Claire D.
Everyone got the opportunity to tune into their inner six-year-old on Wednesday, September 20, for our school’s first spirit day of the year! After an electrifying neon dance, our amazing Spirit Committee decided to fill the space before our first spirit week (coming soon!) with a day of school wide cheer. Kindergarten Day was a great kick start to what will definitely be more incredible spirit days to come!
We saw some wonderfully colorful child-wear clothing paired with comfy naptime attire, with pigtails and overalls making a strong showing. There were rainbow socks and brightly colored striped jackets, bright red rainboots and Comfys, as well as full body onesies sported by freshman Natanya during the musical chairs game and others! It was especially impressive to witness the dedication some of our students showed, from shoes and socks to hairdos - the rainbow hair tie pigtails were a lovely touch.
Thanks to everyone who came to school in inspired outfits, and everyone who supported the activities that took place during assembly with loads of energy. In place of our typical collective Wednesday time, we collected as a school in the Baldwin Gym for a competitive school bonding experience! Since this was the first time the freshman had an opportunity to compete with the sophomores and upperclassmen, it was surely an exciting time for them to jump into CPS’s competitive scene.
The games started with an exciting round of musical chairs, with three representatives from each grade dancing their way around to the music. Everyone in the crowd was on the edge of their seats as the music blasted from the speakers, and only once did a natural break in the music trick some of our contestants. We definitely had some strategic players as well, who hung back by a chair until the one in front was free! It was a close game with multiple intense moments of struggle, notably a freshman winning 1v1s with multiple peers, but in the end, Will Chang pulled out with a win for the sophomores!
Shortly after, our classmates, as well as some brave faculty members, lined up again and chatter died down in the stands in anticipation for our second spirit game, the spelling bee! Starting with the freshmen on the left, we had a line all the way up to our three faculty on the right. Although this was clearly based on the beloved kindergarten and elementary school spelling bee, there was not a single straight-forward word for our brave participants to attempt. The first freshman of the first round was called up to receive their word and give their answer. No time limit was given, but it was surely a pressured job nonetheless. They had the opportunity to hear the definition, the word used in a sentence, and the word repeated, and then had to repeat the word themselves, spell it, and repeat it again. There were words from Chrysanthemum, which Janaki (a sophomore) spelled correctly, to words that I cannot even recall and had never heard before in my life - one of which even my English teacher had never heard of! Among the highlights was also a funny moment where Julian, the SPIRIT A-Z representative reading the words, read the faculty’s word, pterodactyl, with a sound in the beginning, and in light of this mishap they had to be given another word! It was a tight match and came down to a tiebreaker at the end… where the freshman finally came out victorious. Impressively, both the underclassmen grades came out with wins today and a lot of spirit to match it, so watch out, upperclassmen!
Right after the exciting events of assembly, we re-lived kindergarten snack-time with fruit-punch flavored juice, delicious animal crackers, and wonderfully cold and sweet otter pops. Everyone was in high spirits after such exciting activities and free food on the music lawn! Thanks to all for participating in our first spirit day of the year, and stay tuned for more exciting news and spirit reviews in the future!