Last Friday, Upper El held their first ever Upper El-lympics. (Shout out to Ed for the clever naming.) If we back up a bit, this idea first emerged from our Student Board Committee planning. For this first trimester of school, the kids are in the same small groups and rotate through committees weekly: Care of Environment, Culinary and Student Board. One of the responsibilities of the Student Board is to plan a Fun Friday during this first third of our school year. I gave no parameters except that in the end, I need to sign off on their idea.
When one committee came to me with the idea for the Olympics, I thought to myself, this seems to be a big task, bigger than let’s say, pajama day or crazy hair day. Apparently I don’t dream as big as these kids, nor have the self-efficacy it takes to pull off such an event.
The students on this committee used their 15-20 minutes of planning time each Monday morning, but they wanted more. They asked if they could have working lunches from time to time and even did work on their own at home.
In the end, they came up with a plan:
Nine events requiring a variety of skills
A sign up chart (used a ruler - ahhh)
Scoring
Prizes for all participants
On the day of the event, the committee staged all of the activities outside, gave instructions for participation and hosted a closing ceremony. Students encouraged one another, challenged themselves to step outside of their comfort zones, failed and tried again even when it was difficult. It was a day to remember!
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