Ringing in the holidays
Jenny Marder
“Remember, we’re going to keep them quiet right now,” Oak View
Elementary School kindergarten teacher Margaret Friedmann said as she
handed a set of jingle bells to each student.
With no time to waste, the 5-year-olds immediately began ringing
the bells, shaking them above their heads and smacking them against
their wrists or onto the shoulder of a nearby student.
Thus began the Christmas carols, sung loudly, passionately and out
of tune by two kindergarten classes at a tree trimming party at Surf
City’s Pacific Liberty Bank on Monday.
For the second year, Pacific Liberty Bank invited two Oak View
Elementary School kindergarten classes to sing songs, hang handmade
decorations on the bank’s Christmas tree and sit on Santa’s lap. Each
child came with personal decorations and left with cookies, candy
canes and neatly wrapped gifts.
“This is the only present that some of them are going to have,”
said Jeanne M. Hexem, vice president of the Huntington Beach branch
of Pacific Premier Bank. “Oak View is more of an underprivileged
area.”
For two and a half weeks, the students have been learning songs
and making ornaments in the shape of Christmas trees from green
Popsicle sticks and pasted with stars, sequins and photographs of
students involved in school activities or posing with classmates.
“This is a star, this is a star and this is a little star,” said
Ernesto Vasquez, 5, proudly indicating the intricacies of his
ornament.
Songs sung in English and Spanish included “Jingle Bells,” “Feliz
Navidad” and “Must Be Santa.”
The children were also given a tour of the bank and a glimpse into
its vaults past heavy metal doors and combination locks.
“Some of these children have never been inside a bank before,”
Friedmann said. “This helps them make sense of their world. When they
get to get out and into the world like this, it broadens their
experience. And all the time, they’re doing language development.
They are learning.”
But the most exciting part for most of the children wasn’t singing
or touring the bank or even sitting in Santa’s lap. It was getting
their own carefully wrapped presents, which they were instructed not
to open until they got home.
Juan Marin knew what was inside his bright red package, or at
least he knew exactly what he wanted:
“A car,” he said. “A little one.”
Anything Pokemon-related was also high on the list.
“They’re just like little sponges, and they just soak it up and
learn so much every day,” said Linda Saez, who’s been teaching
kindergarten at Oak View Elementary School for 30 years. “I always
wonder, who’s teaching who? Everything is just new and fresh and
exciting.”
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