submitted by Jeanne Casatelli, Communications Specialist, Questar III
All three classes of second-graders at Berlin Elementary School have decorated trees now on display at the Festival of Trees at the Berkshire Museum in Pittsfield, MA. Their trees joined more than 100 decorated trees submitted by other schools, community groups, businesses and individuals.
The annual event, now in its 26th year, is considered by many to be the unofficial kick-off of the holiday season in the Berkshires and beyond, according to the Museum.
“The theme for this year’s festival is Storybook Forest,” said Fran Mason, a BES second grade teacher. “Participants were invited to decorate a tree based on a favorite book. Our class tree was inspired by Alexander the Windup Mouse, which we all read first and then used to create our ornaments and garland of cheese wedges.”
“Students in Colleen Foody’s class read Gingerbread Baby and made paper gingerbread people ornaments,” Mason continued. “Susan Brown’s class focused on Teddybear Picnic, leading to colorful, movable teddy bears to adorn their two foot tree. All our students are very proud of their trees and of being part of a big display.”
Student Ella Oakes said this was the first time she made decorations for a tree, noting, “We all made mouses to hang on our tree.” Codie Lane said, “Our family always makes all our decorations,” while Wyatt Cameron commented that he had “lots of fun doing this.”
“Our goal in getting involved in this event is to acquaint our students with a museum, and, for some, this will be their first visit to one,” said Mason. “We also want them to see the many approaches that others used to integrate arts with literature, including the use of different materials and technologies.”
“This exhibit is not a competition,” she noted, “but our students have been very excited about preparing the trees as a team and going to the Museum will be a great adventure. We will have lots to talk about later.”
The students will go to the Museum on December 10. The public is cordially invited to the festival which the Museum said is their highest visited exhibition of the year, regularly attracting upwards of 20,000 visitors. The display continues through January 2.
