California High School, middle school celebrate Holidays Around the World
Courtesy of California School District
With the door that they decorated for Christmas in France are, from left, seniors Gianna Grillo, Arabella Colditz, Gianna O’Brien, Tayla Pascoe and math teacher Tricia Reposky, whose door was decorated for Christmas in France.
Paul Paterra/Observer-Reporter
A door representing Christmas in Barbados indicates that Santa Claus has gone to the beach.
Paul Paterra/Observer-Reporter
Hanukkah was represented with this door decoration.
Paul Paterra/Observer-Reporter
This door decorated for Christmas in Ireland added a bit of a whimsical touch with some mini “ugly sweaters.”
Paul Paterra/Observer-Reporter
Christmas in Spain is represented on this door, which sports the saying for Merry Christmas in Spanish.
CALIFORNIA – A trip around the hallways of California High School and the district’s intermediate/middle school in recent days was similar to a trek around Epcot’s World Showcase at Walt Disney World Resort.
“Holidays Around the World” featured decorations of doors and hallways at the schools to celebrate the different cultures and traditions of many of the world’s countries.
“It started right around Thanksgiving as we were brainstorming ideas to bring cultural awareness to our students, while bringing to light different ethnicities and cultural trends from around the world,” said Josh Pollock, assistant principal. “A group of students in each classroom picked a different country, religion or ethnic tradition and did their own research (on the subject they were given).”
Students then set about decorating classrooms, doorways or the surrounding areas for the classroom to represent a country, religion or ethnicity. There were about 25-30 countries represented, ranging from France to Spain to Norway to Russia, to Barbados to the good ole United States.
“Different colors are used for each holiday, different symbols,” Pollock said. “They decorated all of that. They did everything they could to make their doors look really fantastic. It really livened up the school.”
Doors were decorated with the flags for that country, as well as something that would represent that country’s holiday traditions, such as how to say Merry Christmas in the native language.
The door representing France came complete with a model of an Eiffel Tower and shoes by a fireplace to represent a tradition in which French children receive gifts in the shoes they place out for Pere Noel or Father Christmas.
Those who worked on the door for France, which is the door for the classroom of math teacher Tricia Reposky, were seniors Tayla Pascoe, Gianna Grillo, Arabella Colditz and Gianna O’Brien, as well as Reposky.
“We got to be creative and had to learn facts about (the country we were assigned) so not only the little kids that visited, but we were learning about it also,” Pascoe said. “For France, we learned they eat 13 desserts.”
The 13 desserts is a French Christmas tradition that incorporates a variety of sweets, nuts and other tasty items to end a big holiday supper.
Other features on various doors included the Northern Lights on the Iceland door, a representation of the inside the Colosseum in Rome, Italy, and some ugly sweaters as a whimsical approach to the decorations for the Ireland door.
There were doors representing Hanukkah and Kwanzaa as well. There also was a door with Olaf from “Frozen,” complete with how to say Merry Christmas in many languages.
Plus, Huffman’s office was decorated to represent the North Pole, complete with a slot for letters to Santa.
The students worked on the project during off hours – after school, before school, lunch periods – so they would not miss any classes.
Pascoe said students took notice of other doors that were being decorated and would strive to make theirs better, even though it was not really a competition.
“In the beginning, we felt let’s just get this done,” Pascoe said. “Then we saw the art room’s door and it was extreme. The robotics class did a moving Santa Claus. Then kids were saying ‘our door is better,’ and it became a little competition to see whose was best.”
Principal Ray Huffman said working on a students’ presentation skills also was stressed as part of the “Holidays Around the World.”
“The kids presenting became experts,” he said.
That was important since students in grades 4-6 came visited Monday to see the finished decorations and learn about the various countries. The older students made presentations to their younger counterparts about their research.
“Younger students don’t comprehend like an adult would, so the students had to learn to present for an age-appropriate platform,” Pollock said. “It was like story time with the kids.”
Pascoe said the high school students were able to pose questions to their young friends about the country designed on their door, such as how tall the Eiffel Tower is.
“We got them involved,” Pascoe said. “They learned about things that happen over there that are different from the U.S. for Christmas. The kids really liked it. It was something for them to look forward to that they’ll get to do in high school.”
To keep the multi-cultural awareness going, students from the high school Spanish classes traveled to the elementary school Tuesday and sang Christmas carols such as “Jingle Bells” in Spanish.
“We’re such a small district that we wanted to make this a district-wide initiative,” Huffman said. “For kids at the elementary school, these (older) students are their heroes. This was a way to reach out to them.”