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LOWER | SCHOOL Blair Schoenvogel '97 | Lower School Counselor
O
ver the 2021-2022 school year, the Lower School focused on a “Word of the Month” and “Miles of Smiles.” In my Wright Way classes, we concentrated on words like Initiative, Cooperation, Service, Compassion, Hope, Contentment and Perseverance. We read stories, performed experiments and studied each word and how it applies to our everyday lives. For example, the students learned that Initiative is “seeing what needs to be done and doing it.” We talked about ways we can take initiative in and out of the classroom each day. The students also worked on creating “Miles of Smiles” throughout our campus. Strips of paper were provided in each classroom. Once a student/teacher/staff member received an act of kindness, they drew a picture or wrote it down on the strip of paper. Throughout the year, we connected those strips of paper with the wonderful help of our 5th graders to make a large paper chain. Our goal was to create kindness acts that stretched over a mile around the track. It takes 21,120 strips of paper to wrap around the track 4 times/1 Mile. In total, we as a Lower School created well over that number with 22, 305 acts of kindness. Due to the rainy weather, we celebrated by wrapping the chains around Wilson Gymnasium. The students were able to see what an impact they had made over the course of the school year.
