Giggles. Squeals. Shouts of “Best Day Ever!” – all things passersby would have heard near Somerville Field on Wednesday, Feb. 11 as the George L. Cooke Elementary School celebrated their inaugural Winter Fun Day.
Cooke’s wellness committee has been emphasizing outdoor activities for the 2024-25 school year. Supported by the generosity of local donors, and an Empowering a Healthier Generation grant from Sullivan 180, the school completed an outdoor learning area earlier this year. The outdoor learning area includes an outdoor classroom, walking trails, hills, bridges, and other features designed to encourage students (and teachers!) to spend more time outdoors, as research shows that the benefits of outdoor learning are vast, citing an increase in focus, creativity, engagement, and problem-solving skills, to name a few.
As part of their commitment to developing students’ connection with the outdoors, the school invited interested second-grade students to become “Nature Ambassadors” – peer leaders who lend student insight to the outdoor learning initiative. The ambassadors felt that their classmates needed more opportunities to get outside during the cold winter months, and the concept of Winter Fun Day was born. From sledding down the big hill at Somerville field, to indoor “snowball” fights with cotton balls, the Nature Ambassadors planned a day filled with activities that all students could enjoy.
Over the past year, the school has been collecting donations of winter clothing, gear, and activities to ensure that all students are able to go outdoors during the colder months. The school also used a portion of the grant money from Sullivan 180 to purchase snowshoes and sleds. Thanks to the generosity of the community, students were able to choose indoor activities, outdoor activities on blacktop, or the full head-to-toe snowsuit experience of exploring Somerville Field on Winter Fun Day.
For many of the students, it was the first time they ever experienced the exhilaration of racing down a sledding hill with the wind whipping against their cheeks with their friends cheering them on at the bottom, and the squeals of pure delight reflected that. For others, Winter Fun Day was a reminder that there is no such thing as bad weather – just bad gear. And for all – it was a day of creating core memories of winter fun with their friends and teachers.
Watch second-grade Nature Ambassador Anna explain what the program is all about