7th Grade Brings History to Life

Piedmont 7th Grader Comes to Life as Elie Weisel for "museum" vistors

This week, 7th grade students of Ms. Thornburg, Mr. Egnot, and Mr. George brought various historical periods to life. Students transformed 10 classrooms into museum exhibits to display their creations and then came to life as various real historical characters, everything from Presidents to dictators; from selfless nurses to nameless spies, from an excruciatingly detailed Vietnamese war bunker to a beautifully-acted 1980 US Olympic hockey "miracle on ice" team.
Visitors got chills walking into the oddly cold red-bannered Nazi room and heard sobs in the rag-bedecked Holocaust room. The Vietnam room featured a huge helicopter and the Japan room door was adorned with swords. Each exhibit taught a lesson through its props or monologue and gave students and community members the opportunity to learn from each other.

Sometimes you see pictures of smiling children at their desks with books and paper, but an event like this is what the purpose of all that learning is. To make sense of history, to share what you've learned, to help others see and feel that time period and take those lessons into their own lives. We are grateful to the entire 7th grade team for bringing this experience to Piedmont.

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