Christmas the handcrafted, special way

WINDSOR - Students in Judy Ableman's Windsor Elementary School kindergarten class received an unexpected surprise last Thursday, Dec. 19, in the form of some wooden toys and a visit by the students who made them.

Seventh and eighth-grade students from Westwood Middle School next door stopped by to watch the reactions to what they had spent several weeks making in CTE teacher Marty Sexton's wood shop class, and to meet the students who until then had only been a name, and an animal.

As the echoes of the morning announcements and Pledge of Allegiance emanating from the intercom died away, Ableman got her class's attention and told them that she had been keeping a secret for a long time about what lay under the 3-4 foot tall classroom Christmas tree.

"Those presents under the tree are not for decoration," she said, and then dropped her voice slightly. "They're for you. And they were made by these kids in Mr. Sexton's class."

Sexton said he wanted to make something for kids who "don't get anything on Christmas." Last year, Ableman provided names of students who might have a "sad" Christmas so that gifts could be made for them.

This year, Sexton thought why not open it up to more kids and so Ableman's whole class was included. The Westwood students worked on the gifts over the first quarter of school, building a race car first to get their woodworking chops up.

When they were ready, Ableman sent over the names. Sexton he came up with the idea of an additional gift - a favorite animal - while watching his grandkids play.

"So if we could make a favorite animal for them, then it would be more memorable," he added.

Ableman provided the students' favorite animals and the Westwood class got to work, using mostly a scroll saw and drill press to create the shapes. Templates were found for turning the names and animals into puzzle forms, and what couldn't be found in existing resources was researched and located online.

Sexton said most of the work was "fretwork," described by Wikipedia as "interlaced decorative design that is either carved in low relief on a solid background, or cut out with a fretsaw, coping saw, jigsaw or scroll saw" with the patterns geometrical in design. Sexton made sure his students paid particular attention to using sanders.

"I had to keep telling them that little kids are going to be playing with them so you have to sand all those corners so they don't get slivers," he said.

On the day of gift giving, Ableman called out the names of the kindergarten students, told them to pick a specifically numbered gift and then pointed out which of the Westwood students had made their present. At the count of three, wrapping paper was ripped off and boxes excitedly pried open by small hands accompanied by big voices.

Eighth-grader Kennedy watched as her student, Karson, dumped the wooden pieces out onto the desk and began to excitedly assemble them, helping him first separate the animal pieces from the name.

"Is that your name? Is it Karson?" she asked, receiving an animated nod.

Kennedy said the most challenging part of the project was the puzzle, which she worked meticulously on.

"When I cut it, I had to use a banded blade so I had to sand it down for a while," she said. "I was really excited to give him the gift."

Karson's favorite animal is a cat, although he said he also likes horses. His reason for liking cats was pretty simple.

"Because at home, he always lays on my bed," he said, noting his cat had passed away. Karson added that receiving the gift from Kennedy made him feel "good."

It's a sentiment Sexton would agree with, and add a bit more.

"It's a team thing," he said of the work the students did. "It gives the kids purpose when they do woodwork."

John McCallum can be reached at [email protected].