MARIETTA, Ga. — For many students, the first day of school can be filled with excitement, new friends and new routines.
But Dr. Tricia Patterson — the principal at Lockheed Elementary — knows that enthusiasm can fade quickly.
"You're excited, you can't wait. And you start with learning about rules and procedures and it's a little boring," she told 11Alive. "We wanted to change that up this year and make sure that the first two days of school were fun and engaging for the kids."
The first day of school began with an Olympic opening ceremony, followed by a day of themed activities. The media center offered medal-making and Olympics coloring sheets; the gymnasium offered track and field events.
They watched videos of various Olympic events, sang the national anthem and represented different countries. School leaders renamed the cafeteria the "Athlete's Dining Hall" to stay on theme.
"We took the themes that happen at the Olympics and sort of transferred them to anything that we needed to do for our students," Dr. Patterson said. "Part of the issue with attendance is if they're not excited about their teacher and their friends that are in their class and who they're going to see in the hallways, they don't necessarily want to come to school. So, we want to kind of burn that fire to get them excited about being here every day."
Gifted education teacher Hannah Cronauer noticed the excitement brewing in the first few hours of class.
"Normally, it's more mixed feelings — some anxiety and nervousness — but it's cool to see them all just get excited to do fun things all day," she said. "It's been so fun."