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Published Sunday, November 13, 2011 in Education

Special

The ECMS Connections Team dressed as "Toy Story" characters for Dictionary Day.

Dictionary Day takes place of Halloween costumes at East Coweta Middle School

From Staff Reports

education@newnan.com

During the days leading up to Halloween this year, the focus at East Coweta Middle School was not on "Trick or Treat," candy, and ghoulish masks. Instead, teachers and students asked each other, "What word are you going to be?"

Dictionary Day began six years ago with teacher Heather Carroll and an idea from her former school. Dr. Nancy Cook, principal, loved the idea, and language arts teachers created the plan.

Students were to find an unusual but grade-level appropriate vocabulary word and then dress in a way that represented that word. They were to wear that word, the name of its part of speech, and the word's definition around their necks.

The assignment: to collect 25 different vocabulary words during the day, write the definitions, and have the owner of the word sign the collection sheet.

On Friday, October 28 of this year, students in pajamas walked the halls wearing signs that read indolent, languorous, lethargic, quiescent, apathetic, or somnolent.

Others in dress suits or graduation robes were pedagogues, inculcators, and academicians.

Super-heroes wore the words brawny, eminent, dominant, or notorious.

Some dressed in elaborate store-bought costumes with hats or headdresses. Others wore homemade and very creative costumes of cardboard, cloth, aluminum foil, jewelry, athletic gear, and various uniforms.

Administrators, teachers, and staff members at East Coweta Middle were also involved in the Dictionary Day activities.

Connections teachers are renowned for their representations of characters from literature and drama. One year they portrayed the entire cast of The Wizard of Oz, wearing adjectives around their necks that described the character they were portraying.

In 2010 they honored the characters from J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series. This year they arrived as the cast from the movie Toy Story, again selecting characteristics that described the toys, dolls, and action figures.

One team of sixth grade teachers this year dressed as different fears and phobias. The entire seventh grade staff came as roller derby participants, wearing vocabulary words that related to their particular subject area - circumference, lexicographer, and chronologist.

Some teachers have been decrepit or antiquated with their canes, sprayed-gray hair, and crocheted shawls.

Another was omniscient with cardboard eyes on the back of the head.

One sports fanatic educator came to school totally in University of Tennessee orange from head to toe, including hair.

Principal Dr. Cook demonstrated her wanderlust for a future trip out of the country.

Dictionary Day has become a favorite annual tradition at East Coweta Middle. Everyone learns new vocabulary words. Students and teachers work together to find uncommon words and to design costumes to represent them.

Parents in the parking lots both look and laugh as students walk from their buses into the building, and visitors in the front office stay to see the excitement. Who says learning can't be fun?

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