Students at Kossuth Elementary School spent Friday morning tailgating… but not for football. Instead, the focus was on building character.

Parents and teachers transformed the schoolyard with tents and activities centered around character traits featured in the Alcorn School District’s Capturing Kids’ Hearts initiative.

The initiative is designed for students in all grades, with character education programs that aim to teach leadership skills through emotional learning.

“We do a program called Capturing Kids’ Hearts here in the Alcorn School District,” said second grade teacher and organizer Allie Garcia-Glissen. “It builds character traits within children to really find the heart and drive in the kids.”

At KES, teachers wanted kids to see the words in action. The tailgate was held for the first time last year and was a hit with students.

“We wanted to take the character traits that we talk about throughout the year and make them something the kids could actually experience and celebrate,” she said. “Since our school is big on athletics, we came up with the idea of a tailgate. I thought that, because we build community here, parents could be involved with this.”

This year’s tailgate featured games and activities at tents that classes rotated through. Things like cornhole, hopscotch and cup stacking centered around things like responsibility, courage and self-direction.

The tailgate also focused heavily on teamwork.

“You always have a leader in the classroom or you always have a child that can be perceived as a better athlete or the top student, but [the tailgate] took all of that away,” the teacher said. “With this, you didn’t have to be the best athlete or you didn’t have to be the top kid in the class. It was using leadership, helping the ones around you. Nobody was perceived differently out there. They didn’t care who was beside them. They were just worried about helping their team win. It really taught them the value of finding something good in everybody.”

A new addition for this year’s tailgate was the game “Are You Better Than an Aggie?” In the game, high school athletes competed against elementary schoolers to test their aptitude.

“The kids absolutely loved ‘Are You Better Than an Aggie?’” Garcia-Glissen said. “We had high school athletes come and they competed to see if they were better than them at flag football, cornhole, things like that.”

The game was also a teaching opportunity for the high school athletes.

“In ASD, CKH isn’t just an elementary thing,” she said. “They do it across all schools. [The high schoolers] were getting to put forth those words that they may not use in the same way we do here in elementary school. They got to work as a team with younger individuals. They’re not used to working with kids that age, so it helped them see and bring to life the words as well.”

The high schoolers volunteered their time to be a part of the day.

“I just want to say how great it was to have our high school students volunteer, especially in the heat,” said career coach Taylor Johnson. “They were rockstars! Our community is amazing and it shows every time we do something like this.”

Highlighting positive character traits also provided a chance to acknowledge the work or struggles of others. Garcia-Glissen believes it highlights September’s word: empathy.

“From my standpoint and the teachers here on campus, we feel like teaching those character traits and having them put to use like that helps create an environment where they see how to be good people and how to treat people around them,” she said. “We’ve got some children here that are in a wheelchair. How did they help them? How did they use teamwork? How did the children in a wheelchair show courage in trying to do those games? That’s really building the culture around and finding the heart in the things that you do.”

Garcia-Glissen wants the tailgate to serve as a touchstone for building good characteristics and relationships.

“I hope that when they think back to all the things that we do with these words, that they’ll carry on far beyond the walls of the classroom and that they find their heart,” she said. “That’s what drives them through life.”