Woodside first-graders wrap it up Woodside first-graders wrap it up (December 21, 2005)

** Kids combine art and giving for holiday project.

By Marjorie Mader

Almanac Staff Writer

First-graders at Woodside School -- all 60 of them -- took part in a holiday project that went way beyond creating colorful wrapping paper for gifts.

Their project began with figuring out what they could do to earn money to buy a holiday present for preschoolers at the nonprofit Family Connections school sites in Menlo Park and East Palo Alto.

Family Connections is a tuition-free, parent-participation preschool for low-income families in San Mateo and Santa Clara counties.

Some of the Woodside first-graders took over jobs such as feeding the family dog, clearing the dinner table, sweeping the deck or taking out the garbage.

"They bought some really great and usable things -- lots of art supplies, colored paper, crayons and markers, and books such as the popular Dinosaur ABC," said teacher Pat Kimball.

She, along with the other first-grade teachers, Hiroko Otsuka and Jennifer Lighty, coordinated and collaborated on the holiday project.

One afternoon, students in each class were busy making wrapping paper -- using crayons, markers, paint and dots to decorate large sheets of construction paper.

Later, they wrapped the gifts, tying the packages with colored yarn and making gift cards. About 40 fourth-graders came to the classrooms to help with the gift-wrapping.

"This project is our classroom holiday celebration," said Ms. Kimball. "Our kids like doing something for other students, preferably younger ones."

Teachers delivered the baskets of gifts last week to the Family Connections' site at the Clara-Mateo Alliance homeless shelter on the VA hospital grounds in Menlo Park.

Family Connections also runs a tuition-free, parent participation preschool program for low-income families at Belle Haven School in Menlo Park and classes at the Girls Club of the Mid-Peninsula in East Palo Alto.

E-mail a friend a link to this story.