This year, elementary school students at Morris Jeff Community School built their Mardi Gras parade around the world of literature.
That meant pre-K through fifth grade classes circling the block around the school’s Mid-City campus on Feb. 8, bedecked in construction paper and other costumed details to represent books like “What If You Had Animal Ears?” and “The Feelings Book.”
The school’s annual parade, attended by parents and students and neighbors watching from their porches, also included the Morris Jeff middle school band, cheer and dance teams and Cadet Corps.
Each class, dressed in the theme of a children’s book read by students, marched on with banners, costumes and even throws — candies, stickers, beads, plushies and even toy magnifying glasses, among other objects.
Camille Galanes-O’Neill, a longtime Spanish teacher at Morris Jeff, said she loved watching the kids’ excitement as they made their way around the school building.
“It’’s so much part of our culture,” she said. “As a community school, we like to embrace our culture as well as to understand other cultures. We start with our own culture, appreciate it, love it, work on it and then move into the bigger concept of the world.”
See photos below:






