Adrianne Greene

School

Mary Bryan Elementary School

Grant Title

From Past to Present: Indiana’s History

Synopsis

The fourth grade teachers would like to receive the materials needed to do a living timeline of Indiana’s history. The teachers have been preparing students to create a poster board that we wish to mount on a yard stake in our school’s backyard. It is our wish that each student will become the expert on their own significant, chronological event regarding a major event in Indiana’s history. This grant would help to increase the knowledge of many topics (such as the Native American tribes, Civil War, and recent history) school wide. Each student would dress in an ensemble that represents the time frame and/or moment in history they are presenting. They will be arranged in chronological order, and they will present their understanding and research of their topic to their parents, teachers, younger and older classmates, and administrators who come to visit our timeline. Any spectators to the timeline will be able to learn how Indiana became the 19th state and the history that unfolded thereafter.

The materials we feel would be most beneficial to create this timeline and have it be an effective project would be yard sticks and poster boards for them to create their informational posters. We would also like to have students dressed in the ensemble of the time period they are representing. With the bicentennial of Indiana approaching, it is ever so important that students reflect on the past and realize its importance. This project would cover every social studies content standard as all periods of Indiana’s history will be represented from Native Americans to recent times. This project would not only cover social studies standards, but reading and language arts as well. It is our goal as a grade level to reach all of the standards, and many of them involve researching. This project would allow the students to meet these target goals.