Holmdel students get a chance to float their stuff at Waterfront Park
by Jennifer Bradshaw
In a pinch, empty orange juice cartons and Seltzer bottles will make a seaworthy vessel.
On Friday, the students of the New School in Holmdel took to the water at Bayshore Waterfront Park in Port Monmouth for their annual “Boat Day.”
The students tested out six boats they built themselves out of the bottles and cartons, milk jugs, duct tape and cardboard.
The event is a tradition for the K-8 private alternative school, going on for nearly 20 years.
Students build boats in different themes each year and take them into the water to ultimately see if their designs are viable.
Rebekah Chilvers, a teacher at the school said the year’s academic theme was “Music and Movement,” resulting in boats that looked like a keyboard, a stage, a guitar and the “Jackson Squid,” as in the late pop singer Michael Jackson.
The bay didn’t have a wave in sight to the delight of the group, who were able to take their boats far out into the water with the help of parent volunteers.
Over 50 people squeezed into the second floor of the New School of Monmouth County for Graduate Night on March 10, giving current families and prosepctive families a chance to see how this alternative school prepares students for the future.
The New School, a K-8 ungraded, alternative school has always been a source of unique lessons and student projects and their latest undertaking is no exception.