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Fourth-graders will visit
Indiana history at Manchester College’s Heritage Days May 4-5
PIERCETON, Ind. – Fourth-graders from throughout northeast Indiana will
visit with Abraham Lincoln, Civil War soldiers, Native Americans, a fur
trader, author Gene Stratton Porter and others from Indiana’s heritage
May 4-5. Well, not actually, of course!
But artists, actors, musicians and program leaders are prepared to
educate, entertain and re-enact the state’s rich history for an
estimated 400 area school children during the Indiana Heritage Program
on the 100-acre Koinonia Environmental and Retreat Center of Manchester
College.
Teachers and principals are signing up their classes now for the
program, in its second year at Koinonia, south of Pierceton. Children
can expect to inspect wildlife and fossils, try their hands at crafts,
visit a Civil War camp, meet a Native American, play pioneer games and
climb aboard a prairie schooner so surrounded by prairie grass they’ll
travel back 200 years in time. And much more!
The program brings together scores of volunteers, presenters, musicians
and adult visitors to focus on activities tailored to fourth-graders,
MacPhail said. An estimated 200 students from seven to eight schools
each day will attend the four-hour program, which includes lunch.
Indiana Heritage Program, unique to Manchester College, is funded by
grants and donations. The activities fulfill the Indiana Academic
Standards for Social Studies for fourth grade, making the program
popular for teachers, McPhail said. “I
thought the program was awesome,” said an area teacher whose class
participated last year. “The volunteers loved what they were doing and
really got into it!”
In addition to the special presentations and re-enactments, the
fourth-graders will roam inside the main Koinonia environmental center,
where they will study Indiana wildlife, historic maps and a history of
the immediate area. In the huge activities room, they’ll get more
hands-on experience.
To schedule classes, groups or home-schoolers for the Indiana Heritage
Program, contact Rainn MacPhail at 260-982-5010 or
rlmacphail@manchester.edu. The cost per student is $3.
Funding for the Indiana Heritage Program comes from The Dekko
Foundation, Kosciusko County Community Foundation, Biomet, DePuy
Orthopaedics and Bart’s Water Sports.
The two-story Koinonia Environmental Center has sleeping and kitchen
facilities for retreats. There’s also an outdoor classroom, a fishing
program, a fossil dig, and the “Talking Rocks and Mineral Resources
Trail” developed by the Indiana Mineral Aggregate Association. Most of
Koinonia is handicap-accessible, including the covered wagon and many of
the trails.
About 4,000 students from area schools participate in Koinonia’s
programs annually, primarily from Kosciusko, Wabash, Whitley, Allen and
Noble counties. |
