News de Nous - 10/27/20 Fort De Soto Days 1 & 2 - French American School of Tampa Bay

October 27, 2020

FASTB At The Fort

This special edition of News de Nous takes you to Fort De Soto, where our school is spending four action packed days! We are half way through and what follows is a brief recap of Days 1 & 2.

Our Pedagogical Coordinator, Olivier Guilhem, spearheaded this idea of getting out, learning and exploring with the park serving as our classroom. Our staff, families and students have done a fabulous job making it a reality this week – bravo to all!

Day 1: North Beach

Maintaining our COVID protocols is a priority during this adventure and one of the big keys to making this work and helping us stay safe is that parents have provided transportation to and from the park – transporting children, and bicycles, which students have been riding each day (above).

Day 1 activities also included exploring the beach for shells (above), making and flying kites and Mr. Alex even dropped by for some music (below)!

The Rangers at Fort De Soto have been very welcoming and spent a lot of time with our students on Monday as they got to know a little bit about their surroundings. Whether talking about shells (above) or on the beach talking about birds or plant life (below), the sessions with the rangers were very informative and fun. Thank you to Chief Ranger Mike Agliano and Resident Park Ranger David Harshbarger for facilitating this project and to their staff for making Day 1 great!

Day 2: At the Fort & Gulf Pier

Striking a pose at the Fort on Day 2, students received special tours from our own Emmy Decker (below), playing the role of Hernando De Soto – who knew both he and Emmy spoke French with a similar Parisian accent?

We also took advantage of the nearby Gulf Pier to do some fishing – students participated in small groups and some successfully caught and released fish – one parent even went head to head with a small hammerhead shark (above left!

Learning the basics of using a compass and following a map, students worked with parent Massimiliano Dosi (above), working their way around the park until they found the secret treasure (below)!

It was a fast-paced day loaded with activity – biking (above) and art (below) included! Coming up – Days 3 & 4 we move back to North Beach with Wednesday featuring the Fort De Soto Olympiad – stay tuned for updates!