Clayton's Second Grade Festival

At Clayton's sweet little school, each grade has a "festival" at staggered points throughout the year (each grade is assigned a different month).  Festival is a time for the children to perform and recite memory work that we have been working on this school year.  The History curriculum is taught from creation through present day in a chronological cycle every 4 years.  (So, by the completion of high school, the kids have learned the entire span of history 3 times.)  The second grade students focus on Ancient Greece and Rome.  I've never really been a history person, but I have so enjoyed learning through this method as I teach it to Clayton.

The second grade festival was on February 27th.  Unfortunately, I had a brief hospital stay that didn't allow for me to attend.  I was so devastated!  This is such a big deal to the students (and the parents!).  My darling husband lugged the video recorder and my big camera up there and attempted to both video and take still pictures at the same time.  He knew how sad I was about missing it...  Bless his heart!  He did a good job of documenting everything and making me feel like I was there.

We read many of Aesop's fables in the fall, and the children even wrote their own original fables.   They merged their fable unit with their history and wrote a play entitled "The Tortoise and The Hare Race Through Greece & Rome."  It was adorable!  They also recited the Nicene Creed and sang their history song.

The backdrop for their play

 Clayton with his classmates and teacher

 C has gone to school with these two cute little girls since Kindergarten.  They are all good buddies.

After the performance, the kids ate Greek and Roman foods and then went outside for their own version of the Olympics.  They had chariot (aka wheelbarrow) races, a 3 leg race, a javelin throwing contest (with pool noodles), etc.  I'm told that it was great fun!  My hubby was the champion wheelbarrow driver in all of the heats of that competition.  What a stud!   :)

Wade and his winning team

This is Clayton's third festival, and I love the concept more and more each year.  It is a lot of work for teachers, parents, and students alike, for sure, but I can see how it makes history come alive for them.  I think that all of the kids benefit from knowing not only the dates that they have studied, but also knowing how it sounded, tasted, and what it felt like to live hundreds and thousands of years ago.  I just love this method of learning!