Mrs. Murphy’s class at Manor School created this Friendsgiving project for the Cangineering event last week. Photo by Donna MacKenzie
The second-grade through fifth-grade students at Honeoye Falls-Lima’s Manor School put their STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math skills) along with artistic imagination to work in the school’s annual Cangineering event last week.
The event, always held on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving recess, features students bringing in canned food items (or boxed items) and making projects depicting a theme for each grade level. The big winners are area residents who are in need and who are served by the area’s food cupboards to whom the food items are donated following the event as the school’s Make A Difference committee, often helped by HF-L High School students, box up all the food items.
The total number of canned food items collected this year reached 2,288 and was announced at the event’s assembly in the school’s gym by Manor Principal Joelle Weaver.
The theme this year for the second grade classes was Controlling Your Impulsivity. The theme for the third grade classes was Wild Robots. The theme for the fourth grade classes was Native American Museum. The theme for the fifth grade classes was Wizard of Oz. In addition, Mrs. Murphy’s class used the theme of Friendsgiving.
During the assembly in the gym, awards were given out for various categories. The tallest vertical structure award went to the fifth grade’s Wizard of Oz. The projects represented different parts of the beloved book and film, including the farm, the Wizard’s Hot Air Balloon, the cornfield where Dorothy found the scarecrow, the enchanted forest, the castle of the Wicked Witch of the West and her winged monkeys and Munchkinland (which was complete with a small moving white house on a pulley that fell on the Wicked Witch of the East represented by cans and boxed food). The widest horizontal structure award went to the third grade with their Wild Robots. The award for best theme representation was split between the fourth grade’s Native American Museum, which featured wampum belts, and the fifth grade’s Wizard of Oz. The award for the greatest number of cans incorporated into the projects went to the fourth grade’s Native American Museum. The award for best use of cans/least amount of boxed or paper goods used went to the second graders. The category of Greatest Thanksgiving Spirit was suggested by HF-L School Superintendent Gene Mancuso, who was impressed by Mrs. Murphy’s class project of Friendsgiving which featured boxed goods representing a table with paper place settings with plates of food, forks and spoons drawn on them and cans representing the students from the class with their faces on the tops of the cans gathered around the table.
