District News

Fifth grade students build colonies for history project

 

Nov. 28, 2011

 

East Hill Elementary School fifth grade teacher Joseph DiVisconti was so impressed with his students' work on a recent history project, he wanted to get the word out to everyone.

Mr. DiVisconti instructed about 40 students to build their own Colonial America-era village or create a poster of their own village during a unit on Colonial America. Each village had to include a town hall, church, blacksmith shop, homes, crops, and a school (most colonies did not have schools Mr. DiVisconti said). He also charged each student to write a one-page paper.

Mr. DiVisconti said his students used everything from wood, toothpicks and paper mache to plants and Legos.

"I was pleasantly surprised with how the villages came out. We did this last year, but on a smaller scale," he said. "All the students created different set-ups and the results we just amazing."

The project reinforced critical thinking skills and helped the students get an idea of what a village physically looked like, Mr. DiVisconti said. "It helped out with the 'hows?' and 'whys?'" he added.

Samuel Terwilliger said it took him about a week to create his village (the students were given about five days). He included paper mache and cardboard buildings and focused on details from a clothesline and wash tub to the pumpkins and corn in the field. He started with a pizza box and then used real plants and paint in his village. He even used cinnamon for the walkways.

"I think it came out great," he said. "It taught me a lot and I plan to keep it."