A ghost pumpkin holds a sign with the contest’s name as a Spider-Man pumpkin peeks in from the back.
Reminder Publishing photos by Peter Tuohy
EAST LONGMEADOW — For the past month or so, Birchland Park Middle School students have spent their advisory periods painting pumpkins as part of the Student Support Team’s “BOO! to Bullying” contest.
The contest utilized the student’s advisory periods to paint pumpkins with a centralized theme of preventing bullying.
Completed pumpkins were displayed inside the Birchland Park cafeteria on Oct. 29 for each student to see and for judges to choose from.
Birchland Park’s advisory periods are a part of the district’s multi-tiered system of support process. Advisory is the first tier of three support systems.
Students engage in inclusive and universally designed grade-level instruction to build skills across the four MTSS domains – school belonging, academic success, social-emotional development and health and wellness.
Each advisory period received two pumpkins, with 100 in total provided by Meadowbrook Farms and Realtor Kim Turnberg.
Students worked together during advisory, with each student having the opportunity to contribute in the process. Pumpkins focused on positive messages of support, empathy and standing up against bullying.
Some pumpkins were designed after characters from pop culture, such as The Lorax or the Count from Sesame Street.
Students in Lori Figuerado’s seventh grade student support designed their pumpkins as a bee saying “bullying stings” and a frog saying “jump to stop bullying.”
Birchland Park Principal Steve Pearson told Reminder Publishing anti-bullying is a theme the school touches on every year.
“We bring a group of kids together,” Pearson said. “We need a lot of reminders that sometimes we just need to be nice to each other … It’s not just about building that culture here but letting everyone know to look out for each other and report things when things don’t feel right.
He said advisory periods are “all hands on deck” for the entire staff, and his advisory period has really enjoyed the project.
He said it’s all about reinforcing the message to stick up for each other and be upstanders.
“October is anti-bullying month but it’s a year-long theme,” Pearson said. “We are against bullying here and we want kids to recognize that … All the kids will see the pumpkins as they come in for lunch, so we can judge the reactions of the entire student body.”
Top row, from left: Birchland Park Middle School students placed their pumpkins in a group on stage in the cafeteria. Pumpkins designed after the character, Anxiety, from “Inside Out 2” and the Lorax promote anti-bullying. Lori Figuerado’s students designed their pumpkins as a bee and a frog against bullying. Bottom row: Students from Michelle Lacroix’s advisory period designed their pumpkins as a bookshelf with themes of tackling bullying. This skeleton pumpkin plays to the beat of its own drum.
Reminder Publishing photos by Peter Tuohy
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