On two beautiful days in May, Chapin opened its doors to over 500 guests who had come to visit their beloved students in both the Lower and Middle School. These guests of honor for Chapin’s two days of Grandparents’ and Special Friends’ Day were welcomed by Dr. Hayot in the Gordon Room before being fully immersed in the day-to-day lives of their students through class visits and interactive activities. The excitement was palpable as the students eagerly shared their accomplishments and talents with their visitors who were clearly overjoyed to spend quality time with their granddaughters and friends in the school they call home. Read highlights and browse photos from the events below:
Lower School:
In Kindergarten, guests shared carefully prepared memory boxes full of mementos from their lives with the students, after reading the story “Something from Nothing” by Phoebe Gilman. A lesson on the life cycle of a chicken followed with a chance to pet the two little chicks, Hudson and Roosevelt, that are currently residing in the Science room.
In the Class 1 homerooms, students shared their 3D models of ideal communities with their visitors, read the picture book “Only One You” by Linda Kranz, and then worked with their special guests to place inspirational messages and murals on the miniature buildings throughout their communities. The group also made clay models in the art studio, practiced Spanish songs with special visitor Maria the Puppet in the Lower Level Dining Room, and built with Little Bits in Technology class.
Class 2 students and their special guests worked together in the homerooms to write poems about where they are from. The visitors also had the opportunity to observe a Physical Education class, where the students were reviewing the skills they had learned throughout the year – from basketball and curling to paddleball and Frisbee – by moving around to various stations throughout the gym.
Finally, in the Class 3 homerooms, students shared their “Heroes in a Can” – painstakingly decorated coffee cans in the likeness of their heroes – detailing the lives of people ranging from Anne Frank and Harriet Tubman to Albert Einstein and Serena Williams, and interviewed their guests about their own personal heroes. After this, the special visitors either observed a class in the dance studio, spent time in the Lower School library, or worked on paintings in the art studio.
Browse photos from Lower School below:
Middle School:
The Middle School students’ visitors had the opportunity to participate in a wide range of classes across all disciplines, exposing them to the broad variety of skills and subjects Chapin girls learn in Classes 4-7. For example, in the science lab, students and their guests explored the world of genetics and were introduced to Punnett squares, diagrams that are used to determine the probability of offspring having certain genotypes. In the Spanish classroom, students recited their personal odes en español, including one to the beauty of winter and another to procrastinating on the weekends. In Humanities, the group read several famous poems and found the inspiration to compose their own. At the end of the class, several brave students – and even a few grandparents – read their original poems aloud to the group. Finally, in the Assembly Room, guests observed a dance class, featuring a yoga-inspired warm-up stretch set to calming music and modern choreography influenced by Merce Cunningham, an American dancer who developed the “choreography by chance” technique.
Browse photos from Middle School below: