Special delivery: Gingerbread men from across the continent arrive at City Park School

Jan. 21—Gingerbread men from as far away as Alaska and Ontario, Canada, have recently arrived at City Park School, part of a program that connects kindergarten students with their peers around North America.

"I did this with my prekindergartners a few years ago and it's definitely something I'll do again," said Lauren Cozart, a kindergarten teacher at City Park. "It's a great introduction to maps, globes and geography, (as well as) a way for students here to see (peers) learning like they do, even if almost everything else" about their school, city and state "is different."

"We've gotten letters from really rural schools and even some religious schools, (like) Our Lady of Fatima in Ontario," Cozart said. She's utilized a massive map to pinpoint for students where letters and gingerbread men have come from, a map courtesy of her mother, who taught for three decades in Walker County Schools.

Distance and geography "can be very abstract for them," but this project and the map have provided perspective, Cozart said.

"We all live in our little worlds, so it's neat to see other parts of the country."

The map and project gave students a thirst for travel, said kindergartner Kardyn Harrington.

"I want to go everywhere."

Cozart located a Facebook group comprised of other kindergarten classes around the continent, and City Park's five other kindergarten classes joined in with making gingerbread men for other schools, she said. They also included a letter detailing City Park, Dalton Public Schools and Dalton, with other participating schools doing likewise.

Sanaya Hassan most enjoyed crafting the gingerbread men, including beads, tissue paper and jewelry, said the kindergartner, noting, "I did the eyes!"

Eva Stinson appreciated the gingerbread man from a school in Beaverton, Oregon, because he was decorated to be "Pete the Cat," which reminded her of City Park's feline mascot, PAWS the Panther, said the kindergartner.

Harrington's favorite letter and gingerbread man were from Lompoc, California, which is in Santa Barbara County and near Vandenberg Space Force Base, she said, noting, "I've (been to) California."

Hassan valued the gingerbread man and letter from a New York school, as she's visited the state, she said, adding, "It's cold there."

Harrington, Hassan and Stinson were intrigued by a letter from a school in Orlando, Florida, the home of Walt Disney World, Hassan said. If she lived in Orlando like those students, "I'd go to Disney World every day."

Cozart was fascinated to learn about school in Anchorage, Alaska, as students are allowed outside for recess even when the temperature is zero, although a "moose watcher" is always on the job to guard students against the animals, she said with amazement.

"And I worry about our kids going outside when it's (colder than) 35 degrees."

Both the "students and teachers have been enjoying receiving gingerbread men in the mail and learning about how fellow kindergartners in other parts of North America live and learn at their schools," Cozart said. "I've been as excited as (my students) when one showed up in the mail, and it's given us all something to look forward to."