School to celebrate 'all-things-Arkansas'

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

— Northside Elementary School students will celebrate “all things Arkansas” with parents and community members at the upcoming Traveling Through Arkansas festival.

The festival will be held from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., May 6, at the elementary school, but students will celebrate Arkansas with special activities all week long.

The school planned Traveling Through Arkansas in place of International Night to help fulfill Arkansas history requirements,according to teacher Leslie Thompson. If the festival is a success, the school will alternate Traveling Through Arkansas and International Night every other year, she said.

During the week, students will be decorating the hallways outside their rooms with themes like Native American History, Arkansas land forms and Dairy and Diamonds.

Students will also get to dress with a different theme each day. Monday is Razorback day, Tuesday is hillbilly day, Wednesday is pioneer day, Thursday is famous Arkansan day - such as Bill Clinton orJohnny Cash - and Friday is Decatur Pride: Blue and Gold Day. The school cafeteria will be serving a special menu to coordinate with the theme.

At the Traveling Through Arkansas festival, students and their families will journey through the school following road signs with the names of real Arkansas towns such as Pocahontas, Possum Grape, and Hogeye, starting, of course, with Corner Springs, Decatur’s original name. At each booth children will get a town checked off their map. When they have visited all the booths, they can turn their map in for a prize.

The festival will feature booths on Arkansas’ heritage and culture, including Decatur History, Native Americans, Arkansas Parks, chuck wagon driving, Arkansas Quilts, the Shiloh Museum and Razorbacks.

Arkansas businesses, including Wal-Mart, Simmons Foods, J.B. Hunt, and Decatur State Bank, will also be hosting booths showcasing the state’s industry and natural resources.

The evening will be complete with folk tales, music and dancing. The T and L Express band will be performing mountain music. There will also be clogging and fiddle music.

Community, Pages 2 on 04/28/2010