Prospect Park — On the last Friday of September, the chilliest day of the fall yet, a horde of ninth graders, new to high school, descended upon the Picnic House. Noises buzzed through the crowd as students chatted about the freezing weather and offered guesses on what kind of  activities would be happening that day. They set up their picnic blankets, some toting board games, others with soccer, volley, and baseballs. Students socialized and hula hooped, waiting for the activities to come.

Then the first activity was announced by Coach Friedman: a round of advisory bingo. To make bingo, the winning advisory would need to complete different activities to form a diagonal, column or row on their advisory’s bingo card. (A copy of the card is printed below.) 

With just one hour to complete their card, the freshmen started scurrying around, inventing advisory names, recording TikToks, playing full body tic-tac-toe, sketching cartoons of their advisors, all racing against the clock. Advisories were neck and neck with each other to reach bingo. Ms. Preissel’s advisory raced to Coach Friedman to announce their victory, to which he shook his head and responded, “Everyone knows it’s double bingo!” 

That sent students back to the task at hand, running around trying to complete another line of Bingo. As  several advisories were closing in on the double bingo, Coach Friedman abruptly announced, “Everyone knows it’s triple Bingo!” meaning students would have to fill three lines of their card to win. The advisories were again racing against the clock to be the first to finish. By now, the Freshmen knew that Coach Friedman was going to keep up with this until an advisory filled their cards completely, so that’s what the students set out to do. 

Minutes later, the clock struck 11, concluding the first activity of the day. Despite the competitive element of the game, the Bingo game had forced students from different cliques and advisories to talk with each other. Instead of just talking with their friends, these high school newbies were branching out and socializing with others. As the gym teachers prepared the next activity, the Class 2026 used the free time to run around. 

The sportiest students walked toward to the vast green field. Though the air was chilly, students dribbled soccer balls or circled up to volley  balls to kill time. Others retreated to the picnic blankets, playing games on their phones or board games. The most social of students simply chatted. Across the field, new friend groups were bonding and coming together, as the Freshmen made introductions to peers across classes and advisories.  “It was a nice socializing experience,” Kayla Cruz later reflected.

In the second challenge of the day,  each advisory formed a tight circle.  The students attempted to pass a hula hoop from each participant to the next while holding and unbroken chain hands. This activity promoted flexibility, collaboration and teamwork among the advisees.

A winning advisory was quickly crowned. And then the students were back to playing on the field. Loic Franco appreciated that “I got to play with my buddies.”

The final competition of the day was a full body rock paper scissors tournament. Students were paired up in advisory and, on the count of three, contorted their bodies into different forms to represent rock, paper and scissors. After winners of each matchup competed against each other, eventually a victor from each advisory was selected. As the entire class gathered to watch, advisories were pitted against each other in a duel. When Coach Friedman announced the winning advisory would receive free ice cream, all bets were off. The ultimate champion? The seemingly reserved Mindy Salazar from Ms. Preissel’s advisory.

Luckily for all the hungry Freshmen, ice cream was on offer for them all as the Parent Association had hired a truck to provide them each with a Carvel Cone.