The week before winter break, various dentimes throughout Woodgrove High School competed in the annual door decoration challenge. The decoration challenge not only raises holiday spirits, but also can help students build and refine their communication and collaboration skills.
The door decoration challenge is a competition created by Woodgrove’s Student Council Association where students work to design the most festive doors for their dentime teachers. Various materials were used by students to construct their decorations. Freshman, Cameron Shech and member of the winning team of the door decoration challenge, stated, “We used paper, laminated paper that we got from the library, and some cotton balls to make the fur. We got a lot of it from my house, so nothing was bought.”
While the materials are important to the outline of the design, the most important part is the design itself. Ty Shultz, freshman and member of the winning team explained, “We shared our favorite movie ideas, and we looked on Pinterest to help inspire us to come up with a good design. The process took us around a week and a half to finish.”
The challenge acts as an excellent opportunity to raise holiday spirits for students and staff. Shultz said, “When people walk around the school, and they see favorite Christmas movies, and designs that people put hard work into. It makes them smile, and helps raise their spirits.” Another positive of the door decoration challenge is the improvement of participant’s communication and collaboration skills. Shech went into detail on how they worked together on the project, saying, “We split up the work, and made sure we didn’t disagree on anything with the design. Some people didn’t want to cut some things out, but we worked it out.” Shultz spoke on how skills are built through the challenge, explaining, “Because this door competition is very competitive, and in order to do this correctly and win, you have to have good communication skills. You have to communicate with your teammates to figure out what everyone is going to do.”
The door decoration Challenge is just one of the many ways that Woodgrove ensures a positive environment for its students and staff. The combined efforts of everyone who participated in the competition helps give students a sense of camaraderie and connection before and after the holiday season.