Students at Piscataway High School participated in their annual Hallway Decorating Competition. This year’s theme was Fantasy Worlds. The theme for each grade was Coraline for the Freshmen, The Wizard of Oz for the Sophomores, The Nightmare Before Christmas for the Juniors, and Stranger Things for the Seniors.
Even though this was the freshmen’s first year participating, they went above and beyond with their Coraline mural and other decorations. They darkened the hallway with black paper and highlighted important symbols from the movie such as the house, moon, and Coraline’s Other Family. However, they did end up placing fourth in the ranking.
Taking third place were the juniors with The Nightmare Before Christmas. The Juniors had significant symbolism with the green Oogie Boogie, the hill and moon with Sally and Jack, and their ‘find all the bones’ activity.
The sophomores used blues, reds, and yellows to represent the Wizard of Oz. The most notable of their decorations were the red shoes hanging from the ceiling. They placed second in ranking.
And finally, the seniors, taking the cake for number one, represented Stranger Things with a student dressing up as Eleven, the protagonist; giving out waffles; a portal to the Upside Down; and a demogorgon.
The Hallway Decorating event is important to PHS students because not only does it facilitate friendships, but it encourages teamwork through the process of achieving a group goal. Many students reported having a fun time and being proud of themselves and their peers for coming together to produce such outcomes. One freshman student reported that the hallway decorating “made [her] many friends that [she cherishes].” A senior reported that “this year’s decorating meant more to [him] because it would be [his] last at PHS.”
Safe to say that the PHS Hallway Decorating tradition is one for the memory books.
