Judging by the inches of snow that fell and blanketed the ground over the weekend, Friday’s nonsense chants from the students at Central Grade School in Washington did not do the trick.
However, the kids certainly had a good time.
Friday was Northern Hemisphere Hoodie Hoo Day.
The copyrighted holiday was created by the Web site Wellcat.com, and asks citizens to go outdoors, throw their hands in the air and yell “Hoodie Hoo” repeatedly to chase the winter blues away and welcome the approaching spring time, one month from now.
Lori Cunningham, special education teacher for kindergarten through second grade at Central, said the idea came to her last year when her children celebrated Hoodie Hoo at Rogy’s Learning Place in East Peoria.
“My friend and I drove by the school and honked and yelled while the kids were chanting outside. I told the principal about it and he thought it was a cool idea to do here,” Cunningham said.
Cunningham added she then remembered when she lived in Effingham several years ago, a TV news anchor in Champaign yelling “Hoodie Hoo” during a broadcast.
“I never thought anything about it and I certainly had never heard of anyone doing it around here,” Cunningham said.
Cunningham said she came up with activities to go with the funny-named holiday to help create excitement among the children and answer questions for those who wondered what it was all about.
“I had word searches for the K-4, and the third and fourth graders had comprehensive questions. I made popsicle sticks with sun faces on them for everyone to wave and help chase away the winter blues,” Cunningham said.
“I hope to make it a little bigger next year, but it’s pretty open-ended,” she added.
According to Wellcat.com, other cities have made Hoodie Hoo Day into a communitywide event with parades, crazy hats and chants in the streets outside of both elementary schools and senior centers.
Cunningham said she went into the classrooms shortly after the jumping and chanting, and the kids were full of excitement.
“A lot of them said it was the best day they ever had at the school. It was an added bonus it happened to be a Friday activity and got out that extra pre-weekend energy,” Cunningham said.
“I definitely consider the whole day a success,” Cunningham added.
The Web site created Hoodie Hoo Day as one of its 20 ways to combat the uneasy and distressing symptoms of cabin fever.
Other anti-cabin fever suggestions from Wellcat.com include signing up for yoga or fitness classes, scheduling a cruise, filing taxes early, adopting a new habit or holding a Bathtub Party Day, another holiday created by the Web site’s administrators.
