A game show contestant has to pick which tree she is going to decorate for Christmas as part of the skit, "Who's Going Home." Back (L-R): Cerenity Hjorth, Lucas Nygard, Jase Root and Amelia Hurst. Front (L-R): Wiley Kelley and Lily Kihara.
Jadesa Stevens and Aubri Loesch try baking a pie for their vlog, Baking with Brittany, when everything goes awry.
Supervising Teacher Toni Hatten gets ready to hit record on Sydney Nygard's segment for North Pole News.
Sunset School students hold a trial deciding if the defendant has been a good or bad kid this past year during their performance of "Christmas Sprinkles," a set of holiday themed skits. From left are Jase Root, Lucas Nygard, Aiden Eichenlaub and Sera Benton.
Sam Welch and Aiden Eichenlaub comment on Sydney Nygard's present rustling skills during their taping of "Christmas Sprinkles," an anthological holiday program intended to be adaptable for COVID regulations.
Cerenity Hjorth and Supervising Teacher Toni Hatten count off before recording Sunset School's annual Christmas program. After Hatten edits the clips together, the piece will be shared with parents via private YouTube link or flash drive.
GREENOUGH - Sunset Elementary School students were busy on Thursday, Dec. 17 filming their scenes for "Christmas Sprinkles," a brand new anthological holiday program.
Supervising Teacher Toni Hatten said she chose the collection of skits because the format could be virtually adapted had the school closed. However, she was glad the students could perform together, even though there was not an audience.
"I'm so glad that we didn't have to [go virtual], because I'm not sure technically how we would have done that through Zoom," she said.
Sixth grader Sera Benton said she enjoyed the skit format.
"I really liked how it was kind of set up where there's lots of little scenes and how we all got to be in different ones," she said. "I got to play a prosecutor and a job interviewer and it was really cool."
Normally the school holds their program at Paws Up, but due to COVID-19 they decided to record it preemptively at the school. Sixth grader Sam Welch said performing with a mask on was a unique experience but the overall setup was familiar.
"I really liked how we did it," he said. "It was very different and very weird but it was still very cool. The play was amazing how it was very different but still the same."
Hatten said it was tough finding time to practice. The students began practicing once a week the week of Thanksgiving and then went to twice a week the week of the performance.
"One of the most difficult parts was trying to find time for play practice when we have an already full schedule of academics," she said.
Sixth grader Aiden Eichenlaub said the most challenging portion for him was having to study two roles at once.
"[The hardest part was] figuring out how to have what emotion as each character," he said. "My favorite part was definitely being the judge [and] being able to feel powerful and [put] my emotion [into] it. I'm pretty happy about how it all came out."
Hatten said she almost did not organize a program this year due to the logistics and cost, but she wanted to continue with the tradition.
"It's been our tradition that we've been doing plays since I've been here," she said. "We used to work with Ovando the first few years because we had minimal students, but in the last three or four years, we've done our own plays. That's worked out really well."
Costumes and props came from teachers, local residents and Goodwill. During filming, students helped with camera framing and recording to give them production experience.
Hatten hopes to finish editing and have the production on the school's YouTube channel through a private link before Christmas. She will also provide parents with flash drives of the performance. Despite the accommodations, she was proud with how the performances came out as a whole.
"The kids worked extremely hard on their parts," Hatten said. "We have kindergarten all the way up to eighth grade so we have different levels of ability and yet I think it all came together very well."
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