The school year is drawing to a close, but it’s not too early to get a jumpstart on next
Fall. That was the idea behind the Taconic and Green’s May 29th Field Day for nearly 300 fifth, sixth, and seventh graders. It was a day of introductions, connections, and fun. But the event served a bigger purpose, as well.
T&G middle school students will be realigned for the 2026-27 academic year. Middle school students traditionally attending The Dorset School and Manchester Elementary Middle School (MEMS), will be merged into the recently named Equinox Valley Middle School located in the venerable MEMS school building in Manchester. Meanwhile, next year students in Grades 6-8 from Landgrove, Londonderry, Peru, and Weston will continue to attend the Flood Brook School.
“Given the change, we decided to bring all of next year’s middle school students together for a T&G Field Day,” said Tracy Zaino, T&G Middle Level Instructional Coach. “We had kids from every T&G School: Dorset and MEMS, plus next year’s 6th graders currently attending Currier and Sunderland. Even with no changes at Flood Brook, we wanted to add all of them in the mix. We are one community.”
T&G’s version of an old fashioned mixer took place at the Manchester Recreational Center. Students were first separated by grade and then each grade was divided into eight teams. Three grades, eight teams per grade, 24 teams in all.
The team groups got to know each other by first selecting a mascot and then designing their own T-shirt. In no time, students were donning shirts and chanting in friendly competition for: Sea Lions, Woolly Mammoths, Team Rock, and Flaming Hot Pickles, to name just a few.
Group competitions dominated the day’s agenda. They played kickball and other physical feats of fun. One contest called noodle chaos matched a blindfolded player student from each team, who is then cheered on by teammates to first find a foam noodle and then defend its team’s honor in the equivalent of a noodle pillow fight. Go figure. The kids loved it.
Perhaps the favorite attraction was an orienteering contest known as Rebus Puzzles: brain teasers that use images, symbols, and spatial positioning to represent common words, idioms, or phrases. In a nod to a scavenger hunt, teams had to find locations on a map of the Recreational Center where they would find and then solve a Rebus Puzzle before moving on. The words man and board positioned with man on top and board below, for example, translates to: Man overboard.
All the activities led to healthy appetites and the award winning BRSU kitchen staff was ready to serve. A picnic lunch included hot dogs, veggie burgers, beans, chips, carrots, apples and milk.
By all accounts, the day was a success, best summed up by one of the middle schoolers to a new friend: “Great to meet you,” called out the student. “I can’t wait until next year!”
(Photo above: MEMS Physical Education teacher Brian Jennings spells out the instructions for the Rebus Puzzle activity, one of the most popular events at the T&G Field Day.)
The T&G middle school team groups got to know each other by first selecting a mascot and then designing their own T-shirt.
In a contest called “noodle chaos,” blindfolded players defend their team’s honor in the equivalent of a noodle pillow fight.
Kickball was just one of many activities at the T&G Middle School Field Day.
A member of Team Flaming Hot Pickles (right) mixes with members from other teams.
All the activities at the T&G Field Day led to healthy appetites and the award winning BRSU kitchen staff was ready to serve.