June 5th

ALL THINGS COLONIAL!

Clothing for Students:  I would recommend that students come dressed and ready rather than changing at school.  It will slow down our preparations at arrival time.

Boys - with the weather looking warmer, it seems like shorts rather than pants will be preferred.  The requirement for boys is to wear a plain white shirt (short or long sleeved) and can be button down or not.  The vest will go over the white shirt.  For bottoms, they need to wear plain shorts/pants (not mesh/athletic and not with any wild prints).  Finally, a pair of tall socks that can be pulled up to the knee and can fit over pants if they choose to wear pants.  Each boy has a hat at school that he will wear, along with the haversack that they each sewed.

Girls - each girl has picked out a dress, or has a family member making one.  They can choose to wear the dress as is, or with shorts and a top underneath.  They won't be taking the dresses off if wearing something underneath, but I know some of the girls have expressed feeling more comfortable that way.  They each have a bonnet, pocket, and apron that they will put on over the dress.  

Clothing for Adults:  If you are volunteering at some point on colonial day, we would like you to wear colonial garb.

Dads/Uncles/Grandfathers - please dress as the boys are dressing.  There will be hats on a desk outside the classroom if you'd like to borrow one.  If you have a vest and white shirt to wear that would be great.

Moms/Aunts/Grandmothers:  please dress as the girls are dressing.  There will be dresses, skirts, bonnets, and a few aprons on the desk outside the classroom.  If you have your own colonial garb, fabulous!

If you are just coming to watch part or all of the day as an observer and not a helper, you don't have to wear anything special.  

Shoes:  Students should wear closed-toed shoes on Colonial Day.  There are lots of roots and uneven patches of grass that can cause the open toes of shoes to get caught.  There will also be 3 fires going throughout the day, so anything open-toed or plastic-like (crocs) are not a good idea.

Volunteers - if you are signed up to help at one of the 3 early morning base groups from 8:30-9, please read the description of what will be happening at your base group.  These are the chores you will be helping students complete.  These will be sent as attachments in an email.  If you are helping with any of the rotating activities in the morning or afternoon, please read the attachments in the email.  These activities would include things like candles, stick horses, brooms, reverse glass painting, corn husk dolls, apple dunking, cross stitch.

Photographers - if you are signed up to take photos throughout the day, we love candid shots, but also some formal ones too.  Ideas might include:  all the completed stick horses lined up against the fence, each student with his or her parent(s), the mantle with candles lit, the table set for lunch, the front of the house, the colonial flag flying, all the boys together, all the girls together, the dame and her apprentice, the peddler and his apprentice, the town crier.  

We can communicate after Thursday about how you'd like to share the photos with others.

Tina Nadeau - our art teacher will be in charge of teaching volunteers how to help with the broom making and corn husk dolls.  In the morning during base group activities she will model how to do a broom, and then while students are dancing later in the day she will model how to make a corn husk doll. 

If any child leaves your station without completing the activity, it's ok, they will be back.  Please don't finish their work for them.  I'll be asking students to shift around a lot in order to complete all activities by the day's end.