West Fest 2007
 

Medieval Venture Grant

                               By Margaret Davis

          Blue Mt. Elementary West held their annual “West Fest” on Saturday, March 3, 2007. The entire school was transformed back to medieval times. All 323 students and their classroom teachers read related literature, researched background, composed writing projects, and created displays to highlight what they had learned to correlate with Mr. Gipe’s Art Show.

          Kindergarteners dressed in medieval costumes, role-played their parts, read literature with puppets, made a classroom castle with sponge-painted rocks around their moats, and wrote various responses to relate to the overall theme.

          First grade students made kingdom mobiles to decorate the hallway, created individual crowns, composed fairytales with tissue paper characters, and produced shields that highlighted their interests. Students also enjoyed fairytale literature and learned new medieval vocabulary through bulletin board displays.

          Second grade students enjoyed dragon tales and wrote their own dragon pieces. Also, they created bejeweled crowns, constructed milk cartons castles, wove new Emperor’s clothes, and designed individual shields. After reading about knights and heraldry, students decreed a special day of their choice (ex. I, Knight Ryan, decree today, ”Help the Poor Day”. All students will give money to the poor.)

          Third graders transformed their entranceway into light gray walls with a wooden knight standing guard.  Students created dazzling crowns, watched a medieval movie, and wrote descriptive paragraphs to correlate with the theme.

          Fourth graders created illuminations with their initials and a flowery Maypole outside their classrooms. Many writing projects were displayed throughout the hallway as well.

          Fifth grade students wrote poems and tales about medieval times. They enjoyed reading many different related topics and researching castles on the Internet.

           Standards that were covered included:

           1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 1.5, 1.8, 8.1,8.4, 9.1,9.2,9.3,9.4

          As you can see with our photographic displays, our Western kingdom came alive, thanks to your generous grant.

Click on a picture to view a larger version

Photos courtesy of Margaret Davis