Traveling gingerbread men

From there, everything just fell into place.

Stewart’s class took part in an exchange with a school in New Hampshire that resulted in 50 gingerbread men being created.

“While scrolling through a couple kindergarten Facebook pages last year, I found a gingerbread man exchange with a teacher looking for a class from each state to mail gingerbread men prior to Christmas.

“I lucked out, because when I reached out, there wasn’t a school from Iowa yet, so I quickly signed up.”

-Submitted photo

A hallway inside St. Edmond Catholic School is decorated with traveling gingerbread men from other schools around the United States. The kindergarten class under teacher Kaitlyn Stewart took part in the program before Christmas.

The students decorated several gingerbread men with things that reminded them of Iowa, including logos for Iowa State, Iowa and Northern Iowa, the state bird and flower, corn and pigs.

“We felt like those were all nostalgic of Iowa,” Stewart said. “With the gingerbread men, each state also included a cover letter with information about their school system and state, so it turned out to be a great learning experience for all.”

In turn, the students from the other schools taking part in the exchange sent the same back to Iowa, giving the St. Edmond kids the opportunity to learn something new themselves.

“We learned so many interesting facts about schools, including their climates, sports teams, commodities, school sizes, fun facts and how far the gingerbread men ‘traveled’ to get to us,” Stewart said. “One of the most interesting things we learned throughout this whole process was that in New Hampshire, there is still a one-room school house that was established in 1858 and has grades preK-fourth.”

There was even a connection back to St. Edmond made through the exchange and another teacher at the school.

“As a crazy coincidence, we even were able to connect with a school in Florida. Mrs. (Ann) Knobbe, a second-grade teacher here at St. Edmond received a message from her sister-in-law after she visited her child’s classroom,” Stewart said. “While visiting, she noticed the word ‘GAELS’ and went to further inspect the letter and gingerbread man.

“Come to find out it’s a small world and she noticed it was the same school Mrs. Knobbe worked at. Through communications, we had lined up to do a Zoom meeting between the two classrooms, but unfortunately, we ended up with a late start that day ironically due to snow. It was definitely something that a Florida school does not have experience with. We are still hoping to reschedule the Zoom meeting sometime this year to give the students a chance to connect with students in a different state.”

Stewart said the entire experience was “a fun one” that allowed the students to be excited to receive mail.

“It was definitely unique that the whole school has been able to partake in (this exchange),” she said. “We had a map in the hallway and would put each one up as they came in so everyone was able to read the letters and see how far they traveled.”