Snow could not stop the incredible experiences that flurried through the Lower School at MICDS for Beasley Winter Term 2025. After being rescheduled due to a string of snow days, students embraced experiential learning with the help of bikes, balloon cars, guest visitors, art, reading, and so much more. „Everywhere I looked, I saw smiling faces and focused learning,“ exclaimed Dr. Sally Maxwell, Assistant Head of School for Teaching and Learning. What an impactful Winter Term for our youngest learners at MICDS!
For these three special days, students across our Junior Kindergarten through fourth-grade grade levels were mixed into 16 different groups led by our Lower School teachers. Centron Felder, Lower School Learning Specialist, remarks, „I enjoyed our mixed-age Winter Term classrooms, which foster community and resemble a symphony of collaboration. Older students mentor gracefully, while younger ones contribute boundless creativity, creating a vibrant tapestry of learning and growth for everyone.“ The groups each had their own Morning Meeting to begin the school days. After that, the Winter Term activities, adventures, and lessons began. Check out the avalanche of fun and learning below that took place at Lower School this week.
Ozobot Journeys & The Red Bicycle
On Monday, students read a story about a very special bicycle called The Red Bicycle: The Extraordinary Story of One Ordinary Bicycle by Jude Isabella. Through the plot, they learned how one ordinary bicycle in North America is outgrown by its owner and then donated to an organization that sends bikes to Africa. There, the bike helps a child get to her family’s field and to the market more efficiently as her main method of transportation. Later, the bicycle is given to a young woman who uses it to deliver medications and bring sick people to the hospital. Overall, Beasley students discovered how one ordinary bicycle—and a child’s desire to help others—changed the world.
Students then headed to the South Gym where they used an Ozobot, a small, programmable robot that teaches kids how to code, to represent the red bicycle. Overseen by Paul Zahller, JK-12 Science Department Chair & Upper School Science Teacher, they were tasked with utilizing story cards and Ozobot magnet tiles to create a map showing the path the red bicycle took in the story. After putting the story cards in order and calibrating their Ozobots, they had fun taking the Ozobots on a journey!
Cardboard Balloon Cars
Prior to being in the gym on Monday morning, each Lower School student was provided with one balloon car kit. The kit contained cardboard wheels and a cardboard body, straw, sticks, a balloon, and a rubber band. With the help of their teachers, they also used glue, tape, scissors, and markers to piece the car together.
Students decorated their car bases and wheels while the third graders in each group shared about their Izzy’s Wheels project. Izzy Wheels is a company that makes colorful and fun wheelchair cover designs to, as co-creator Ailbhe Keane describes, “challenge negative associations with wheelchairs and let users celebrate their individuality by personalizing their source of independence.“ The third graders had just constructed mini wheel-chair covers in art class, inspired by Izzy’s Wheels.
Next, students got to work affixing the wheels and axles, shaping the car’s body, attaching the wheel and axle sets to the bottom of the car base, and securing their straws to the balloons with the rubber bands. Lastly, they raced the cars at one of the stations in the South Gym. Students blew up their balloons or used the balloon inflator provided by one of the teachers, and to their delight, they saw their balloons wheel across the gym floor.
Yard Games
A third station in the South Gym was filled with yard games. Students played Giant Jenga, built castles with blocks, tossed washers, had fun with Connect Four, and took in games of checkers. The bonds with fellow Rams across grade levels were already growing as students laughed together during this first morning of Winter Term in their mixed Beasley groups!
Monday’s first day of Winter Term concluded with reading the book You Are Enough by Sofia Sanchez—a book with themes of celebrating differences, finding what makes each person unique, and including everyone. Students in their mixed-age groups worked together to create a slide that celebrates each unique person and encourages others to embrace diversity, which was shared in a closing Winter Term slideshow on Wednesday.
Bike Rodeo
On Tuesday, the second day of Winter Term, the morning kicked off with an assembly. Students met a guest from Trailnet, an organization that helps communities promote safe biking and walking paths. Trailnet helps communities advocate for change to improve roadways and sidewalks so cars, bikes, and pedestrians can share spaces. The guest talked about the importance of safety while biking as children.
Following that, biking experts from Big Shark Bicycle Company led Beasley students participating in MICDS‘ first-ever Bike Rodeo! Group by group, students donned their helmets and were assigned bikes that were provided by kind Lower School families who lent their bikes. Then, they pedaled along a course in the South Gym that was complete with traffic signals, cones, and plenty of teachers helping direct students along the biking path. „Fellow Lower School PE Teacher Jim Lohr and I had a new experience with our first bike rodeo of our LONG careers, and it was a first and new experience for ALL,“ shares Sue Orlando, Lower School PE Teacher. „It was the first time some children rode a bicycle. The students were excited whether using a normal bike, one with training wheels, or a tricycle. Many of them left the gym saying it was the BEST DAY EVER!“ Yee-haw!
Artists First
In Tuesday’s assembly, students met three guest artists from Artists First, an organization that helps disabled people do art in a comfortable way that feels okay to them. They have special paint materials such as a band that can be put on a paintbrush or pencil for someone who can’t bend their fingers. During the day, Artists First helped students create an art piece together using modified tools in the Woodworking Room.
The day also included the reading of two books. Students read Colors of the Wind: The Story of Blind Artist and Champion Runner George Mendoza. They learned about Mendoza’s inspiring story and how he overcame his challenges to create art and become an Olympic runner. Additionally, they explored abstract art as a way to express emotions and ideas, and they created t-shirt art that was inspired by the themes and art in the book.
At another point during the day, Lower Schoolers also read When Charley Met Emma by Amy Webb. This reading was followed by discussion questions that focused on kindness and empathy.
Building Paper Houses
For the third and final day of Lower School Winter Term, students had a morning assembly, which included visits by Duo Dogs and representatives of the Ronald McDonald House. Then, they returned to their classrooms, where they had the opportunity to build their own paper houses. With the help of a house template on paper, they decorated their houses with markers, cut them out, and showed what was inside their houses by drawing on the backsides of the houses in the white space. They also made bookmarks to donate to guests of the Ronald McDonald House and thank you cards for the Winter Term guests.
Duo Dogs
Next, Lower School groups welcomed the Duo Dogs into their classes. They got to pet the dogs and learn more about them.
That’s a Wrap!
Winter Term wrapped up with a closing assembly. Each of the 16 Lower School groups presented their slides—one with a group picture and the other they created about celebrating differences.
In sum, Winter Term was a huge success this week! „I absolutely loved seeing the children learning together in mixed grade-level groups,“ reflects Amy Scheer, Head of Lower School. „Watching new friendships form and witnessing the enthusiasm of students as they tried new things—like riding a bicycle for the first time—was truly heartwarming. It was inspiring to see their curiosity and excitement as they learned about several incredible organizations that support the larger St. Louis community.“
What a fun, meaningful, and unique experience Winter Term 2025 was for our students. Thank you to all of the guests and teachers who made these three days so special for students!