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Woodside kindergartners take a ride on the Polar Express
By SARAH FOOR
The tale of “The Polar Express” begins with a boy who has lost his love for Christmas and finds one night that a train whistle roars and is waiting for him to board and ride to the North Pole.
When the kindergartners of Woodside Elementary arrived at school on Dec. 22, they were offered a similar experience so that their reading of “The Polar Express” truly came to life.
Teacher Jen Schneider, along with her fellow kindergarten teachers, wanted to make their holiday tradition more real after excitement seemed to wane for the story last year.
“We read the book last year, and the kids really didn’t explore their imagination. They said, ‘We’re not on the train to the North Pole, we’re right here at Woodside.’ We wanted to do something to really liven it up and bring the joy of the story to life,” explained Schneider.
Teachers Jen Lemke, Jen Schuler, Kristina Warga, and Schneider created a grand entrance for their students by welcoming them to school with a smoke machine and paper train tracks beneath their feet. The students then gathered in their classrooms, dressed in pajamas, to watch the movie adaptation of the classic book.
After laying down some more train tracks and adding more smoke, the students were led to the Woodside gym to welcome a special guest.
Santa arrived with the sound of jingling bells and the kindergartners were allowed to tell St. Nick the one gift they wanted for Christmas.
Trusting Santa, kindergartner Karah Collins simply told him, “Surprise me.”
Schneider said the excitement for the event between last year and this year are night and day.
“The kids are completely overjoyed, which makes all of our work more than worth it,” she said.