Just as families have holiday traditions each holiday season so does our Kenwood family! This holiday season was complete with a variety of holiday cheer and spirit.
Kenwood’s SGA sponsored their annual door decorating contest and spirit week. As students and staff strolled the halls they were greeted with Polar Express to Santa’s workshop to Feliz Navidad themes on various classroom doors. SGA will vote and announce winners at the end of the week! Throughout the week of December 16-20, students and staff wore their favorite holiday hats, ugly Christmas sweaters, and Christmas jammies to end the week.
To conclude the last full day of school before winter break, Kenwood’s Honors Chorus’s beautiful voices rang out through the halls as they visited classrooms on their holiday Christmas caroling journey through the building.
A ten year tradition here at Kenwood has been the Adopt a Family gift giving tradition. In the past our Bluebird departments, faculty, and staff have adopted students and their siblings to provide them with holiday gifts.
This year it was slightly different as there was a “Bluebird Tree” with Bluebird ornaments in the main office starting the week of Thanksgiving. “This year, to simplify the gift donation process, we asked for specific gift cards for the child in need. e strictly contributed gift cards this year. We sponsored 33 students, all of whom received 3-4 gift cards totaling a generous amount. We were able to give so generously with the help of Jen Cox and Empower 4 Life,” shared Kenwood social worker Ms. Reaves.
Kenwood’s Sports Science Academy hosted their sixth annual SSA basketball tournament on Tuesday, December 17. The SSA 11 Sports Leadership class organizes and hosts the tournament every year. SSA, AVID, honor roll and student athletes were those in attendance.
New this year was the Kenwood Holiday Market. On Saturday December 7 from 10-4, almost 300 community members came to experience our first Holiday Market. “Congratulations to Mr. Goldbeck and a huge thank you to Mr. Woodward, Ms. Barton and all the staff and student groups who made this an amazing success,” shares Principal Smith.
This was Kenwood’s Community Facilitator Mr. Goldbeck’s first year organizing the event. “We gave away about 100 books to students within our feeder schools! I think it went well for the first year, all who attended had a good time. Next year hopefully it’ll be even bigger and better!” he shared.
Many of KHS’s programs participated in the day from IB students wrapping and giving away books. Culinary students providing treats. There was a bunch of student sponsored activities from painting shells for ornaments, to face paint, to button making, an obstacle course, a reading nook, reindeer food, vendors, free food, and visits with the Grinch and Santa. “We gave away over 100 hotdogs and about 15 pounds of mac and cheese, plus a number of crepes made by the French club,” added Mr. Goldbeck.
Pastor Palazzi spent the day at Kenwood playing Santa and found the event a wonderful tradition he hopes to continue to be a part of in the future. “It was an honor and a privilege to serve as Santa. Each staff member I talked to was wonderful to interact with, as well as the students! Everyone was friendly, wonderful, and just fun to spend time with. My compliments to the culinary arts chefs. The food was tasteful and the cookies were out of this world!”
The festive day ended with Kenwood’s Theater closing night production of Mean Girls which was a huge hit in the Kenwood community.
“It’s fun to be a part of a school’s fun activities to celebrate the holidays. It didn’t feel so festive last year and I’m glad it’s changing for the better,” shared junior Tori S.
Another KHS holiday favorite is the annual winter concert! On December 11th, Mrs. Chappell and Mr. Ladd hosted our annual winter concert, consisting of songs sung/played by choir, band, and orchestra. Band and orchestra played many holiday classics such as Jingle Bell Rock and Frosty the Snowman, while the choir branched out a little more and sang gospels, traditional choir songs, and some more modern music.
The annual winter concert is a long-standing tradition for the students and staff involved as well as the families and community watching the performance. It provides a wonderful opportunity to connect the school with the community for the holidays. Mrs. Chappell adds, “These types of performances allow us to connect with parents and family. I have a lot of students whose parents never knew they were good at singing or performing who come to these performances and are able to see a different part of [their] child.”
It was a wonderful time of year, the past month here at KHS! We hope everyone enjoys their winter break and will see you in the new year!
