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Incoming St.Patrick School kindergartener Michael McAuliffe is pictured during a Zoom camp led by his older sister Caroline, an incoming eighth grader at the Larkspur K-8 school (Courtesy photo)
July 17, 2020
Christina Gray
Catholic San FranciscoAn incoming eighth-grader at St. Patrick School designed and led a weeklong virtual kindergarten camp to welcome new kindergarteners to the K-8 school in Larkspur.
Caroline McAuliffe came up with the idea after all of her summer camps and activities were cancelled due to COVID-19, her mother Nicole told Catholic San Francisco in a July 15 email.
The camp ran July 13-17 in two daily sessions.
“Caroline saw the need for these little ones to feel connected during this very lonely, socially distant time and she devised a way to make it happen,” she said.
In a flyer promoting the free camp to incoming kindergarten families, Caroline introduced herself to school families. She said she was motivated to design and host the camp for incoming kindergarteners like her brother Michael. The in-person camps that normally welcome kindergarteners were cancelled due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Each 30-minute Zoom session was geared to help the young students get to know school schedules and each other. Each day, campers practiced the Pledge of Allegiance and the school creed and then read a story or did a craft or game together.
“Yesterday, she used the story “Pigs Make Me Sneeze,” by Mo Willems to teach the children the importance of hand washing and wearing a mask,” Nicole said.
According to her mother, Caroline’s own recent distance learning experiences at St. Patrick gave her the confidence and motivation to offer the camp. Lessons and activities got the stamp of approval from principal Angela Hadsell — as well as her little brother Michael.
The vast majority of the 22 incoming kindergarteners participated, with Caroline hosting a morning and afternoon session to give families the flexibility to participate.
Nicole said she was eager to share a positive story when there is so much bad news and “complaining about how schools have failed our children with distance learning.”
“That was not the case with my children at St. Pat’s,” she said. “Caroline is a testament to this fact.”
Caroline also has a younger sister entering fifth grade there.
“Catholic schools can and do lead the way in making our community stronger,” she said.