Lots to Smile About!
Bonjour – News de Nous staff worked overtime this week to compile the latest from a busy and fun FASTB week! Among the highlights: Family Craft & Crêpe Day brightened faces and filled bellies; Mardi Gras brought out the best in student costumes and performances; USF St. Pete students dropped in for a visit, as did NPR for an upcoming FASTB feature!
These stories, plus class updates, Camp FASTB, Enrollment 2019-20, an opportunity to host a French student and our most recent brush with wildlife – let’s dive in!
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Crêpes, Face Painting, Families, Crafts, Balloon Animals, Crêpes (did we mention that already?) – all made for a fabulous first-ever Family Craft & Crêpe Day Saturday, and the weather was perfect too!
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Thank you to all who attended – our FASTB families and also many new faces! Special thanks to Krepelicious, who definitely lived up to their name, and also the face painting and balloon artists from Tony the Balloon Guy! Our teachers and students worked very hard to prepare for this event as well – merci beaucoup !
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USF St. Pete Chips In Too
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Friday marked the first of what we hope will be many volunteer visits from USF St. Pete French students – Liliane Tran and Corey Kimer went right to work, speaking French and helping Claire’s class create signs for the Craft & Crêpe Day. Merci Liliane & Corey – see you again later this week!
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Great costumes on display yesterday for our big Mardi Gras celebration – students AND teachers showed up ready to go! We gathered together in the afternoon to make some masks…
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… And the PreK capped the day with a Spectacle de la Marionnettes…
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Intrigued by our school and approach to language immersion, Kerry Sheridan (pictured above right), reporter from National Public Radio affiliate WUSF, visited us last Friday to do a feature story on FASTB – very exciting! Kerry spoke with Founders Elizabeth & Willy LeBihan (above) and with some of our parents, and she spent some time in our elementary class (below).
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The feature is scheduled to air sometime the week of March 11 during All Things Considered. We will send out more specific information as we get it. WUSF can be found at 89.7 FM or on their website. Merci, Kerry !
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Visit our Camp FASTB page on FASTB.org where you will find a camp online inquiry form. Please fill that out and submit so we can get an idea of enrollment. Even if you have already contacted us informally about your interest, we ask that you fill in the form so that we have consistent information for everyone – Merci!! Camp FASTB Details: Beginning June 10, we will offer up to 6 weeks of French Immersion camp broken down as follows:
- Full Day – 9am-3pm $300 per child, per week
- Half Day – 9am-Noon $200 per child, per week
- Extended care will be available at an additional cost. We are targeting the weeks beginning June 10, June 17, June 24, July 8, July 15 and July 22.
Campers must be at least 5 years old before 9/1/19
Ultimately, enrollment will dictate what we will be able to offer so please let us know as soon as you can.
We are also accepting applications for French speaking camp counselors so if you or someone you know is interested, please let us know – merci!
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2019-20 Enrollment: New Application Form & Steps to Enroll
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We are in the middle of our enrollment period for 2019-20, so if you are thinking about applying (or know someone who may be interested), please consider a visit and tour – we have had a lot lately! Below is the sequence of events for our application process (please note that there is a new online application form):
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- Inquiry: Submit the Application Inquiry Form on our web site and we will contact you to set up a school visit to give you more information about FASTB and answer questions
- Apply: Click here for our new online Enrollment Application which offers the convenience of applying and paying the fee entirely online
- Interview: After receiving the completed application we set up a parent or guardian and child interview to assess readiness and ability to benefit from our program
- Acceptance & Enrollment: Upon acceptance, an Enrollment Contract must be signed and deposit paid to secure a spot for the upcoming year
Please visit FASTB.org and click on the Admission tab for more on the process, tuition, financial aid and more – we look forward to hearing from you!
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En Classe – Elementary and Pre-K
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Even with all of our fun celebrations going on the past week, Claire’s elementary class focused on math, vocabulary and art in the classroom this week, with math projects involving rulers (above) and word connection exercises enhancing their vocabulary (below).
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As noted in last week’s News de Nous, March is the international month of La Francophonie 2019 and our Elementary (above) and Preschool (below) classes highlighted the big annual celebration with some artwork. Claire’s students also studied the geography and the reach of French language and culture in the world – 220 million French speakers on five continents!!
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Priscilla’s Pre-K class was treated to a close-up view of monarch butterflies (below), courtesy of our volunteer butterfly expert, Wendy Risk. The Papillons were very comfortable with our students, and Priscilla too!
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We’ve barely begun 2019 and we have already had numerous encounters with wildlife – butterflies flying free, ducks laying eggs and even a squirrel getting rescued.
Well, this week, we had a new encounter as our Director, pictured in the flattering photo below, engaged in a high speed chase with a turtle around the playground before finally wearing him down and returning him to his luxury lakefront home.
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Cultural Exchange – Host a French Student
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Peggy Labat (center) with Constance (right), a French student who visited Florida in February, and Zsofia (left) whose family hosted Constance
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Recently, we enjoyed a visit from Peggy Labat, who has developed a new high school exchange program between her hometown of Le Havre, France and Tampa Bay, through which students spend a few weeks with a host family, completely immersed in a new language and culture!
Are you interested in hosting a French student for a few weeks? Do you, or someone you know, have a high school child that might want to visit France for a few weeks? If so, please take a look at this summary of Peggy’s program and feel free to reach out to her by email at peggy@englishnstuff.com. We also have a few pamphlets that describe the program here at the school if you’d like to stop by and pick one up. Merci !
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Spring Break Around The Corner
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Not much to add – picture says it all!
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FASTB Calendars 2018-19 AND 2019-20
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We have released our academic calendar for 2019-20 and you will note that the timing is more in line with area schools (no construction project thissummer!). To access the new 2019-20 calendar, click on the image below left and you can download a pdf. For this year’s calendar, click the image below right. Please also check the Events tab on FASTB.org periodically for more specific information on certain events. Merci !
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To keep tabs on activities of our hearty friends up north, don’t forget to visit the Blog and Instagram of our school in Maine, L’Ecole Française du Maine – Year 18 is rolling along!!
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The French American School of Tampa Bay, (FASTB), founded in February 2017 by Elizabeth and Willy LeBihan, offers a unique immersion school experience to students from Early Childhood through grade 12.
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2100 62nd Ave N, St. Petersburg, FL 33702
Telephone: (727) 800-2159
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