Mike Wolanin | The Republic Doug Roush is dressed as a Continental soldier for the Revolutionary Fair at Parkside Elementary School in Columbus, Ind., Friday, May 12, 2023.
Students at a local grade school were recently sent back in time for a couple of days to experience a bit of early American history.
Parkside Elementary fifth graders participated in the school’s annual Revolutionary Fair on May 11 and 12.
According to fifth grade teacher Holly Chastain, the American Revolution and colonial period make up one of the biggest units of study for her grade’s Social Studies curriculum.
“We find that doing this as a culminating event after we’ve taught about the Revolution gives the kids a lot of background knowledge that they don’t really have any other way to get,” she said. “So it allows them to start to see some of the things that we’ve just talked about in class. It allows them to participate in activities that would have happened during the war or in colonial times.”
On the first day of the Revolutionary Fair, parents and teachers offered stations focused on various aspects of the American Revolution and colonial life, such as colonial etiquette, espionage, life in the Continental Army and colonial games.
Chastain added that for the last couple of years, the Daughters of the American Revolution have been among the volunteers for the first day of the fair and have given time, money and materials to the cause.
During the second day of the fair, the school was visited by reenactors in full costume, who portrayed different groups from around the world and shared what those people’s views would have been at that time.
Parkside has held the fair for about 12 or 13 years, Chastain estimated. She explained that before coming to Parkside, she had previously taught at Schmitt Elementary and was part of a school trip to Virginia. Then, when she moved to Parkside, the school took the same trip, with students being able to learn about the Revolutionary War.
“That was maybe 16 years ago, we took that trip,” she said. “And it was a wonderful trip, but after that, they said, ‘It’s too far to take fifth graders. You can’t do this trip anymore.’ So we really started looking for, ‘What can we bring here to bring that experience to Parkside as much as we possibly can? We can’t replicate exactly what we had done, but what can we do to give kids this firsthand experience, to teach them what life was like?’ So that’s how it all came about.”
