Project reveals students' past

A fifth-grade assignment led children to find out about their family's past and share what they learned with their classmates.

Two fifth-grade teachers at Monroe Intermediate School, Genny Luckau and Terri Jones asked their students to complete a six-week family heritage project for their final project.

"This project was set up for students to discover their heritage, learning why the United States is considered a 'melting pot,' and explore the country of their family's history," Jones said.

During the six weeks, the students researched their individual backgrounds and learned which countries their families immigrated from.

"They began the project by learning about their own family history. This involved speaking to their parents about the people in their family who came from another country, and have immigrated to America," Jones said.

"They were able to discuss their family history in general or choose one person to focus on. For some, the research involved contacting relatives who might have known information that parents didn't."

This research took place at home, however, during the language and writing portion of their school day, the students would obtain help with their project.

Once the students had their research completed, they used the information to write a detailed essay and put information on a board to display their information.

"Finally, they were to research the country their family immigrated from in order to plan an imaginary journey to the 'home' country of their family's history," she said.

"They needed to know specific cultural and regional facts in order to plan the trip."

Jones said this project generated a lot of excited as the students began to learn about their own history. Most couldn't wait to share the information they had learned, but they had to wait until last week to do so.

Last Wednesday, not only did the students share the information they learned about their family and the "pretend" trip they were going to take to their "home" country, but some brought family photos, artifacts and shared samples of family recipes from the country their relatives immigrated from. Some of those countries included, Norway, Sweden, Poland and Greece.

Student Haley Celevenger said the pierogi is something her family makes during Christmas and other special holidays.

The students enjoyed the presentations and the food.