News Photo by Reagan Voetberg Fifth grade Teacher Stephanie Shafto smiles by the tree in her classroom at Besser Elementary.

ALPENA — The anticipation of Christmas break can cause excitement among students, often making them antsy in the classroom.

Stephanie Shafto, a fifth grade teacher at Besser Elementary, spoke of her experience with students getting the ‘holiday jitters’ in the weeks leading to break.

“There’s probably a few things that go along with it,” Shafto said. “Just the anticipation of having a lot of days off school and then Thanksgiving break, their sleep schedule is usually way off, and they come back and it’s kind of all goofy again.”

“Kids tend to get pretty amped up,” Shafto said. “You really have to…be kind of pulling back on the reins all the time in the classroom just to keep on task and focused.”

Shafto also discussed some of the holiday activities that she does in her classroom, like making ornaments or holiday themed coloring pages. She has had a couple of students in her five years of teaching experience that do not celebrate Christmas, and has found ways to accommodate them. For instance, she might print a coloring page that’s a generic winter theme, like a snowman, instead of Santa Claus.

She has students share about their different holiday traditions so both her students and herself are more aware of how families may choose to celebrate the holidays.

While you may remember having Christmas parties at school as a child, Shafto said many teachers do not plan a party anymore.

“Some classrooms will do parties, but mostly not,” she said. “A lot of times that just sends the whole day into chaos…and you don’t really recover well after that. But also I think kids used to be better at changing gears with things.”

The biggest thing that helps calm the holiday jitters down is keeping a similar schedule.

“We’ll put in a couple things here and there, like we’re gonna be making ugly sweater ornaments here in a few days…just like a small thing so it’s minimally disruptive,” Shafto said.

Spring break can also cause some jitters, but for fifth grade students, there are a lot of incentives for good behavior that come at the end of the school year. They have a fifth grade celebration, a big field trip, and a track and field day, Shafto said, and students do not want to lose the privilege of participating in those activities.

Another thing that helps before Christmas break is that students are learning about frustration and anxiety in the social emotional learning curriculum around that time.

“There are plenty of kids who are maybe going to see family members or doing something out of the ordinary and that is something that makes them anxious sometimes,” Shafto said.

Teachers do their best to make the holiday season fun while sticking to the daily regimen, Shafto said.

Reagan Voetberg can be reached at 989-358-5683 or rvoetberg@TheAlpenaNews.com.