School has been so different this year with the safety concerns and the cleaning and social distancing procedures in place on campus. We know our fellow pre-kindergartners are nearby across the hall and we see them after school – from a distance. We hope one day we can do fun things together with them! In the classroom with masks on our faces, shields on our tables, and distance between us and our classmates, we are still forming friendships and making memories. We haven’t been able to get together with and get to know our 8th grade buddies so far this year. Even so, the 8th graders are still making connections with us by making fun activities to do, like dot to dot pictures and other kinds of puzzles. We know they care about us. Spirit Day is very different from the usual Spirit Days of a crowded gym filled with happy people, lots of action and loud sounds! But we do have spirit in our hearts, and we have happy people, lots of movement and joyful noises in our classroom.
With bubbles in our mouths and eagle wings, we are learning to keep distance between us and our classmates when we walk in line. We sit the proper distance apart in the gym in the morning before we walk to class in our socially distanced line. Even though we are in our classroom for much of the day, we’re getting a sense of the school as we go from the gym to our class, participate in school scavenger hunts, and go to the playground at recess. We get to say good morning to our school chickens every morning. Our P.E. teacher does a great job modifying our P.E. activities so we get to do everything we would be doing in the gym in our classroom and building hallway.
We are definitely getting lots of good hygiene practice! We wash our hands often and use sanitizer between all our activities. We have all our own materials that we don’t share with others, but we share stories and laughs.
Because we’re newbies to school, we don’t really know what we’re missing. So all these precautions don’t seem bothersome, because for us, this is usual procedure. We’re still having a full school experience, just in a different way. We’re forming good habits unique to a world affected by a pandemic. We are children living, loving, and learning.
Catholic Education in the Classical Tradition 