Laughter and smiles could be found everywhere on the Friday before spring break when Lower School was buzzing with MICDS spirit and activity. Why? For the first time since 2019, all of Beasley Lower School gathered in the McDonnell Athletic Center for the return of the traditional and dearly-missed Reading, Writing, and Running, Too event. This day of fun keeps our youngest Beasley students active while deepening connections within the MICDS community.
For the field day portion of the afternoon, our Junior Kindergarten through fourth-grade students had the opportunity to enjoy a variety of silly and fun activities and challenges. With their own grade level, they rotated through six different challenges:
- The Pizza Box Relay
- Fishing Relay
- Duck Relay
- Llama Drama Relay
- March Madness Cup Stacking Relay
- The Bobsled Relay
Even some MICDS employees got in on the fun with a special Faculty & Staff relay at the end.
Check out some of the fun below!
Beasley students also had a lot of fun with the reading and writing portions of the day. For example, first and third graders had recently completed a writing unit in which they crafted informational books. On Reading, Writing, and Running, Too Day, they met in the cafeteria to share their informational books with one another. “It was fun for the first graders to see what they will be able to do when they become third graders, and the third graders loved remembering their time in first grade and mentoring current first-grade friends,” said Third Grade Homeroom Teacher Miriam Rotskoff. Their books had many commonalities, such as titles, tables of contents, chapters, introductions, and conclusions. One difference was that third grade typed their final copies, whereas first graders used their neat printing for their final copies.
Fourth grade collaborated with Junior Kindergarten where they learned about Found Poetry. “Found poems take existing texts and reimagines them by adding or deleting text to make a new meaning,” said Jen VanDyken, Fourth Grade Homeroom Teacher.
This year’s Reading, Writing, and Running, Too event also coincided with the School Spirit dress-up day for Lower School Spirit Week. Students not only could be heard having fun, but they did so while sporting spirit wear and MICDS colors.
Lower School PE Teachers Sue Orlando and Jim Lohr reflected about 2019 being the last time this event took place as it typically did before the pandemic. “It was a lot of fun!” Orlando said. “Of our 200 Lower Schoolers, there were about 98 kids who had never done a field day before, not just the new JK or SK students. It had been a long time coming so it was good to get back to it and great to have everyone together as a community having a good time running and jumping.”
Leading up to Reading, Writing, and Running, Too, Lohr shared how being in the MAC is also a new experience for many Beasley students. “Some of those students had never been in the MAC before,” he said. “It’s a big deal and seems like a gigantic space to them.” Keeping this in mind, Lohr and Orlando have practice days before the big event day. On the prep days, the students get oriented to being in the MAC and are taught how to complete the activities and how to line up. On the big day, it was clear that all of the practice days paid off; everything went smoothly and safely although it was a very busy and active day!
The afternoon culminated with each student getting a red or green participation ribbon. What a great day of community, activity, and fun!