El Morro students get Colonial experience

Of all El Morro Elementary School events, Stephanie Gapp most looks forward to the annual Colonial Days festival.

“This event gets kids ready for the holidays and is part of history you don’t get in the everyday classroom,” said Gapp, a mom who has volunteered the last six years for the multiday event, held in the Laguna Beach school’s multipurpose room.

The festival, which began in the 1980s, gives students a taste of what life was like in colonial America and coincides with Thanksgiving week.

On Monday, parent volunteers, students and Principal Chris Duddy dressed in clothes reflective of the time as the youngsters visited different craft stations to make candles out of hot wax and ornaments out of clay.

Gapp helped fourth-grader Aidan Malm and others make ornaments. Using a rolling pin, students flattened a circular piece of clay and pressed a mold to imprint their chosen design.

“[Native Americans] and pilgrims used to stamp mud and clay to make designs and tell stories,” Gapp said.

Aidan decided on a ship for his pattern. He then pushed a round cookie cutter into the clay to create a circular ornament and poked a hole at the top to allow for a piece of string.

It takes 24 hours for the clay to harden, Gapp said.

“This event makes me feel like I’m in person with the Native Americans,” Aidan said.

Student art work was also on display.

For example, fifth-graders researched Native American symbols and, with a little creativity, drew their own personal signs on canvas, said Colonial Days Co-Chairwoman Patty Tacklind.

The pieces of canvas were arranged on the outside of a tepee for viewing.

Tacklind’s 10-year-old daughter, Mia, likes sunsets and birds, so her design featured a sun with feathers serving as its rays.

“They asked themselves, ‘Who am I, and if a sign represented me, what would it look like?’” said Tacklind, who has volunteered for eight years.

Organizers don’t stray too far from tradition, which is one of the event’s endearing qualities, said Tacklind, who added that the school’s Parent Teacher Assn. sets aside money in its budget for the event.

“A kid will say, ‘I need to make a pillow; I make a pillow every year,’” Tacklind said.