Waffles With Wildcats Event Serves Up an Extra Helping of Joy

When winter sets into Wisconsin, February can become a longer month for students as they bridge the time between the excitement of the first snow and spring activities like planting flowers in the 4K and Kindergarten classrooms to take home for Mother’s Day.  It becomes an important time to reconnect with the community and help kids feel good about themselves and the importance of learning.  With this in mind, Belleville Elementary School (BES) just celebrated four days of bringing families together to boost energy and start the school day right to kick off the start of February.  Family members joined their students before school for a wonderful breakfast of hot waffles and conversation during the recent BES “Waffles With Wildcats” event.

Belleville Elementary Principal Kelsey Schmit says, “We were thrilled with the turnout for ‘Waffles With Wildcats’.  We haven’t had an event like this since the 2019-2020 school year.  We had about 100 people each day.  Students came with parents, grandparents or other grownups in their lives.  It was a great way to start the day and to bring family and community members into our building.”

Bringing families together as part of the school experience is tremendously valuable for students, teachers and loved ones as it opens a window into the day-to-day lives of Belleville’s young learners.  Knowing how one’s student(s) starts their day is a learning experience of its own for families and an important one!  Hopefully, it opens the door to meaningful discussions that are relatable for families and their student(s).

Understanding what a day looks like for their child(ren) is something that Belleville hopes to do through welcoming families for a delicious breakfast and a little extra morning time with their student(s) before the normal rush of life kicks in for many.  Timeouts like “Waffles With Wildcats” help families pause and remember that in addition to classroom lessons, special time with loved ones is so important for students to thrive – just being able to celebrate the act of being a learner by spending time in their school world is valuable.  It allows grownups to show their students what their kids do matters and that the grownups are there to support them in the work of being a student.  In this way, taking time out to have breakfast at school serves up an extra helping of joy for kids who get that little bit of extra time to enjoy with the ones they love before they enter their classrooms for the day – especially as winter seems to be getting a little long for many of us at this time of year.

District Administrator Nate Perry notes, “The elementary school’s leadership and Taher Food Service did an excellent job at planning this event.  It resulted in extremely high parent engagement over four mornings.  It was wonderful to see students and adults eating a meal together before getting their day started!”

The turn-out for “Waffles With Wildcats” brought over 400 breakfast-goers into the elementary school in Belleville from January 30th through February 2nd, along with a special appearance of Wally the Wildcat on Thursday of that week.  The event definitely served as a great rally to help joyfully motivate young Wildcats as they stay strong and move through winter into spring with resilience.  There is nothing better than feeling cared for by one’s learning community and a hot waffle with syrup to break the cold of winter!