On Tuesday, October 14th, Fifth Graders from the Baldwin and Peabody schools trekked to Raymond Park with one mission: To meet their future best friends. These students will be combining next year to become the Rindge Ave. Upper School’s Sixth Grade Class, and it seemed like the perfect time to take advantage of a perfect fall day in Cambridge.
Ms. Megan Ankuda, general music teacher at both elementary schools, organized the event and named it “Fall Fest” with help from Mrs. Susan Tiersch, Baldwin Family Liaison, and Mrs. Nicole Sullivan, Peabody Family Liaison. It worked as a music and dance field day, with students rotating between a drumming station with Rindge Ave music teacher Mr. DeWitte, a Greek Dancing station with Peabody Family Liaison Nicole Sullivan, Baldwin teachers Mrs. Miller and Ms. Frazier as well as Peabody teachers Mr. Kelly and Mrs. Bielecki running team-building games, and Ms. Ankuda leading students in a Chinese Bamboo Stick Dance. Each
student was assigned a partner from the opposite school and was encouraged to engage in small-talk about their favorite hobbies and classes. One Fifth Grader said, “I felt like we were meeting our future best friends!” At both schools, students are full of positive thoughts for another meeting which they hope to have soon. They wrote in a letter to their teachers, “We loved meeting our classmates!”
The afternoon ended with a sing-along. Students sang in canon, they sang partner songs, and their current favorite tune:
We Are Going to be Friends by Jack White. As the leaves drifted off the trees against a backdrop of bright blue sky, the words to this song seemed especially meaningful:
Fall is here, hear the yell
Back to school , ring the bell. . .
. . . And when I wake tomorrow I’ll bet
That you and I will walk together again.
Yes I can tell that we are gonna be friends.
I can tell that we are gonna be friends.