LAVALLETTE — The Lavallette Elementary School student body held its combined Bubbles for Autism/Show What You Know pep rally on April 30, where the students celebrated neurodivergence while also getting pumped for state standardized testing.
It was a beautiful day outside Lavallette School last Wednesday, with the entire student body participating in the pep rally. During the event, student representatives from each grade level — pre-kindergarten through eighth grade — presented different aspects of autism awareness which they found to be especially relevant during April, which is Autism Awareness Month.
Following the presentations from the students about the lessons they took from Autism Awareness Month, each of Lavallette School’s more than 100 students blew bubbles simultaneously, creating a cloud of bubbles of all different sizes.
“Each bubble is different in size, shape and how it floats, just like every person has their own unique way of seeing and interacting with the world,” said Lindsey Knehr, Lavallette School’s supervisor of Response to Intervention (RTI) and instructional technology. “This reminds us to celebrate neurodiversity and approach others with empathy and openness; like bubbles that float and spread, awareness and kindness can ripple out.”
Eighth-grader Emma Long said, “During Autism Awareness Month, you learn to love everybody for who they are. It’s very great to come out here, celebrating everybody despite our differences. They make us who we are.”
For the Show What You Know portion of the pep rally, the kids prepared — with fun chants, jokes and encouraging words — to take on the New Jersey State Learning Assessment (NJSLA), which was administered to third- through eighth-graders in math, science and English language arts this week.
Assistant Principal Mike Hajisafari told the students that the tests are their chance to “show everyone just how capable they are;” he also cracked some dad jokes to loosen up the students’ nerves before they went into their week of testing.
“Why did the boy eat his homework?” Hajisafari asked. “Because his teacher said it was a piece of cake.”
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