By: Nick D’Amore
Constable School second-graders took their parents back to the time of the first Americans on Monday at the school’s pow-wow, dancing and showing off their knowledge of Native American history and culture.
The three second-grade classes have been working on researching Native American tribes, writing reports and building models of the tribes’ different types of houses.
Second-grade teacher Suzanne Born said the parents all brought in authentic Native American foods, while their children taught them what they had learned about the different tribes.
Jessica Stanislawczyk, a second-grader in Lucille Rogan’s class, said parents asked how the students had done their projects.
"They thought the projects were amazing," said Jessica.
Ms. Born said each class did a tribal dance separately and then joined together for one.
"They started with a canoe song. They all got inside this canoe in the gym and moved their paddles and sang," she said.
Jessica said her class did the "friendship dance," which involved the kids grabbing one foot and leaving the other one on the ground because the Native Americans "wanted to be attached to the earth."
Sean Wilson, a student in Ms. Born’s class, said his class performed a rain dance, after which all the parents and students joined together for a last tribal dance.
He said his favorite part, however, was not the dancing, but the eating.
"We got to eat popcorn and strawberries and drink juice," said Sean.
Jessica said they did not have time to eat all they wanted before their performance for their parents, "but once they left and we came back, we could eat all we wanted. We had a buffet of food."
She said she most enjoyed dancing with her fellow students and the parents at the end of the pow-wow.
"It was lots of fun when we had to teach our parents," said Jessica.
