St. Mary School Swormville engages students with Spirit Week

SWORMVILLE — Students at St. Mary School Swormville celebrated “Spirit Week” before heading on February break. The faculty and students had a great deal of fun, and celebrated all week with themed dress-up days, special presentations, guest speakers, and more. Spirit Week serves not only as a break for students from the rigor of their typical academic schedules, but provides opportunities to reduce stress, improve memory, develop life skills, increase productivity, form bonds and solidify friendships within and across grade levels, and nurture creativity.

On Monday, everyone was  “Enjoying that Groovy Feeling.” Students dressed as their favorite decade or musical genre, which for many students included tie dye, sock-hop, disco, hippie, neon, country, reggae, rock or jazz. Students from Montessori pre-K up to grade five created musical instruments out of found materials, then performed songs using their instruments. Meanwhile, sixth through  eighth graders learned about advertising and marketing while writing  jingles to promote St. Mary School. The day concluded with an afternoon dance party for all grades.

On Tuesday, students celebrated St. Valentine’s Day early with the theme “Loving our School Family.” Students dressed in red, pink or purple and exchanged sweet treats and cards to mark the holiday. Grade two made ice cream as part of their class party. Students also completed different activities for “Junior Achievement in a Day.” Each age group had a crash course in business and economics, presented in a fun and age-appropriate way.

A very special visit from Bishop Michael W. Fisher was a highlight for students on Wednesday as part of their theme “Living for Jesus.” Bishop Fisher presided at Ash Wednesday Mass, distributed ashes, and visited classrooms to answer student questions, even leading the kindergartners in prayer before lunch. Students took part in a special Ash Wednesday Retreat for the rest of the day, which for younger students included making cards for nursing home residents and a special field trip to the historic St. Mary’s Chapel across the parking lot from school with Christina Egleston, director of Catholic Education for the parish, for Lenten reflection. Middle school students took part in SoulCore with Jill Fleming, a unique way of praying the rosary which unites body, mind and  soul in prayer, and also heard from guest speaker BethAnn VanHorn.

On Thursday, the 100th day of school, SMS students could dress like they were 100 years old, or get creative by making their own T-shirt including 100 items. Activities for the day started off strong with “Minute to Win It” games in their homeroom, followed by the championship round in the school gym with a balloon walk and gummy worm sorting challenge involving a plate full of whipped cream and no hands allowed. Harrison Reeds, physical education teacher, organized 100 PE activities, and gave a very informative presentation about the Trout Hatching Project that is underway with Science teacher Kristy Witkowski. Witkowski and Reeds have been working together with other staff and volunteers to hatch Brook Trout in an aquarium in the K-3 science lab, which will be released in a local stream come spring.

In addition to these activities, students from Montessori pre-K to third grade enjoyed the Milk for Health Magic Show, which is always an entertaining classic, and fourth through eighth graders participated in scavenger hunts around the school in mixed age level teams. They utilized the Goosechase app to complete the activity, which included fun items like creating a human pyramid, finding everyone on their team’s photos in the school collage, and posing like a famous work of art. The day concluded with eighth grade relay races. As seen in this video, the students’ (and teachers’) competitive spirits were out in full effect.

As Spirit Week closed, Friday’s theme was “Expanding our World Through Reading.” Students dressed as their favorite storybook characters, and enjoyed wonderful presentations from local author Rick Winter, and author/illustrator Heather Lynn Harris, about how they find inspiration to create their books, as well as their processes for taking a book from an initial idea, all the way to the printing press, and finally young readers’ hands. Students from pre-K through grade eight also enjoyed Bingo together in the gym, followed by a pizza lunch. The week concluded with a very special presentation of “The Masked Reader,” put together by technology teacher Julie Long and staff with parent volunteers. Students had fun trying to guess the identity of each masked reader, which was extra challenging with the voice alterations made to further disguise them. Check out the video here. School spirit days are important for their ability to facilitate community bonding by increasing interaction and engagement. This can have huge benefits, reports Ana Homayoun in an essay for Business Insider. At a time when so many students report feeling isolated among peers, simply complimenting a classmate’s costume or participating in class competitions can become low-stakes opportunities for connection around a common goal or theme. The skills of making and maintaining friendship are often overlooked in today’s academic settings, and the need to create opportunities to build these skills is critical during developmental years. Especially as so many social interactions have moved online, school spirit days can provide that chance to interact in person and find commonalities across differences, have a shared vision, find ways to celebrate creativity, and build confidence by allowing students to showcase their creativity and talents outside the traditional classroom setting.