Barclay The Bee Hosts A Sweet Day Of Honeybee Fun

The InterContinental New York Barclay was buzzing with energy as an eager group of children from the United Nations International School (UNIS) got a chance to see honeybees up close and learn about the important role they play in keeping the city’s ecosystem in check.

The lively event celebrated this month’s launch of “Barclay The Bee,” a whimsical comic book series that aims to educate and raise awareness about the significance of honeybees, which have been dying out at a troubling rate. In an effort to combat this, the hotel maintains its own rooftop honeybees, and they are believed to travel as far as Central Park to pollinate flowers. With the first issue just released this month, the comic is a collaborative effort of the InterContinental New York Barclay and the Center for Sustainable Design Strategies at Pratt Institute.

The morning began with a demonstration from the visionary behind Barclay, Olga Andreyeva, a senior illustration major at Pratt. With the aid of Photoshop and her trusty tablet, Andreyeva did several lightening-fast illustrations, causing kids to gasp as they saw the colorful characters from the comic brought to life. Ranging in age from 5-7, the children took inspiration from Andreyeva, using colored pencils and paper to create their own version of Barclay and adding in variations like a goofy striped shirt, fluttery eyelashes, and a rainbow face. The first issue of “Barclay The Bee” was then revealed and read aloud to the roomful of young Picassos.

Drawings of Barclay the Bee by UNIS students

Two knowledgeable beekeepers from the Honeybee Conservancy were also on the scene to field curious questions and present a wooden observation hive filled with a colony of live honeybees. Children took turns gathering around the encasement to steal a close glance, listen to the sound of the bees’ collective buzz, and try on over-sized beekeeper jackets and masks. While waiting for their turn, Andreyeva let a few lucky kids use her tablet to make their own digital doodles. As a sweet ending to the day, little ones were given a variety of honey samples to taste.

Beautifully illustrated with an array of charming characters, the “Barclay The Bee” comic is printed locally using recycled paper, non-toxic inks, and renewable wind-powered energy. With plans to release another issue this upcoming January, the comic is set to be an ongoing series with endless adventures for the lovable Barclay. The first issue is currently available to download for free from the hotel’s sustainability blog or in print at the hotel with a $5 donation to support the Honeybee Conservancy. For more information, visit: blog.intercontinentalnybarclay.com

The Language Workshop For Children

After offering both group and private lessons for many years and analyzing the results over&nbsp;time, The&nbsp;Language Workshop for&nbsp;Children, founded&nbsp;in1973, has decided&nbsp;to emphasize private remote lessons at shorter intervals.&nbsp;Our skilled educators&nbsp;will&nbsp;focus their attention exclusively on the&nbsp;unique needs, learning style, and interests of your child.&nbsp;This allows a&nbsp;bond&nbsp;to develop&nbsp;between teacher and student, which&nbsp;has been&nbsp;shown to&nbsp;drastically improve retention.&nbsp; OUR METHOD&nbsp; Developed by the pioneers of language education for children, our programs bring decades of&nbsp;experience to your living room with individualized, active language classes. Each lesson is based on proven methods and materials perfected to capture your&nbsp;child&rsquo;s attention during the ages when he/she absorbs information the fastest. &nbsp;&nbsp; While other online language classes rely on videos for passive learning, we deliver interactive, and engaging lessons with native-fluent teachers. In addition, all our teachers are certified in the Thibaut&nbsp;Technique which has been featured&nbsp;in the New York&nbsp;Times, the&nbsp;Wall Street Journal, and many other well-respected&nbsp;publications.&nbsp;&nbsp; Our short one-on-one lessons give kids the chance to focus, hear pronunciation clearly, and practice speaking in their target language.  THE PROCESS&nbsp; First, students have a short meeting with our Director&nbsp;Francois&nbsp;Thibaut, in&nbsp;English, with&nbsp;their parent(s)&nbsp;present.&nbsp;Mr. Thibaut&nbsp;will determine&nbsp;the best course of study, including&nbsp;class length and&nbsp;frequency, the&nbsp;right&nbsp;teacher, lesson&nbsp;format and materials (or action games for younger students.) Then the learning&nbsp;begins!&nbsp;Mr. Thibaut will continually check in on your child&rsquo;s learning to assure they are getting the most&nbsp;of&nbsp;their&nbsp;classes.&nbsp; OTHER OFFERINGS&nbsp; We can also help your child prepare for: the French subject tests for SAT, AP &amp; CLEP, the European DELF/DALF, the Canadian TEF and other standardized testing, college entry exams, studying or traveling abroad,&nbsp;cultural changes when moving abroad,&nbsp;and much more!&nbsp; &nbsp;

The School at the Mark Morris Dance Center

The School at the Mark Morris Dance Center offers year-round, community-based dance and music programming in a fully inclusive and nurturing environment, located in the heart of the Brooklyn Cultural District. The School&rsquo;s diverse and professional faculty provides progressive and non-competitive instruction with all of our classes accompanied by live music. Though we are a non-recital school, there are opportunities for students to perform and for parents to see their dancers in action.

Dance Workshop - Long Island

Nestled in the heart of Lynbrook Village, Dance Workshop is a community-focused studio committed to dance education in a loving and safe environment. Dance Workshop offers Ballet, Tap, Jazz, Lyrical, Hip-Hop, Musical Theatre and Acro for ages 2+. They also offer a Pre-Professional Company track for dancers interested in taking their technique to the next level. Trial classes may be scheduled with the studio at the start of the season. Dance with the Dance Workshop! MaryAnn Grasso founded Dance Workshop in 1979. Her daughter Nanci later joined her at the helm and in 2016 established Dance Workshop on the Upper East Side of NYC. MaryAnn and Nanci have devoted their lives to dance education, community and the development of children; raising dancers and sound human beings alike. Dance Workshop has seen thousands of dancers pass through the doors. They believe dance has the power to elevate and change lives!