FILE PHOTO — South Ridge Elementary kindergarteners get together with their third grade buddies to build gingerbread houses in January.
Kindergarten students at South Ridge Elementary School pressed their noses up to the window of their classroom while at recess one day last month after noticing the classroom had a considerable change in decor. Dozens of bowls of candy and graham cracker houses topped tables around the room.
“Do not go to your tables yet! Don’t touch anything yet,” teacher Holly Gasca said to the kids as they filed into the sweets-filled room.
Following the arrival of kindergarteners, older friends and third grade buddies flowed into the room. After everyone was accounted for, third-grade teacher Kristen Paradis announced the rules: No eating candy, don’t eat the house as its graham crackers are glued to milk cartons, share the bowls of candy and frosting with everyone at your table and try not to lick your fingers.
According to the news release, only a couple questions were raised by students before the sugary construction project began.
“How does the candy stay on?” one student asked before learning that the frosting they were using hardened like cement to keep the candy on.
“Is there enough for everyone to do one?” another student asked before being happily informed that all kindergarteners and third-graders in the room would get to make a house.
Finally, everyone started working on their little homes. Gasca and Paradis passed out bowls of frosting and craft sticks as the students worked together to build their houses. Gasca and Paradis’ “buddy program” was going well and it all started because Gasca and Paradis were buddies first.
Gasca and Paradis both started out as kindergarten teachers at South Ridge Elementary School.
“We really bonded,” Gasca said in the news release. “When Kristen moved to third grade, we said, ‘We should do kinderbuddies!’”
Now the classes have worked together on projects that include STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) concepts and reading.
As for the students, they meet one to two times a month and love seeing their older friends. “Almost every Friday, they ask if we have buddies today,” Paradis said in the release. “And if I say yes, they peek out the door to see if they’re coming.”
