During a special day dedicated to reading, writing, speaking and listening across all divisions, St. Margaret’s celebrated its annual Literacy Day with a wide range of activities across campus.

With the theme of “HIStory, HERstory, OURstory,” St. Margaret’s students embraced the art of storytelling, including the telling of their own story. The day was full of cross-divisional activities, as students worked together throughout the day to share stories and serve the community.

Here’s a sampling of the activities:

For an hour, Upper School advisories paired up with Middle School advisories and Lower School classes to share the stories behind their names. As part of the “My Name Is” cultural competency initiative, students were able to research and share their own personal name history, including the meaning of their last name and the story behind their first name.

Afterward, the groups read Boxes for Katje, an inspiring book telling the post-World War II story of how a hope box of necessities sent by an American girl, Rosie, to young Katje in Holland that started an exchange that swells with joyful and life-giving surprises. The book preceded the HOPE Box campaign later in the day.

The Lower School conducted a fun activity where clues were presented by students and their classmates guessed what year the events took place. The presentation covered periods of history that Lower School students are learning, with clues such as “Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 points in an NBA game” presented (the answer was 1962).

More than 20 students in grades 4 and 5 who participate in the BOB club were selected to take part in the Battle of the Books tournament in Sillers Hall in front of their classmates on Literacy Day. Questions were asked based on the 20-book BOB reading list to the four teams, and the winners of these battles will move on to the Orange County competition, which will take place March 29 at St. Margaret’s.

Lower School students have spent the last several weeks doing research projects in the Library, and created artwork tied to those projects in their art class. A technology component was added as students created videos explaining their project. They were all tied together via an app, where users could point a tablet at the artwork hanging in the hallways of Gateway and watch a video from the student explaining their research. Each Lower School grade spent time in Gateway with tablets, walking around and exploring their fellow students’ creations.

Grade 1 students practiced reading a recipe for a historic Berry Fool dessert, then worked with volunteer parents to create the treat. Students read a historic picture book A Fine Dessert: Four Centuries, Four Families, One Delicious Treat about the dessert in class before working with parents to make the recipe.

Led by Upper School seniors Luke Gitter and Nic Gitter, grade 2 students spent time in the Gateway building exploring air quality and the effects of pollution through hands-on experiments.

Grade 1 students spent time in the Library exploring science concepts like electricity that tie into Ben Franklin’s famous experiments.

Inspired by the Boxes for Katje story, St. Margaret’s made their own HOPE Boxes filled with non-perishable food items and toiletries that were donated to Family Assistance Ministries. Stay tuned for a recap and video from this exciting all-school service project!