BMS Half Day Program (Madagascar)
BMS Half Day Program
The BMS Half Day Madagascar Program has been designed to be a medium through which BMS achieves the goals set out in our mission statement. We have worked to provide students a chance to interact with kids their own age half a world away. In addition, this is a sustainable program that builds on itself as the students advance each year, allowing them a deeper understanding of Madagascar and the Malagasy people.
6th Grade Program
The purpose of the 6th grade program is to teach our children about the culture and biodiversity of Madagascar. Students will have the opportunity to speak with well-known anthropologists and Stony Brook doctoral candidates. Students will also be playing Malagasy games, showing off their talents to the kids in Madagascar and learning how their daily lives differ from their counterparts in Madagascar.
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Pictures by Sunshine Comes First Ltd.
The purpose of the 7th grade program is to allow a more direct and meaningful exchange of ideas and cultures with the children in Madagascar, while enhancing their understanding of Malagasy culture and the biodiversity of Madagascar. Students will have the chance to choose one of three activities.
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Acting
- Students will be working with the phenomenal acting group Zara Aina to produce a video representation of a Malagasy folktale. The actors will work to allow our students to put their own twist on the tale. The final product will be shared with the children in Madagascar.
- Murals
- Students will be interpreting a folktale and retelling it through the visual arts. They will choose images and details that they feel represent the folktale in the most meaningful way. These murals will be painted on canvas and sent to Madagascar to be shared with the children there.
- Tree/Animal Display
- Our students will be recreating the biodiversity of Madagascar in Rhinebeck. They will create a Baobab tree and animals that are endemic to Madagascar on canvas. We will then send these animals to Madagascar for the children there. Children in Madagascar have done the same and we will be displaying their animals at BMS!
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Pictures by Sunshine Comes First Ltd.
8th Grade Program
The 8th grade students will be taking the program to the community through various service based projects. The idea behind this is to give our students a sense of purpose and the understanding that what they are doing is important and meaningful.
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Preschool Teaching
- Students will be working with one of the three preschools in our town to teach preschoolers about the culture of Madagascar. BMS students will read book, do a craft project and show students real art pieces from Madagascar.
- Papermaking
- Students will do an actual Malagasy traditional piece of folk art. They will create the paper using local flowers, just like the Malagasy do and use their paper to send messages to their counterparts in Madagascar.
- Traditional Malagasy Dance
- Artists from the Vanaver Caravan will be assisting our talented BMS students in learning traditional Malagasy dance technique. In the first session our 8th graders will learn a bit of the dance and in the second session they will then work with 2nd graders at CLS to teach them the dance. Our hope is to record this and send a piece of it to Madagascar for the children there to see!
- Town Art Installation
- In order to share all of this with the community we have created lemurs using the school’s 3D printer. Our students have since painted them and attached a QR code to them, leading you to this site! If you would like to learn more, you may explore this site further, or check out Oblong Book in Rhinebeck for our display over the Columbus Day weekend!!
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