Stephen Bell Elementary is well known for its beginning of year events. From the Food Truck Festival for first and second graders to the Scavenger Hunt for Kindergarteners. While these events have been successful, Administration still found something missing.
So the leadership at Stephen Bell decided this year would be a good time to start something new for their incoming Kindergarten families.
While in the past, families were welcomed in during their introductory meeting with the teachers and then during the Kindergarten Scavenger hunt, held in mid-September, this year they added opportunity to get into the school to meet some very important people.
“I created this event for our youngest learners to establish a bond with the office staff (Principal, Assistant Principal, Counselor, Secretaries, and Nurse) in a fun, interactive way so they could see our big school with their own family,” Principal Ginger Keeton said.
Keeton, in her 32nd year of education, saw a problem she could fix with the event, noting how nervous new students can be during their first days of school.
“For years, our Kindergarten students experience their orientation event with their Kindergarten Teacher,” she said “On Day 1, when the Kindergarten Teacher needs help from the office staff, one of us shows up and we are a stranger to this child.”
Keeton thought about how that might affect a 5- or 6-year-old student and decided a good idea to meet Assistant Principal Heather Hebrank, Nurse Laura Guess, Counselor Jonathan Newsome and office staff Marjorie Horvath and Kelly Newlon, as well as herself, was to create a time when students and their families could get into the building before the year began.
And of course in a way only Stephen Bell Elementary can, they made it a fun event people are still talking about.
“It’s so great to meet all of our new families and have an opportunity to put some names and faces in place before the first day of school,” Hebrank said.
Students picked up their Purple cursive B bags, signed their letters of intent, took photos at various booths, got their first golden ticket, checked out the SOAR shop and more.
“It's more important now than ever before, that we connect with our Kindergarten students before they even enter the classroom so they recognize our faces,” Keeton said. “ We want to build a relationship with our youngest learners immediately to decrease or possibly eliminate unexpected behaviors so our students are available to learn at Stephen Bell. The goal is always students first!”