Waverly Park fifth-graders in Amy Garfinkel’s class put their creativity to the test during their Sports Cardboard Challenge on May 3. The class, along with other fifth-graders throughout the district, have incorporated careers in sports into their lessons to correspond with the Lynbrook Public Schools’ theme of the year, “Where Tomorrow Begins Today.” 

During the course of approximately two months, students were challenged to utilize cardboard and other recyclable materials to create a model of their research topic, highlighting a specific sports profession. With the help of Garfinkel and library media specialist Meghan Ceglie, the students researched professions such as sports photographer, general manager, physical therapist, sports announcer and more. Each student was required to write a creative essay about their findings. For their model, the students brainstormed ideas with their classmates for inspiration and wrote a paragraph about their projects. 

Students from various grade levels throughout the building were invited to the school library where the students displayed their projects. The fifth-graders presented on what they learned and spoke about how they built their creations.  

“I’m an NFL team owner and I made a skybox which overlooks the field because that’s where the NFL team owner sits during a game,” said fifth-grader Owen Asch. “My favorite part of the project was gluing the field to the bottom of the box and taping the skybox together.” 

Garfinkel incorporates a cardboard challenge into her lessons every other year after being inspired by the Global Cardboard Challenge. The challenge was created based on the film “Caine’s Arcade,” which takes viewers through the life of nine-year-old Caine Monroy who created a cardboard arcade. It encourages creativity among students which was the goal of the project.