By decorating their classrooms for the holiday season and incorporating festive activities into their lesson plans, some teachers are blending the holiday spirit into their classrooms and preparing students for the winter break.

Arrowhead adviser Stacey Aronow usually holds a celebration she calls, “The Arrowhead Annual Holiday Party and Alumni Open House.”

Aronow holds this get-together for past members of The Arrowhead to come together and reunite for the holidays. Although Aronow hasn’t been able to hold this reunion since December of 2019 due to COVID-19, she hopes to have the chance to organize the party again soon.

 “Former Arrowhead staff writers and editors who are part of The Arrowhead family would come back on the day before winter break for an open house celebration and just catch up with each other [and] catch up with me,” Aronow said.

According to Aronow, this reunion is not only to celebrate the holidays with former members, but to recognize the completion of The Arrowhead’s annual winter holidays issue. 

“Everyone feels ownership in the newspaper, so there’s a pride factor,” Aronow said. “We all care about producing and publishing a great issue of the newspaper.” 

When the teachers begin to get into the spirit of the holidays, some students follow suit, on the receiving end of their enthusiasm. 

According to sophomore Kat Martinez, her teachers like to turn on a Christmas movie and let them relax during the holidays. 

“I love the activities that make me feel happy for the holidays,” Martinez said.

Martinez believes when her teachers get into the spirit it prepares herself and the class for the break and gets everyone happy for the holidays. 

Many different types of classes tie in holiday-related activities. 

In the gym, the physical education teachers are also including holiday themes into the activities and workouts.

According to physical education teacher Michael Childs, the department enjoys incorporating themed activities during a few holidays each year. 

“We do workouts for most holidays,” Childs said. “For Thanksgiving we do the Turkey Trot and around Christmas we do a workout called 12 Days of Christmas.” 

The physical education teachers try to make these holiday themed activities open for everyone in the school to participate in. 

“It’s an inclusive thing where all the [gym] classes do it. We usually put [the activities] out to all faculty. So faculty members, guidance and staff can get involved,” physical education teacher Josh Wagner said.

The activities excite the student for their next gym glass.

“We do holiday themed workouts in the gym around this time,” junior Sophia Sambrick said. 

According to Sambrick, when the teachers include these themed activities it makes class a little more fun and exciting. 

“It helps me get into the spirit of Christmas,” Sambrick said.