Kindergarten students stepped into the shoes of future builders Oct. 8, during an interactive learning celebration — Roughies at Work: Building Our Future. The event was purposefully designed to support the Catasauqua Area School District comprehensive approach to career education by integrating career awareness into the Sheckler Elementary School four-classroom addition beam signing.

The event combined career education activities with school district history, giving kindergarten students the opportunity to leave a lasting mark on their school’s legacy.

Throughout the morning, classes rotated between interactive classroom presentations focused on careers in architecture, graphic design and construction led by architectural professionals from Alloy5 and an outdoor beam- signing ceremony, during which Gordon H. Baver Construction Inc. shared a construction process overview just outside the fence of the construction site.

Each student signed their name on a structural beam and posed for class photos with the superintendent, school district administration, school board members, teachers, staff and project partners, including Alloy5, the construction project architects; Pelorus Group, the construction project management team; and Gordon H. Baver Construction Inc., the general contractor.

Custom event signage was created for the occasion.

In the week leading up to the event, kindergarten students explored foundational concepts in architecture and construction through read-aloud sessions featuring “Iggy Peck, Architect” and “What Can You See on a Construction Site?” Additionally, there were themed activity sheets and coloring pages.

To preserve the memory of this milestone, photos from the beam signing will be placed inside keepsake copies of the featured construction books, which will remain in each kindergarten classroom as a lasting reminder of the day the students helped build their future and the future of CASD kindergarten students for years to come.