Peacock Chronicle

Volume 00-01

Issue 3

page 7

Famous People Come to Life at Annual IDS People Fair

By Lindsey Culligan

On Tuesday, February 13, and Wednesday, February 14, the sixth graders hosted the People Fair. The fair provided the forum for using communication benchmarks from national and state standards. It also affirmed the students' hard work in reading, researching, writing, and creativity.

There were two types of fairs: a walk-through fair where IDS primary students casually visited the sixth graders' booths and a presentation fair where IDS intermediate students heard the sixth graders' monologues then visited the booths. Walkthrough fairs were 20 minutes, and presentation fairs were 40 minutes. Sixth graders were in costume and in character for both types of fairs. Parents were welcome to come to any of the fairs.

All of the fairs were in the sixth grade English and social studies classrooms on the first floor of the new middle school building. The sixth graders also said that they like d dressing up and learning about people who made a difference in the world. Kindergarten through second grade got to get the famous people's autographs. Grades 3-5 got to hear the 6th graders' monologues.

The famous people who were portrayed were both past and present. These people included politicians, scientists, musicians, sports figures, and world leaders. Some of the people portrayed included Gandhi, Shirley Temple Black, Einstein, and Helen Keller. With museum artifacts, speeches, and posters, students revealed the positive personalities that influence lives through their character and high standards. If you missed this wonderful event, please stop by next year for the 2001/2002 People Fair.

History comes alive in Ms. Grady's classes

By Jeff Mueller

Ms. Grady is the Social Studies teacher for seventh and eighth grade. She enjoys teaching the children at IDS. She has been at IDS for twelve years and loves to get kids excited about history. She uses a program called History Alive.

"It helps me learn," said Johnny Messina.

Ms. Grady said, "I use History Alive because it has a variety of activities like skits, slides, art, pictures, and music. The program teaches to all learning styles, auditory, visual, and kinesthetic-tactual." Mrs. Grady locks forward to finishing all the chapters in the history book with both seventh and eighth grades, "...and getting the kids to love history and current events! " she adds.
The seventh grade is studying the Vietnam War and South East Asia. Eighth grade is studying World War I.

Mrs. Grady concluded, "I am so glad to be in the new middle school. My classroom is so large and the students stay focused."

We are glad to be here too. Just keep doing what you do because students love social studies!