OFE News Release
Foundation Offers Resource for Teachers to Create Community Colonial Day Events
October 27, 2009
OKLAHOMA CITY -- The Oklahoma Foundation for Excellence is working together with alumni of the Colonial Williamsburg and Mount Vernon teacher institutes, as well as Oklahoma A+ Schools Fellows, to expand Colonial Day educational events across the state.
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| During Colonial Day at the Capitol, students enjoy such activities as exploring historical artifacts in a simulated archeological dig site. The Oklahoma Foundation for Excellence has created a new Web site at www.colonialday.org to help teachers develop similar Colonial Day events across the state. |
The foundation has created a new “Community Colonial Day” Web site, www.colonialday.org, with information and resources on how to organize a community Colonial Day event. The Web site provides ideas for educational activities, guest speakers, funding sources, scheduling, costumes, community partnership ideas and more. In addition, a list of colonial games, books, artifacts and teaching resources is posted on the Web site, with items available for free checkout from the Oklahoma Foundation for Excellence office.
For 10 years, the Foundation has partnered with teacher institute alumni to present Colonial Day at the Capitol, which serves approximately 500 fifth-graders, mostly from the Oklahoma City metro area. Dressed in colonial costume, the students perform a Bill of Rights rap and participate in a historical debate between American patriots and British loyalists. The capitol event includes teacher-led sessions where students can play colonial games, practice early-American dances and test their skills as junior archaeologists. The event has also featured appearances by such historical figures as Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin and Abigail Adams portrayed by historical interpreters.
“Our foundation and the coordinators of Colonial Day at the Capitol would like all students in Oklahoma to have the opportunity to experience Colonial Day,” said Emily Stratton, executive director of the Oklahoma Foundation for Excellence. “For that reason, we are providing resources and encouraging Teacher Institute alumni and others to develop Colonial Day events in communities across the state.”
Since 1993, the Oklahoma Foundation for Excellence has administered scholarships for more than 600 Oklahoma teachers to attend the Colonial Williamsburg Teacher Institute. Last year, the foundation developed a new partnership with Mount Vernon’s George Washington Teacher Ambassador Program, the Oklahoma History Center and the Oklahoma A+ Schools Network to further promote early American history education.
“Through this marvelous network of Teacher Institute alumni and A+ Fellows, we have the potential to serve thousands of students and involve communities across Oklahoma in hosting Colonial Day events for their students,” Stratton said.
For more information on Community Colonial Day events or other history education opportunities visit www.colonialday.org or contact Brenda Wheelock at (405) 236-0006.