Fort-building, Community-Building

Waddell Students Come Together In Reading Event

Waddell Elementary students read “The Little Red Fort” last month as part of the school’s second school-wide reading event.

The program, as Waddell’s speech and language therapist Julie Hamilton explained to the Lexington School Board at its May meeting, started in the aftermath of Covid.

“Years ago I partnered with our former school counselor. We were coming back off of Covid, and had some pretty significant social-emotional needs as kids were coming back in and struggling as we moved through that period,” she said.

“We needed to find a way to work with our kiddos in an allinclusive type way.”

This year, Hamilton and guidance counselor Maggie Wilson selected a book that could teach something to all Waddell students.

“The book that we selected was called ‘The Little Red Fort,’ and it is a play on a modernday retelling of ‘The Little Red Hen,’” said Hamilton. “It follows the message of the ‘Little Red Hen’ and really works on the concept of cooperation and the importance of working together.”

The book was chosen to be accessible to younger readers.

“I’m a big believer in the power of a picture book. Even the readers will really dig into a picture book,” said Hamilton.

“And there is so much value in a picture book, so it really kind of takes the pressure off for the older kids. It’s super engaging for everyone in K-5,” she said.

All Waddell staff members received a copy of the book, and were encouraged to hold activities based on the story and its message.

Students constructed a fort of their own, emphasizing themes of cooperation.

“Students had the little wood pallet papers and they were asked to write something about cooperation, and then students from every grade level worked on building it,” Wilson said.

The finished product was displayed in a hall at Waddell.

Second grade classes built more forts throughout the month.

“Our second-graders really stuck on the idea of fort-building, and talked about the importance of how it’s okay to work on your own, and sometimes, you want to bring other people in to your fort to do things,” said Hamilton.

“Because the cooperation is lovely but there’s also an appropriate way to say, ‘You need to leave,’ and honoring someone’s wishes and needs for space,” she said.

“There are a lot of ways that we put together forts to work throughout the month.”

Students at the fourth-grade level worked to compare and contrast “The Little Red Fort” and “The Little Red Hen,” while fifth grade students incorporated the story into lessons on algorithms.

Overall, Hamilton said the event was successful in fostering cooperation within the school.

“It was a really wonderful experience and we saw a lot of positives out of it,” she said. “It was just wonderful to find a book that fit one of the units that Maggie goes in and teaches with all of the students.”

“It’s an exciting month, to see all the things that are going on and how our students can connect their learning across content areas and grade levels and age groups and languages,” said Superintendent Rebecca Walters. “We’re looking forward to next year already.”