12/20/07
MES students go old school with ‘Colonial Days’
By Jerriod Grizzle

JERRIOD GRIZZLE/Manning Times

Fourth grader Haley Erickson learned how to play hopscotch as part of Manning Elementary School’s Colonial days last Thursday.

It was Colonial Day at Manning Elementary.

Fourth grade students at MES dressed like pupils from the mid to late 18th century while acting out a day in the life of their Colonial counterparts on Dec. 12.

Students made butter, dipped candles and played old-fashioned games including hopscotch, checkers and jump rope.

“We have been studying colonial times in social studies and I wanted them to experience how to do all these things,” said Brandi O’Quinn, a fourth grade teacher at MES.

Along with acting out games and completing typical daily chores, students also got lessons in writing with quills, the precursors to pens of the modern era.

“You learn about colonial times but its another thing to go do it,” said MES principal Jerry Coker. “The kids remember this. You have some children that may not grasp it in the classroom but here it enforces what you teach.”

Twenty parent volunteers along with ten teachers put up stations at the back of the school to try and make the reenactments as real as possible.

Brenda Alsbrooks, who has a child in the fourth grade at MES loves the idea of Colonial Day.

“It’s teaching a little bit about life before electronics, basically getting roots,” she said.

Students had 15 minutes to complete their task at each station and at the end of the day they had something to be proud of.

“Every student will take home a candle, a corn husk doll that they made and they will get to taste the butter that is made from the ingredients we provided,” said Quinn.

Students weren’t the only ones having fun.

Teachers and parents alike got in on the action, coaching kids in games.

Jessica Harvin, teacher at MES and expert hopscotch player, spent some time teaching different groups of kids how to play the game.

“It’s fun,” she said.

From a student’s perspective, the day could not have gone better.

“We played games like hopscotch and jump rope and learned how to make food and candles. It was fun not being in a classroom,” said Haley Erickson, a fourth grade student.