entire YEAR of events, including Holiday Concert, Frosty Friday, Teacher Appreciation Day, Pancake Day, New Family BBQ, Welcome Back Coffee, and Sant Jordi.  So, many thanks in advance for your support of this special event.

Recently, Grade 12, History of Art students visited the gothic heart of Barcelona. In order to gather strength for the trip, they made their first port of call ‘Granja Viader’, a place which reportedly makes the best cream in Barcelona! Following this, they toured the old hospital de la Santa Creu and the House of Charity in the Raval district. After crossing the Ramblas and seeing the Plaza del Pino, to see the great rose window, the Jewish Quarter and Plaza Felip Neri. Later on they entered the cloister of the Catherdral, the Centro Excursionista to see the colums of the temple of agustas and visited la plaza del Rey. Finishing off the day with a visit to el Barrio de la Ribera and the Santa Maria del Mar. All of this in less than four hours, a morning full of history, art and cream!

Wednesday 30th May.
10.00 – 1.00pm, MHS Library & various locations. This is an opportunity for all BFIS high school students to learn more about the wide variety of careers available so that they can better contemplate their own study and career options. Sessions will be led by members of our community who are passionate about their careers from a broad range of categories such as:

• Education and the Arts
• Medicine, Healthcare, and Psychology
• Business: Entrepreneurship, Marketing, and Hospitality
• Science and Engineering

Global strategist, author, and professor– and BFIS parent!– Pankaj Ghemawat will kick off the event with a keynote address about globalization and its impact on our students’ futures, and then panels will begin. Each speaker on a panel of three will give a 10 – 15 minute talk, and then the panelists will respond to questions from the students. Panels will be facilitated by BFIS teachers.

The visit from Vanderbilt University (Tennessee) this week gave our students a unique insight into life at a selective southern university and a fresh student perspective in comparison to the recruitment officers that have visited us throughout the year from mainly North East coast colleges. There were some thoughtful questions from students about the sports life, social life and flexibility in choosing majors. The visiting students were able to share their experiences of studying a pre-med tract, double major and triple major options and answer questions about the transition from high school to college. If any BFIS students have further questions for the Vanderbilt visitors, please get in touch with Ms. Hendricks or Ms. Cox who will be able to forward their questions.

The BFIS Spring Music concert will take place this year on June 1st at 2:30 pm. Each grade level, Nursery through 5th grade, will get to perform a song or piece of music. This is a very fun event and all parents are encouraged to attend! We look forward to seeing you there!

Please join us in celebrating students´progress in Spanish at the MS Spanish Morning Show: “Desayuno Matutino @ BFIS” Students in the MS Spanish as Additional Language Program have collaborated on various projects - including advertisements, interviews, TV programs, famous movie scenes, comedies and thrillers – that will be presented through live sketches and audiovisual presentations.

WE INVITE YOU to enjoy our students’ hard work and creativity on Friday, June 1st from 2:30pm to 4:00pm in the Library Commons.

Be prepared to participate in the fun!

Please, send an e-mail to your son/daughter Spanish teacher to confirm your attendance.

I kicked the sand off my feet as I looked at the snow-peaked Pyrenees surrounding me.  I was playing beach volleyball, or should I say “mountain volleyball”, at Campus Cerdanya in Puigcerdá.  I was glad to be there with all of the fourth and fifth graders.  I was glad to be doing activities in the first place, but most of all I was glad to be here, on this overnight field trip in La Cerdanya.

It was a bright day in May, so what could possibly go wrong?  In fact, nothing did.  We did amazing activities such as blogging, programming robots, and interviewing others about saving the Earth. We modeled cars and tested how far they went.  We used wind energy to power a Lego car, played a memory game with dry pasta, ice skated, and watched a movie.  We went on a scavenger hunt all around Puigcerdá, had a disco, and invented a machine to save the Earth, not to mention lots of outside breaks in between.  We were lucky that Campus Cerdanya had things to offer like big sloping lawns and ping pong tables.

I must admit that some cafeteria food is pretty awful.  That’s definitely not the case here.  I enjoyed every single bit, and if you have problems with certain food, or have allergies, the chefs are also prepared to give you something else.  We loved Campus Cerdanya.  You will too.

By Teagan Mountcastle and Natasha Salmi.

Please click here to view pictures.

The Department of Public Health has offered to administer free Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination to our 6^th grade female students and free Hepatitis A/B,  and Chickenpox vaccines to all grade 6 students.
Read more!…

This semester, BFIS has been abuzz with parent and teacher workshops around the topic of mathematics. Specifically, we’ve looked at how a conceptual approach to all topics, from our youngest learners to the most advanced, is a critical piece of instruction that allows students to develop fluency in math. To be fluent, we expect our children and students to be efficient, accurate and flexible. Not only does this approach help students make connections from one big idea to the next, filling in their emerging mathematical road map, it also is more fun, creative, open-ended, expressive, collaborative, and beautiful than only focusing on the step-by-step procedure to solve a problem.

Click here to read more about the two visiting scholars who spent time on campus this spring, working with teachers, students, and parents. Resources and references are also available from the link.

Many thanks go to Nicholas Forcier from Bennington College for a very informative and interactive presentation on Monday for our sophomores and juniors. We were also thankful to two of our seniors who shared about what drew them to apply to Bennington. Senior Rosie Nalle was excited to accept a merit scholarship to start at Bennington in the fall. This was Bennington’s first trip to Spain, so we’re honored that they wanted to meet more of our sophomores and juniors, having been impressed by the candidates we have sent them so far.

Please click here to read more about Bennington College.

Did you know that nearly 6,000 languages are spoken in the world? In February, the Elementary School celebrated Individual and Linguistic Identity. This Social and Emotional Learning theme corresponded with UNESCO´s International Mother Language Day which was also recognized in February.

All Elementary students had the opportunity to design a welcome template in their native language. One template was selected to represent each language spoken by elementary students. This template became part of a multilingual welcome board, designed by 12th grader Takumi Maezawa in collaboration with Mr. Magaña.

The welcome board is now on display in our school´s main office!

Be sure to stop by and have a look!