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Learning, laughing and striking a pose at Ridgeway Elementary School

A group of diverse students holds up their colorful handmade plates in a classroom featuring educational posters and an American flag.

There was plenty of learning, music and picture-day fun happening at Ridgeway School on Thursday!

Children dance and move around a red circular mat in a classroom decorated with musical notes and posters.

In Amy Pedulla’s fifth-grade class, students put their creativity to work as they wrapped up a unit on ancient civilizations by designing shields inspired by Aztec art. After researching, presenting and working in groups, students created their own designs, outlined them with glue and covered them with foil to produce an embossed effect.

“We want them to gain an understanding that there were people living here already” before the arrival of European explorers, Ms. Pedulla said.

The shield project serves as the unit’s “cumulative activity,” bringing together what students have studied and researched before they move on to European explorers.

The creativity continued in Jennifer Hommez’s music class, where students were on their feet dancing, making music and trying their hands at a variety of instruments, including percussion.

And then there was Picture Day! Students headed outside for their turn in front of the camera, while classmates did their best to make one another laugh with silly faces from the sidelines. Between poses, there was time for games, conversation and plenty of smiles on a picture-perfect day at Ridgway!

Four smiling children stand close together in the foreground against a blurred background of a grassy park with other people.
A diverse group of children and two adults pose for a photo on a curb in front of a blurred background of green trees and a building.
Two young girls smile and hold hands in the foreground, with parked cars and a grassy area in the background.
Four young girls gather together to look at small white cards in a grassy outdoor setting.
A woman in a green shirt holds a tambourine in the foreground, set against a background featuring a chalkboard and a brick wall.
Two young boys in polo shirts stand in the foreground, with one whispering into the other's ear against a blurred outdoor background of grass and a street.
Three children sit and talk on a paved path, with a grassy area and a cooler in the background.
A smiling boy with braces wearing a white shirt and red tie sits in a classroom with desks and other students in the background.
A woman in a grey sweater and a young girl with long brown hair look closely at an object in the foreground against a plain, neutral background.
A young girl with long brown hair holds a foil-covered object in the foreground, with blurred orange chairs and a classroom setting in the background.
A woman with long grey hair helps a young boy in a white shirt and red tie with an art project in a classroom filled with other students and colorful displays.