And while COVID-19 prevented her building from celebrating with a full-blown costume parade, a donation from the Ring Parent Teacher Association helped make it possible for each student to be able to celebrate in a special way.

“We decided not to go the costume route because we wanted to take advantage of the time we have with them together,” Miller, Ring’s principal, said. “We only have them for two-and-a-half hours a day. That’s not enough time to do the celebrations, but we had to celebrate in a different way.”

The PTA donated one pumpkin for each student — 420 pumpkins in all — as well as decorating kits to the school. Miller said that it took a forklift from Jamestown Public Schools’ Central Kitchen at Washington Middle School to help deliver the pumpkins to the building.

“We’re so grateful to the PTA for this,” she said, noting that teachers used the pumpkins in creative ways with their students. Some painted them, some crafted them and others — like in Marci Centi’s second-grade class — used them to learn about weight and distance estimations.

The Ring Elementary School PTA donated over 400 pumpkins and decoration kits to the school to help students celebrate Halloween and the fall season on Friday. P-J photo by Cameron Hurst

“It’s inclusive of the whole entire school,” said Miller. “We didn’t have children who were sitting out.”

That included students who are learning remotely. “We even had it for the remote students who could come and pick out pumpkins,” Miller said. “They came and the pumpkins were passed out, not only the pumpkins, but also the kit.”

Cloth masks with Halloween patterns were also encouraged at Ring on Friday.

“There would be some parties and stuff throughout the day and we would have some celebrations for them but this is a way that we could celebrate with all of our students,” Miller said. “Some students don’t celebrate Halloween, but we all celebrate fall and the fall activities and so we were able to include everybody.”

Classroom restrictions led to mostly in-class activities across school districts on Friday. At Lincoln Elementary School, the PTA provided doughnuts, juice and popcorn to all classrooms while all classes utilized the time to take photos in the gymnasium. Love Elementary School engaged in similar activities: their PTA popped a bag of popcorn to send home with each child for a Halloween treat while also hosting a “Red Ribbon Spirit Week” to encourage students to be drug-free.

At Southwestern Elementary School, teachers hosted a “trunk-or-treat,” the details of which Superintendent Maureen Donahue shared at the district’s board meeting on Tuesday.

“Teachers had the option to decorate their car and their cars were parked in the parking lot and the trunks were open and there were goodies for kids in every trunk including our Ellicott Police car,” she said. “The kids went out one class at a time, were separated and were able to parade around in their costumes. They had music. It was really great and they looked fantastic.”