In preparation for the upcoming USC-UCLA football game, McKinley Elementary School held their annual “Rivalry Day”.
This year they hosted a special guest – the USC Trojan mascot, Traveler!
Each year before the college rivalry, kids choose either UCLA or USC to root for, and they can wear UCLA or USC t-shirts or buttons, or just don the colors of the college of their choice. During recess, students were handed stickers from both schools and had relay races with USC and UCLA footballs.
The event is part of College Month at McKinley. If children start thinking about going to college in elementary school, they see it as a reality, as something they can actually do. To help them with this vision, we have events throughout the month of November that focus on colleges and going to college.
At the beginning of the month, they had “College Day,” where kids wore t-shirts with the name of any college they like, and they made pennants at recess with the names of colleges they would like to go to. Also, a “College Hall,” at the entrance of the school, where pennants hang from colleges from all over the country. Fifth graders will take a field trip to UCLA, and college becomes a reality to them when they see the wonderful opportunity available to them in their hometown.
There is also a “scholarship jar” in the library and the kids bring money to school on their library days and contribute to it. At the end of the year, we will award a scholarship to a senior who attended McKinley, is graduating from John Burroughs High School, and is going on to college. The McKinley kids get to see how important it is to start saving for college now, and the recipient comes back to McKinley and talks about going to college and how McKinley helped him or her prepare for it.
