Halloween Celebrated

Early in the week, members of Wakefield’s Key Club and Student Government led younger students through a scary haunted house, complete with narrow passageways and a spooky cobweb corridor. Various spooky characters were strategically posted along the route, and students in grades four and above who chose to take the tour responded with delighted screams.

According to Head of School Kathleen Grove,

“Good spirits, in both senses of the word, filled Wednesday, a wonderful day at our school. We entered the auditorium for assembly to dim lights, creating the atmosphere for the program. The invocation related to All Saints’ Day, which I described briefly and which led to a discussion of ‘the day of the dead’ in Latin America. Six WCDS middle school students just returned from a week at Westhill Institute in Mexico City with first-hand accounts of this celebration. The fourth grade took the stage to recite a portion of “The Raven” by Edgar Alan Poe, concluding with a threatening wave of the raven’s wing. Next, the eleventh grade students presented excerpts from Macbeth. The fearsome witches recited their chants and riddles with spooky tones. An apparition warned Macbeth even as the thane interpreted the warning as reassurance of his invincibility. Lady Macbeth and MacDuff also spoke, as the witches appeared and disappeared behind spreading fog.”

Later in the day, the kindergarteners in costumes visited the Lynn Care Center, where they recited the fall poems, “Autumn Fires,” “October,” and “Halloween” to the residents. In the afternoon, the youngest children performed poems and songs in the auditorium for a very appreciative audience of parents and faculty. The princesses and superheroes, dinosaurs and ghosts then paraded through the school, trick-or-treating at each office and classroom. Following up on a recommendation from Student Government, upper school English classes read scary but literary passages while enjoying fall treats. The eighth grade class extended the oral tradition of the epic they are studying (Gilgamesh, The Ramayana, The Iliad) by telling a ghost story. Students in grades seven and eight enjoyed their own classroom haunted house, where they matched candy to mythological characters and creatures, among other spooky assignments.

A group of WCDS seventh and eighth grade students attended the Junior Classical League Kickoff Certamen on Saturday, October 27, where they competed against teams from approximately 20 other schools. The Level I team of Marc Cugnon, Henry Johnson, and Carl Liles won all their rounds and placed fifth based on total points. The Level I Advanced Team of John Morgan Christoph, Julia Hale, Will Mullany, and Ryan Ochoa had a strong showing and placed fourth.

Spirit Week and Assorted Homecoming Celebrations Take Center Stage at WCDS

October 9 – 12 marked Wakefield Country Day School’s annual “Spirit Week” -- fun-filled days that featured sports jersey day, crazy hat and clash day, movie character day, and red and white day. Students showed amazing creativity throughout the week, choosing interesting themes and innovative costumes. Among the characters who paraded the halls were three seventh grade girls dressed identically in white with pink ears, whiskers and canes (Three Blind Mice), Harry Potter and an assortment of his cohorts, replicas of the Titanic, a collection of Disney characters, an airplane, and Audrey Hepburn from Breakfast at Tiffany’s (a tenth grade girl). Friday evening, the Homecoming celebrations began with the traditional prep school bonfire hosted by the Key Club, while a reception for alumni took place indoors. Many of the more recent graduates divided their time between the two events. Then, bright and early Saturday morning, a group of local runners representing several counties showed up for the newest addition to the WCDS fall line-up – a 5K Fun Run to raise funds for the Athletic Department. Mid-morning, scores of families, friends, and neighbors turned out to take advantage of the idyllic fall day and enjoyed a host of outdoor activities on the WCDS grounds. The booth offerings included a variety of children’s games, assorted delicious foods, and attractions such as face painting; a cake walk; a moon bounce; pie-throwing; tests of skill; and a yard sale. Individual classes and school clubs were given the opportunity to raise funds for their specific projects. The Class of 2008 transformed the senior garden into a café, serving delicious Italian cuisine to a packed house, and the afternoon concluded with an exhilarating soccer match between Wakefield alumni and prep school players that ended in with a tie score. The weekend festivities concluded with the traditional Homecoming dance for the upper school students on Saturday evening.