Reed Rally Welcomes New Students And Families

By Eliza Hallabeck

From learning about food options in the school’s cafetorium to dancing at the school’s main entrance, new students and their families attended activities at the 7th Annual Reed Rally on Wednesday, September 9.

From 5 to 6 pm on, students and their families were invited to sit on the hills outside of the entrance and share a picnic. Some brought sandwiches, and others brought pizza. Signs were hung on the fence surrounding the school to welcome and separate the students, while they ate in groups from the different elementary schools in the district.

At 6 pm the activities began with school teachers and staff leading them. Four stations were set up around the school.

In the gymnasium students and family members waited in line behind a cone with a picture on it to compete against other lines. The person at the start of each line had to run across the gym, pick up a colored piece of paper, and turn it over to see a picture waiting for them on the other side. If the photo on the paper matched the photo on their cone, they could pick up the paper and return to their line. The line with the most pieces of paper at the end of their given time won.

In the school’s cafetorium a slideshow of photos, taken from the first couple days of the school year, was shown, and ice popsicles were handed out.

In the school’s art  room Resident Dietician for Chartwells, Jill Patterson, gave a presentation for students and parents showing them the types of food they can expect to encounter in the school’s cafetorium. During the presentation Ms Patterson asked for a volunteer from the audience to read through a couple of tests to see if the audience members could correctly identify complete meals.

“Does anyone know what we need for a balanced meal?” Ms Patterson said. She finished after a few answers; a food from each food group. For example, two tacos, a carton of milk and two oranges is a meal. A burger, cookie and potato, according to the presentation, is not a meal.

At the front entrance of the school “DJ Brown & Dance Fitness” waited for each of the four student-and-family groups to make their way to the station. Reed Intermediate teacher Matthew Brown acted as DJ for the day, and other teachers and staff assisted him in leading students and family together for dances.