Duster Day creates connections at Clear Creek Middle School

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BY DEB HURLEY BROBST DBROBST@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

A decades-old tradition continued at Clear Creek Middle School when the sixth graders from the elementary schools gathered for Duster Day.

Duster Day is a way for the rising seventh graders from King-Murphy and Carlson elementary schools and Georgetown Community School to get acclimated to a new building and to meet some of the middle school’s upperclassmen. e students meet teachers, play games, work on teambuilding activities and have fun.

It’s all about building connections.

On May 23, students played cornhole and Jenga, drew with chalk on the sidewalk, played games on the athletic eld and concentrated on turning over a tarp using primarily their feet and using wood pieces to cross a pretend river, trying not to fall in the water, which meant they had to start over.

Keela McDonough and Izzy Fitch have taken part in Duster Day before, but now as eighth graders, their job was to make the new middle schoolers feel welcome.

“It helps them be able to see the school before they start school here, and we can help build relationships with the new students,” McDonough said.

Fitch added that the teamwork activities help students get to know each other.

“Duster Day gives kids the opportunity to get to know their peers across schools,” said Heidi Lupinacci, Carlson’s early childhood coordinator. “It allows the current middle schoolers to model and talk about the skills the (new seventh graders) will need in middle school.”

Carlson sixth graders Luke Royer, Mia Leone, Audrey Amann and McKayla Andrews took a break after a team-building exercise. ey agreed that the school building was larger than Carlson, and they hope they won’t get lost in the building when school starts in August.

“ ey have more freedom than we do,” Andrews said of the middle schoolers.

Royer added: “ e teachers and students are nice, and it will be good to see familiar faces when we start school here.”