Upper Schoolers Make Videos for Lower Schoolers

Betty Weaver, Reporter

A few weeks ago on April 17, Head of the Upper School Steve Stackhouse sent out an email introducing the Upper Schoolers to a new “Shelter-in-Place Community Service Challenge.” This new challenge allows upper school students to submit a video of themselves teaching a lesson or activity for Lower Schoolers. 

Once the high schooler submits his or her video, counselors will take all of the video links and make them available for the Lower School students and their parents to browse. These videos will be available to the teachers and will give parents a well-deserved break.

Some of the different options for these videos include “reading an appropriate storybook, teaching how to draw basic cartoons or animals, conducting a simple science experiment, teaching a silly dance, [or even] teaching a simple math fact game,” according to Stackhouse’s email.

Jacqui Cook ‘22 made a video teaching Lower Schoolers how to draw a giraffe using your hands. 

“I have been so bored during quarantine, and when I was younger, I loved watching tutorials about how to draw animals,” Cook said. “I thought someone else would enjoy watching a video [about something] I had learned when I was young. It was super fun and easy to make.” 

Another upper school student, Davis Ryder ‘22, made a video about putting food coloring in milk and how there are cool reactions afterwards.

“I wanted to show Lower Schoolers how to do it because when I was younger, my mom showed me, and I thought it was really cool,” Ryder said. “I think it is fun to see the colors disperse within the milk and watching the cool designs it makes.”

Upper School students are even allowed to “be a star and co-host to a virtual assembly. The Head of Lower School Trey Blair is seeking some Upper School guest stars to visit his Friday Lower School assemblies. [The] times are 9 a.m. (Grades 3-4), 10 a.m. (Grades 1-2), and 11 a.m. (JK/K),” Stackhouse said.

In return for this video, upper school students can earn one hour of community service credit for each accepted assembly/video lesson.