14 • The Beacon January 2 , 2025
Coshocton Elementary students , staff decorate doors
By Cristy Bower For The Beacon
If you had to judge 28 holiday decorated classroom doors at Coshocton Elementary School , would you be able to pick just one winner for each category ? The categories they are competing for are originality , neatness , student involvement , overall individual door and overall team design . The winners of each category will be awarded a plaque to display in their classroom .
Tony Meiser , elementary principal , was thrilled this was the sixth annual holiday door decorating contest to be held at CES . This year he has integrated the Leader in Me program into the making of the themes . Meiser is inspired to see how the students apply their leadership skills throughout the competition . The judging took place Dec . 17 .
The panel of judges for this year ’ s competition consisted of school counselors Darcy Nelson , Megan Haywood and Megan Hemming ; Cora Cramblett and Ethan Weinberg , both seventh-graders at Coshocton ; and Cami Loomis and Shiann Stubbs , both ninth-graders at Coshocton High School . The counselors started a peer mentors group this year , and the student judges are all mentors from this program . These students and others come over to the elementary and work with students that might need a little extra help learning sight words or math or reading .
The judging started at the preschool doors . They were greeted with music , jingle bells and treats . The preschool classes worked together with the theme ,
“ Here Comes Santa Right Down Gingerbread Lane !” Each preschooler had made a cut-out of a gingerbread man , decorated it and added their face on them to line the hallway .
The kindergarten classes decided to decorate their doors individually .
The doors for the first grade classrooms were decorated as one theme . They had Christmas trees made using the children ’ s hand prints on each door . Starting with the first door , they had one snowman holding a star reaching up toward the top of the tree , and on the next door , there were two snowmen . A second snowman was holding up the first snowman while he was still reaching for the top of the tree with the star . And each door that followed , one more snowman was added to the team to help the first
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Preschool won Best Student Involvement with “ Here Comes Santa Right Down Gingerbread Lane .”
snowman reach the top of the tree so the star could be put on . This took a total of six snowmen to reach the top . The theme was “ Work Together To Build Others Up .”
Second grade , sixth grade and fifth grade chose to do individual themes for their doors . Among these themes were “ You can ’ t catch me , I ’ m the Gingerbread Man ,” “ Coshocton Snow Place Like Home ,” “ We Are All Like Snowflakes , Unique and One of a Kind ,” “ Light Up the Season ,” “ Believe in your Elf ,” “ We ’ re Nutty for Learning ,” “ Let Us out for Christmas Break ,” “ This Class Is Only Silent at Night ,” “ Westward Ho Ho Ho ,” and “ Merry Christmas and Believe !”
All these doors were unique , but there were three that stood out to the judges , one being Mrs . Olinger ’ s class door , “ Coshocton Snow Place Like Home .” Along with little snowmen on the door , the judges were impressed that the students wrote where their favorite places were in Coshocton and why .
Mrs . Snider incorporated part of their social studies curriculum into their door , “ Westward Ho Ho Ho .” They are learning about the westward expansion in America . Because of this door , Meiser is going to add a new category to the competition next year , educational .
The last door was Mrs . Kulczycki ’ s door with “ Believe !” Five students stood outside the door and handed out candy canes while Christmas music was playing in the background . This was an opportunity for the students to showcase their Leader in Me skills .
The Charlie Brown Christmas story was the theme for the third grade doors . They started off with Lucy and Charlie Brown at Lucy ‘ s psych help stand , followed by Snoopy commercializing Christmas , the kids sliding down the hill on their sleds , Snoopy flying his doghouse with Woodstock , Linus telling Charlie Brown the true meaning of Christmas , and Charlie Brown and Snoopy dancing .
Then the judges were off to “ The Island of Misfits Toys ,” courtesy of the fourth grade doors . The kids had colored Charliein-the-boxes , a doll with red hair , spotted elephants , an airplane that can ’ t fly and some other characters from the island . They also decorated the hallway with a giant blowup Rudolph , and they had the cartoon playing on a TV in the background .
The results for the 2024 holiday door decorating competition include the following :
— Originality : fourth grade team with “ The Island of Misfit Toys .”
— Neatness : Mrs . Swigert ‘ s kindergarten class with “ Reindeer .”
— Best Student Involvement : Preschool with “ Here Comes Santa Right Down Gingerbread Lane .”
— Overall Individual : Mrs . Olinger ’ s second grade class with “ Coshocton Snow Place Like Home .”
— Overall Team Design : First-graders for their design of “ Work Together To Build Others Up .”
Meiser said , “ The most rewarding aspect of this competition is how it brings our entire school community — staff , students and faculty — together . It is truly one of the highlights of the year and one of my favorite activities .”