Wacky Water Day was a blast for D-E’s 1st through 5th graders! The annual tradition gives Lower School (LS) students the opportunity to get into their bathing suits to participate in water activities on Mr. Rocky’s Field with their peers, while teachers splash them with foam water shooters and upbeat music plays in the background. Afterward, they enjoyed shaved ice from the Kona Ice truck, courtesy of the Parents’ Association. “We have so much fun out there,” says Grade 2 Teacher Jennifer Koteles, who credited LS Health and Wellness Teacher Ms. Kimberle Franco with creating inclusive games for LS students. “This is a great end-of-year memory that students really look forward to,” says Ms. Koteles, adding that it isn’t so competitive. “Everyone is a winner and everyone is having fun.”

Kindergartners were treated to their own series of activities—parachute games, obstacle courses, potato sack races, etc.—during the first-ever Kindergarten Field Day on Graham Field, organized by Upper School (US) Health and Wellness Chair Michelle Carstens-Potts, who describes the event as a way to “build community within the kindergarten.” At the conclusion of the event, each student received a medal “to feel that sense of achievement and accomplishment,” says Ms. Carstens-Potts. From a Health and Wellness perspective, the aim is for this to be “a culmination of all the physical and social-emotional learning the students have developed in their Health and Wellness classes,” says Ms. Carstens-Potts. To promote cross-divisional collaboration, she also recruited US students from her class to help out as volunteers. Thanks to our D-E faculty for sparking such joy and engagement in outdoor activity!