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Mesa Verde Hosts Flurry Of Activity
0423 Dance 2
The students at Mesa Verde were enjoying a bout of the Hokey Pokey on a sunny morning as a reward for raising money for the student council. VIRGINIA STILL/The News

The bright sun and the warm weather provided the perfect backdrop for students at Mesa Verde Elementary School to have a Zumba dance party outdoors on school grounds, Thursday, April 17. The energetic youngsters were rewarded with the dance party for their hard work and efforts in fundraising for the student council. This is the first time the students have been rewarded with a Zumba dance party.

Serving as emcees were second grader Axxel Tan and third grader Dryden Huntley-Jeffords for being the highest fundraisers, along with a couple teachers including Ms. Olivia Fernandez. The dance started out with a fun shimmy of the “Hokey Pokey” where all the kids were watching their teachers, following along putting their ‘left arm in’ and then their ‘left arm out.’

The students and teachers also kept the collective heartbeat rate up and danced to the Village People’s “YMCA.” Teachers were just as enthusiastic as the youngsters they were dancing with, making for a fun event.

Some students also created a conga line that grew with every step they would make. Most of the students were smiling, laughing and dancing about, shouting out how fun it was. The festivities helped the school wrap up classes before spring break.

After the dance party, students from Kathleen Williams’s class were provided with another special treat, a literary party. The students read “Because of Winn-Dixie” by Kate DiCamillo, which was the cause for the party. The parents and students that attended the party were offered light refreshments of Litmus Lozenges, Opal’s Party Sandwiches, pickles, and punch which were all items in the book that they read.

Some of the students expressed their favorite parts of the book and who their favorite characters were.

The students showed interest in the book and were all smiles for the party.

Kindergarten teacher Amber Ryan and her class decorated the hallway in their area with colorful flowers that the students made.

“Our kindergarten students have been learning about word families,” explained Ryan. “The flowers demonstrate their ability to make words within a ‘word family’. Word families also help students fine tune their rhyming skills. We call them ‘Flower Phonics’.”

The students are off this week for Spring Break but will be returning on Monday, April 28.