The ongoing coronavirus pandemic has not stopped Cranbury School teachers from celebrating Spirit Week with students.
Normally, Spirit Week would be celebrated in the halls and classrooms of the school, but due to the pandemic pushing school operations to remote learning, students will now be participating from home.
Activities for students began on April 20 and will continue through April 24. The themes for each day are Motivational Monday, Talent Tuesday, Workout Wednesday, Tasty Thursday and Pay It Forward Friday.
The virtual week is being spearheaded by elementary school counselor Krista Santoro and middle school counselor Kristine Fulton.
Each day, students email pictures or videos of themselves participating in each theme to Santoro and Fulton For example, students participating in Motivational Monday can send a picture of themselves with their favorite motivational quote or way they motivate themselves or others, Fulton said.
Santoro and Fulton will compile the received photos and videos at the end of each day. Then at the end of the week a full slide presentation will be sent out to students and families.
“Talent Tuesday is a day where students can express their certain talents, Workout Wednesday we are encouraging students to send us pictures of them working out during remote learning, Tasty Thursday we are looking for students to share a picture with us of them enjoying their favorite snack or making a meal, and Pay It Forward Friday is when students can send in photos of helping cooking dinner or thoughtful text or email to a peer and family member,” Fulton said.
Kindergarten through fifth grade students will email pictures to Santoro. Sixth through eighth graders will email Fulton.
“From there we will create a Google slide presentation in which Kristine and I both have access to. We will plug the pictures in according to the day and then the whole presentation will be sent out at the end of the week,” Santoro said. “All of the days will be included in one presentation.”
The week is designed to promote togetherness and a sense of community within the school district.
“Even though we cannot be together physically, we are together virtually,” Fulton said. “When we initially went on remote learning we did a virtual Spirit Week with just the staff because we wanted to be able to connect with each other. It was really fun and a lot of teachers participated. So we thought this would be a fun kickoff for students during our first full week back from Spring Break.”
School peer leaders and student council members (seventh and eighth graders) were involved in creating the different themes for each day of the week, according to Fulton and Santoro.
“Having every day be a different theme I think helps students to be excited about each day of the week and continue school spirit. The different themes can appeal to different students and families and really can get everyone involved,” Santoro said.
Communications about the virtual week were sent home to all of the parents of children who attend the Cranbury School.
Fulton added that this virtual Spirit Week is needed now more than ever with students and staff in their fourth week of remote learning during the coronavirus pandemic.
“This is a perfect time after Spring Break to keep people’s spirits lifted and remind students that we are still connected even though we are home,” Santoro said. “I think we are going to see a lot of students and families participating in the virtual Spirit Week.”
To send the photos or videos, email Kristine Fulton at kfulton@cranburyschool.org or Krista Santoro at ksantoro@cranburyschool.org.
