Berkshire Local Schools partnered with Hexpol to give Badger preschoolers a hands-on Earth Day learning experience...
BECC Celebrates Earth Day
Berkshire Local Schools partnered with Hexpol to give Badger preschoolers a hands-on Earth Day learning experience.
About 10 Hexpol team members joined students and staff at Berkshire Early Childhood Center to guide preschoolers through a variety of gardening activities. Students painted rocks for home gardens, selected flowers, planted them in pots with soil and watered their plants.
Hexpol, which has locations in Burton and Middlefield, specializes in advanced polymer compounding. Team members assisted at several activity stations throughout the event, helping students celebrate Earth Day through hands-on learning and creativity.
40 Book Challenge
During the 2025-26 school year, sixth-grade students were invited to participate in the 40 Book Challenge, a grade-wide initiative designed to promote consistent, varied reading and help students develop daily reading habits.
The challenge encouraged students to explore multiple genres while strengthening comprehension, vocabulary and critical-thinking skills. A key component of the program was student choice, allowing participants to select their own books rather than read from an assigned list.
After a group of students reached the 40-book milestone, they celebrated with a pizza party and shared discussions about their favorite titles. A larger celebration is planned at the end of the school year to recognize all students who met the challenge goal and made reading a priority throughout the year.
School officials also expressed appreciation to the staff members and volunteers who helped organize the activity for the sixth-grade class.
Clay Boat Challenge
Berkshire sixth-grade students explored the concept of density through a hands-on engineering challenge as part of their Matter unit. Working in small groups, students were given a 75-gram piece of clay and tasked with designing a boat that could float. Through teamwork, creativity and trial and error, each group successfully built a floating design. Students then tested their boats by loading them with pennies as “cargo,” competing to see which boat could hold the most weight without sinking. After two rounds of in-class competition, each class selected a champion team to advance to the “Float Off” final. The winning team – Lillian Byrne, Ben Blasko, Reese Kovach and Peyton Herendeen – designed a boat that held 42 pennies before sinking. The activity reinforced concepts of density while encouraging problem-solving, teamwork and perseverance.
