Wellesley students relish Day of Imagineering

By Rama K. Ramaswamy

Last week, Schofield School enjoyed its Day of Imagineering, a program to which students, teachers, and Principal Gerardo J. Martinez look forward all year.

"The theme this year was for students to think like playground designers and design a fantasy playground for a new school,” said Kristen Toffer, one of three co-chairs for the program. The other two members of the organizing committee were Melissa Johannes and Amy Hernandez. Other parent volunteers such as Melissa Mack and Julie Sarly were also on hand. Art teacher Christine Desrosiers partnered with students to work on the theme and a design book to come up with plans and a supply list for their fantasy playgrounds. WMS 8th grade students volunteered to help out through the day.

In the booklet, students were asked the following questions about their fantasy playgrounds: "Will you create a new structure? What might it look like? How will children use your playground? Will you design a new outdoor game? Will there be learning space for the playground? Be creative and use your imagination! The sky is the limit! List some ideas below that you might want to include in your fantasy playground (write or draw).”

Students responded to the challenges with aplomb, conceiving ideas and engineering them. Schofield's gym floor was covered with designs of all sizes, as were all the classrooms along the corridors leading to it. Some designs were even taller than the student engineers themselves.

“This is great event,” Principal Martinez said of the Day of Imagineering. “It emphasizes our four C’s: creativity, communication, collaboration and critical thinking.”