Marion Street Elementary School aimed to foster a community of acceptance, inclusion and kindness during Unity Week from Oct. 22-26. As a culmination of the week, classes participated in “Manners Escape Room,” a team building activity with their peers on Oct. 26.
Each class used their imaginations as they were challenged to work together to help tame wild animals that escaped from a safari park. The students had to show basic manners to return the animals to the park and discovered the manners through puzzles which unlocked doors. The activity emphasized collaboration, problem-solving skills and the students’ team work abilities as respect and polite actions were reinforced. Students were tasked with finding clues around the classroom which they read aloud on their journey.
The team building activity, along with other Unity Week initiatives, were made possible due to the support of Marion Street’s Unity Committee. The team included faculty members Kara Boulay, Amy Brennan, Katie Bruno, Alexa Carvelli, Diana Intrabartola, Colleen Kiss, Jennifer Powder, Michelle Puglisi, Nicole Sherry and Margaret O’Brien.
“Throughout the week our kindness theme was using good manners and being good friends so we decided to try to escape the room in honor of our theme today which is Teaming Up for Kindness,” said reading/ENL teacher Nicole Sherry. “We were encouraging all the classes to work as a team to try and solve the different manner puzzles to figure out the secret phrase at the end which was ‘Be The Reason Someone Smiles.’”