Squeeze the Day

By Jillian Offermann

Grade IV has celebrated a beloved Shady Hill tradition, Lemon Day, for roughly 40 years and the events of the day have evolved and grown each year. Longtime teacher Jane Prescott, who taught at Shady Hill from 1953-1991, loved lemons and brought that passion into her classroom. Since the fruitful day lemons were introduced into classrooms, our dynamic teachers took the opportunity to squeeze them into the curriculum to foster joyful, active learning. What started as a fun way to inspire students to write poetry and stories expanded into a myriad of hands-on lessons. Students began naming their lemons then creating a world for them along the way. Gradeheads and art department faculty added many more activities throughout the years, including students generating as many words as possible from the letters in the word “lemonade,” painting watercolor lemon portraits, building tiny homes for the citrus residents, and singing lemon-themed songs. Math and science teachers added to the interdisciplinary learning with lessons like measuring the lemons’ circumference, volume, and mass.

Today, the zest for joy and exploration continues. Each student takes the time to truly discover their lemon from top to bottom and use this unique opportunity to practice developing an understanding of identity and belonging. The qualities they discover and describe go far beyond physical features. Students discuss how their lemon came to

be–and that means more than just growing on a tree. Conversation starters include: What is their favorite activity? Does the lemon have a gender identity? Who are their caretakers? How many languages does the lemon speak? Is the lemon’s personality sour or sweet? This personification of lemons opens students to new perspectives, empowering them to ask questions and creating an opportunity for deep thinking.

To prove they have learned their lemons inside and out, the entire class places them in a pile and needs to find their lemons based on their unique qualities. The class gets to know their lemons so well that they can even differentiate if the lemon is upside down or right side up. Students learn through this project that they can understand and explore aspects of identity by peeling off layers to see what lies beneath the surface. At first glance, all the lemons look the same, but with closer inspection, as Grade IV students draw and measure, they take the time to learn more about individuality. Incorporating lemons beyond the gradehead classroom takes this educational experience a step further to create an opportunity for fun and accessible socialemotional learning.

Older students have been known to come by the Grade IV classrooms on Lemon Day for a refresher, exclaiming how much they loved that day. Some even shared that they preserved their lemons! Lemon Day encapsulates how Shady Hill students use intellectual adventure and playful imagination to cultivate compassion and a deeper understanding of the world around them.