MORGANTOWN — It was all about tea and tots Friday afternoon at the WVU Nursery School Child Development Laboratory.
Children — with the help of school employees — held the 7th annual tea party for the Shelley Marshall Foundation.
It was a chance for students to learn the etiquette of having a tea party, but it also raised awareness for the foundation’s goal.
The Shelley Marshall Foundation was created after Marshall died Sept. 11, 2001, in the attack on the Pentagon. The foundation promotes children’s story hours, intergenerational tea parties, creative writing contests and art workshops. People often hold tea parties in Shelley’s honor to raise money for the foundation. Marshall’s husband, Donn, is from Morgantown.
Melissa Workman, interim director of the WVU Nursery School Child Development Laboratory, said the pre-K students learn a lot from the experience every year.
“Our pre-K students have studied tea parties and engaged in play scenarios regarding tea parties and learned how to host a tea party,” she said.
They even researched the foods and made name tags.
It’s difficult for the pre-k students to stay in one spot for long, she said, but they do learn a lot from the experience, including “cognitive, social-emotional, self-regulatory and foundational academic skills they need to succeed in life.”
To donate to the Shelley Marshall Foundation, visit shelleysfoundation.org.
