At Adinvita Private School Thursday, the lights were down, students were in PJs and they were being served hot chocolate and popcorn as they watched a showing of the movie Polar Express.
“They’ve been learning about the Polar Express in class and so we wanted to do something exciting for them for their Christmas party before they left to winter break, so we had all the kids participate; even our upper-grade kids, a couple of them have trains,” said Linda Subia, founder, principal and educator at Adinvita.
Students made the trains at home with their parents, or they were supplied with decorated plastic tubs. They also got train tickets.
About 35 youngsters took part from prekindergarten 3 and 4 all the way up to eighth grade.
“They get to come in their PJs like the movie. The whole theme of the movie is about the Polar Express going to the North Pole. We’re going to serve them popcorn and hot chocolate like they do in the movie and just pretend that they’re on the Polar Express,” Subia said.
The plot is that the Polar Express comes to a little boy’s house, picks him up at midnight on Christmas Eve and they fly to the North Pole.
“Then he gets a special gift from Santa, which is a bell off of one of the reindeer. When they take him back home, he loses the bell because he has a hole in his pajamas. When he wakes up the next morning, he finds the bell wrapped up under his tree. Santa had taken him the bell,” Subia said.
The theme of it is, if you don’t believe in Christmas, you can’t hear the bell ringing.
“He was saying that his mom couldn’t hear the bell. All his friends could hear the bell, but as they grew older they couldn’t hear the bell anymore. So the theme of it is if you believe in Christmas, then you can hear the bell,” she added.
Zoe Soto, an 8-year-old third-grader, thought the Polar Express was great and being able to come to school in her pajamas made it cozier.
“I think it’s so fun. I imagine myself on that train,” Soto said.
Vasty Urias is a 13-year-old eighth-grader.
“I’m in middle school, so being in middle school, it’s fun to have memories and things to remember … especially since it’s my last year,” Urias said.
Natalie Hackett, an 11-year-old sixth-grader, said she anticipated fun Thursday knowing it was going to focus on Polar Express.
She said watching the movie always makes her happy.
She appreciated not having to get dressed for school Thursday.
“After all of our hard work and all this stuff that we’ve done, it’s nice to just have a day to relax and watch a movie,” Hackett said.
“Christmas is just an amazing holiday. It’s always fun to celebrate it and it’s fun to celebrate it with your friends and family. But it’s even better to spend it here at school with your friends and hanging out, watching a movie and not always studying for a test,” she added.
