On Thursday, Grant Elementary School in Petaluma went back in time.
Fifth graders there staged a half-day colonial takeover of the campus. They dressed up, they ran businesses, they played games – all in the theme of 18th century America.
Then kindergarten through fourth grade students wandered through the new world, learning from their fifth grade peers.
“I decided that a living history model is the best way for students to understand the concept of colonial life and especially the various trades,” Leslie Ihrig, a fifth grade teacher at Grant wrote me in an email.
Ihrig attended the Colonial Williamsburg Teacher Institute in 2007 and became a teacher leader in Petaluma for the Teaching American History program.
“Students left 2010 at the door and became colonists!” she wrote.
Students became tavern keepers, a milliner, a weaver, a carpenter, cooper, shoemaker, apothecary, gunsmith and blacksmith.
Fellow fifth grade teacher Julia Megna said about 54 fifth graders made the day a success. Students dressed up and some dug into their family histories to bring in props and real tools, Megna said.
“A boy whose great, great grandfather who was a blacksmith and we have their family tools,” she said.
They also made journey cakes. Concept? Great. Taste? Not so much, Megna said.
“It’s a corn-based food that is easily stored and lasts a long time,” she said.
Ihrig passed along this quote from fifth grade participant Cody Jacquez: “It was so much fun. Just like a play, without the stagefright.”
Check out the photos.