A Brunch with Greatness: The Elementary Historical Brunch

By K. Meagan Ledendecker, Director of Education

Imagine if studies in history could weave together poetry, handcrafts, reading, fashion, composition, measurement, research, personal interests, grace and courtesy, and artistic expression.

Our elementary students experience all this and more as they immerse themselves in an all-encompassing history project called the Historical Dinner (or Historical Brunch, depending upon the time of day they share the culmination of their work). This multidisciplinary foray began within the first year or two of the MSB elementary program and each year that we announce the start of the project, our returning students break out in cheers and applause.

These seasoned students look forward to perusing biographies to find a famous historical person to study over a series of weeks, and they know that these studies will culminate in all sorts of exciting activities. After embarking on their own research, small groups of students visit Shakespeare & Company’s Costume Shop to find period clothing which they use to dress the life-sized models they will create. This results in an intensely collaborative process of trying to dress a body made entirely of newspaper, stockings, cardboard, and duct tape, complete with a paper mâché head.

The excitement about this project also stems from the lively discussions that develop as children decide how to seat these famous figures at the dinner (or brunch) party tableau. The students consider what would happen if visionary thinkers or doers could connect across time (imagine Copernicus getting to talk with Neil Armstrong). Typically students decide to seat famous people according to interest or background, perhaps grouping entertainers and athletes at one table, while artists and authors sit together elsewhere.

In this project, we also place each famous person on a vast timeline in 10-year increments from BCE to today. We notice how few famous people we have in the BCE portion of our timeline and how many are clustered up in the past two hundred or so years. We explore the story part of history and the role that written language plays in our understanding of time past.

Depending upon the year and interest, students create scrapbooks and timelines of the person they chose. Sometimes they dress up as their famous people, or impersonate their person in a drama hot seat. Over the course of several weeks, the students learn about each other’s famous people in addition to their own. For our final sharing, with all the famous people dressed and seated precariously, students take turns sharing a poem (typically a limerick) and a few tidbits about why they chose their historical figure. They present in order from past to present, remembering where their person falls in the great progression of time.

Beyond the historical learning and artistic expression, our students experience a tremendous amount of community spirit throughout the project. From our collaboration with Shakespeare & Company, to parent volunteers helping in different ways, to all-hands-on-deck stuffing, cutting, taping and dressing the figuresthe community is the glue that holds it all together.

When the elementary students stand before their guests, the connection between the past and the future becomes quite clear. We celebrate famous people of the past and behold our future leaders, innovators, thinkers, activists, and adventurers.