By Divya Kumar
News Editor
On Dec. 9, the Cottonwood Creek Elementary kindergarteners and first graders came up to Coppell High School for their annual visit. The elementary schoolers were presented with the opportunity to finish their letters to Santa Claus while certain high school students were allowed to relive memories from their past.
This tradition began 20 years ago when a kindergarten teacher from Mockingbird Elementary approached English teacher Kim Pearce to ask if they would be willing to help her students write letters to Santa. Since, the elementary school has shifted to Cottonwood Creek where students still visit once a year in order to write their letters.
“All kindergarteners and first graders come to visit and work with about eight or nine upper-level English classes,” Pearce said. “It’s basically whoever has a second period English class. We have to do it at this time so that the little ones will be able to come up here and be back at their school before lunch time.”
The teachers came to the high school as well and watched over their kindergarten and first graders while they paired off with one or two upperclassmen. While this process is usually easy, if any student has a certain disadvantage – such as not being able to speak the same language, or one with special needs – arrangements are made in advance to accommodate them.
The younger children come up to the high school prepared with certain questions to ask their buddies for their pre-interview. After that, the students get help from the elder ones about punctuation and grammar while writing their Santa letters. Upon leaving, all of the elementary school children are gifted with goody bags, usually filled with a couple pieces of candy, to take back to the school with them.
Along with the upperclassmen, a few Ready, Set, Teach! students from the high school volunteered to help out as well. There were few issues with the rules regarding the number of students allowed in a classroom, and in order to accommodate this many younger children were paired with more than one buddy to work with.
The children will write thank you letters back to the high schoolers, which they will receive in their second period classes, upon returning to their school. Certain students attending the high school right now can recall their past experiences visiting the high school.
“I came up here twice when I was in kindergarten and in first grade at Cottonwood Creek,” junior Crystal Sun said. “I can remember being so amazed at how big the school was, and looking back on it, I can’t remember myself ever being as little as some of the kids I saw were.”
Cottonwood Creek teacher Kim Spence is the one who has been working with Pearce to organize this tradition for a number of years. Traditionally, the two teachers contact each other early in September to set dates to work with. Cottonwood is usually the elementary school that children visit from, due to the fact that other elementary schools have not contacted the high school and accommodations are difficult to make.
As far as expectations for this year went, they were clearly met.
“There were actually a couple of funding issues at Cottonwood Creek, but in order to make it happen, the parents of students donated money for all of the buses,” Pearce said. “This just shows how important this tradition is to the students and I look forward to it continuing in the future.”
