Wheatland Center School hosts senior alums for feedback

Some Wilmot Union High School and Central High School seniors found themselves in a nostalgic setting Thursday back at their grade school alma mater, Wheatland Center School.

About 30 seniors came back to the school to give feedback on how Wheatland had prepared them for high school, explained Wheatland Principal Drew Halbesma. The students filled out a survey in one of the grade school’s computer labs. The questions asked students how they felt about their readiness for various aspects of high school from academics to extracurricular activities.

The high schoolers also were fed a pizza lunch and talked to eighth grade students about what’s to come in high school.

When the seniors first walked in comments like “this is weird” and “I miss this school” could be heard. When they later entered a computer lab, someone said “This smells like eighth grade.” There were many teacher-students reunions.

The seniors capped off the day with a round of Wheatland Center favorite “Elf Hunting.” Elf Hunting, explained Wheatland physical education teacher Bill Lois, “is a Winter Holiday game that we do with our 3rd through 8th graders in different variations depending on the age level. It is an aerobic game where the students are challenged to make it from one end of the gymnasium to the other in a zigzag fashion without being spotted by the spotlight. They have approximately 30 different  obstacles to make it through to get to the end.”

This was the first year for the senior feedback visit, Halbesma said. He was pleased with the turnout for the initial year.

“It was great,” Halbesma said of the response. “We didn’t know how it would turn out.”

Said Lois: “We are hoping to continue the tradition if the interest from our past students warrant it.”

But Halbesma also was not naive about the draw of getting to play Elf Hunting one more time before venturing out to the adult world.

“Half of them are here because of the game,” Halbesma said.

Here are some more photos:

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