Lower School’s recent literacy-STEM event, Wonderworks, centered around Kobi Yamada’s award-winning book, What Do You Do With an Idea? The book, which encourages children to nurture and embrace their ideas, was read aloud by Lower School Principal Heather Tibbetts at the start of the event. “And then, I realized what you do with an idea…” Tibbetts read to a gym full of captivated students. “You change the world.” 

With that call to action ringing in their ears, students broke out into six literacy and STEM-related activity groups. They teamed up or worked solo to build creations out of boxes and found items; they learned to write biographical poems; they problem-solved with peers and parents at discussion tables; they built paper airplanes and iterated on their designs until they could fly the length of the gym; they swapped books; and they learned how to bring their own idea to life during a reading of What Is Hip-Hop? by author Eric Morse (US’90). 

“The goal was to encourage families to engage in literacy and STEM activities with their children,” says event coordinator and second-grade teacher Jessica Hervey (C'98). “The event was a huge success! I especially appreciated watching the engagement between the families and their children in every activity, from building paper airplanes to writing poetry together. We hope families take some of the activities presented here and continue to further investigate what you can do with an idea, as Kobi Yamada inspired us to do!"