Fall Spirit Week Recap

By Olivia W. ‘27

During 2025’s Fall Spirit Week, students had fun watching and participating in events including the Gaga Ball tournament, the NY Pizza Rumble, and the “Who’s the Most Performative Male?” contest, while also enjoying previous Spirit Week games like tug of war and zorb soccer. Here’s a quick rundown of the events to cement the big wins in writing.

MONDAY: Directions Day

Each grade was assigned a direction: the freshmen in northern style dress-ups, sophomores in a southern look, juniors in West-Coast attire, and seniors donning East-Coast-style outfits.

Activities included:

Surfboard Boogie - The juniors took the first win of Spirit Week with this one.

Spicy Chip Knockout - The seniors took the win in the spiciest game of Spirit Week.

NY Pizza Rumble - The sophomores took the scrappy win.

Gaga Ball - The first ever Spirit Week Gaga Ball tournament held! The juniors won the first round of the tournament.

TUESDAY: Community Day

Students wore school colors, dark red and blue, to celebrate the community, including a friendship bracelet station and a gratitude tree.

WEDNESDAY: Performative Male Day

Students brought their matcha lattes, wired earbuds, and feminist literature to school for the performative male dress-up.

Activities included:

Capture the Labubu - After the juniors and freshmen were quickly eliminated, the seniors battled against the sophomores until the seniors ultimately took the win.

Balloon Pop Relay - The juniors quickly secured the victory.

“Who’s the Most Performative Male?” Contest - The juniors won this one with a live matcha demonstration.

Gaga Ball - The juniors emerged victorious; the seniors came in second.

THURSDAY: Breakfast Club

Inspired by the 1985 classic, The Breakfast Club, this dress-up had the freshmen dress up as the rebels, the sophomores as the nerds, the juniors as the emos, and the seniors as the jocks. Teachers dressed like ‘80s students.

Activities included:

Zorb Soccer - Grades clashed in the fierce games of fan-favorite zorb soccer. Spectators roared for their team as players launched themselves at opponents, sending the inflated bubbles flying in every direction. Determined players knocked down opponents or sprawled across the goal, blocking shots by crushing the net–and fans loved it. First, the juniors played the freshmen, and the juniors triumphed. The seniors then played the sophomores, the seniors toppling the sophomores. Finally, the seniors faced off against the juniors, with the juniors taking the decisive victory at a score of 2-0. The sidelines were passionate for every grade, with cheering, clapping, screaming, and chants.

Dodgeball - Freshman vs. juniors; the juniors won. Seniors vs. sophomores; the seniors won.

FRIDAY: Class Color Day

Friday was Class Color Day–the most iconic day of Spirit Week. Freshman wore purple, sophomores donned yellow, juniors put on blue, seniors had their red tank tops, and faculty regaled green.

All grades put up colorful decorations. The sophomores yellowed-out the gym deck, and put caution tape, blocking much of the staircase. The seniors used the traditional red paper plate decorations to adorn the courtyard. The juniors stapled blue-tinted pictures of every member of the class in the music lawn, and the freshman got creative with their purple decor in the basketball area.

Activities included:

Poster contest - The seniors took the win with their star-studded poster.

Whole Grade Scream - The freshman took this win, being the loudest grade.

Lettuce Eating Contest - The juniors took the win in this healthy competition.

Tug of War - First, the seniors competed against the sophomores in possibly the longest tug of war game in CPS history (I’m really not sure, but it was really long). There was screaming on both sides, and eventually the sophomores triumphed. The juniors then played the freshmen, a game that ended quickly and dramatically with the juniors winning. In the final game, juniors vs. sophomores, the juniors claimed the ultimate tug of war win.

Sack Race - The seniors won this game.

Musical Chairs - In a historic game of musical chairs, all three of the sophomores survived until the end and scored the win for their team.

Dodgeball Finals - The juniors solidified their win for the entire tournament in their faceoff against the seniors.

Fall 2025 Spirit Week saw many inventive, new additions to the Spirit Week lineup, as well as the enjoyable, tried-and-true classics. To see what’s in store for next semester, I asked one of the Super Spirit members if they had any plans yet for Spring Spirit Week, "We’ve been thinking about different games we can do. The spirit team sends each other Instagram Reels of, like, fun games that we see other schools posting, so we’re brainstorming on those, but y’know, it’s always good to have the classics. Right now we’re mostly focused on our upcoming Halloween celebration, and stuff like that."