Each year a group of teachers and parents from the two elementary schools in the Wright City R-II District combine their imaginations to come up with ideas for events to bring parents and students …
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Each year a group of teachers and parents from the two elementary schools in the Wright City R-II District combine their imaginations to come up with ideas for events to bring parents and students together. This past year, they have had to get particularly creative, given the constraints imposed by COVID-19 and capacity limits in the buildings.
Evidence of their enguiniety could be seen last Friday, as a few dozen volunteers from each building handed out take-home bags for a family game night in front of West Elementary. Around 150 families made a pit stop in the pick-up lane to secure their kit for the evening.
“This is the first time we’ve done this, because we had to change it up a little bit this year,” explained fourth grade teacher Sarah Smith, who coordinated the efforts between staff and parents. “Hopefully we can be back in the buildings next year, but it’s nice to still feel connected and the see the faces coming through.”
Drive-thru game night was a modified version of the mother and son game night traditionally held in the spring at the school. In each bag was a deck of cards, options for how to play a variety of games, coloring sheets, Mad Libs and two pizzas, along with restaurant certificates.
“We were able to give each family several options for having fun while also getting a meal,” said Smith. “We thought it would be a way of saying thank you for making it through the year and being patient with all of us, being able to keep our families involved with the school.”
Packets also included resources for working on emotions using the RULER model.
“We’re trying to get that out to families, so we thought what better time to talk about how you feel than on a game night,” said Smith. “We put things in there to talk about your emotions and go from being angry about losing to feeling better.”
This was the fourth year some version of game night was held, with last year’s event cancelled. In the fall the elementary schools host the father and daughter dance, which had been six years running until 2020. Still, the committee was able to collaborate with Pumpkins Galore to give out nearly 400 pumpkins. In other years, pumpkin carving has taken place in the cafeteria.
The school also dispersed books and gift certificates in the fall.
COVID-19 has disrupted many of the elementary schools’ extracurricular practices, including the meeting of the abundance of clubs offered within the buildings.
