Fred Seymour, in the swing, gets a push as he tries to make it across to a platform where teammates are waiting. Exeter-West Greenwich High’s 145 seniors went through that and other exercises to help prepare them for the rigors of their senior projects.

The Providence Journal / Kathy Borchers

WEST GREENWICH — For most students the first day back to school probably includes little more than locker and classroom assignments, meeting new teachers and getting acquainted with the person sitting at the next desk.

But Exeter-West Greenwich High School’s 145 incoming seniors spent yesterday’s opening day enjoying the great outdoors at the University of Rhode Island’s sylvan W. Alton Jones Campus. The course load was largely confined to outdoor contests including maneuvering atop a log.

It wasn’t horseplay, but, rather, the senior project seminar, a day filled with informal discussions with advisers and many, many games aimed at better equipping the seniors to fulfill the new state requirement for graduation.

Two games in particular, TP Shuffle and Trolleys, were intended to convey the value of teamwork.

“TP” required one group to line up on a log and then reposition themselves, in order according to birthday month, without stepping off. “Trolleys” required a dozen students standing on two wooden boards, held together with ropes, to coordinate their movements to shift the boards forward.

As sounds of merriment filtered through the campus’s towering pines, school officials said those activities were motivators to help students learn to work together, analyze and solve problems and trust one another.

“The senior projects are individual projects, but they will really support each other throughout it,” said Tonya LeCour, the district’s coordinator for proficiency-based graduation. “It’s a great way to get students working with other people they normally would not work with.”

The students worked with URI counselors who conduct “adventure” camps featuring exercises geared to foster perseverance, teamwork and quick thinking.

For the high school’s three other classes, opening day was a mixed bag. Principal Denise Boule said the freshmen class reported to the school, on Nooseneck Hill Road, for orientation. They were joined by some juniors who will be their mentors throughout the academic year; other juniors reported to job-shadowing assignments, and the sophomores reported for community service projects.

In East Greenwich, where the public schools also opened yesterday, two new principals were on the job. Jeanine Nota-Masse has taken the helm at East Greenwich High School, and Christine Urn now leads Hanaford Elementary School.

Nota-Masse, former assistant principal of Cranston High School East, succeeds Michael Levine; Urn, a veteran sixth-grade math and science teacher at Eldredge Elementary School, succeeds Joan Souza. Both Levine and Souza retired.

“It was a very smooth opening. Quite a contrast from last year’s opening,” said Supt. Charles E. Meyers, alluding to a teachers’ strike that delayed the 2007 opening for three days. “It was good to feel all the positive energy and enthusiasm on the start of the school year.”

In Coventry, public schools opened on Tuesday and officials there also reported that the first day of school went smoothly. Supt. Kenneth R. DiPietro reported surges in enrollment at some elementary schools and said classes may be added.

lsparks@projo.com