Trinity South students make floats, learn state history
Melena Maglietta presents her shoebox float she made of Drake’s Well in Titusville, the first one in Pennsylvania, to her class. Students in fourth grade at Trinity South Elementary recently completed a project in which they made model scale floats out of shoeboxes. The floats had to represent a place, historical event or famous person associated with Pennsylvania.
Ashlinn Powell, 9, checks to make sure her lighthouse is lit as part of her shoebox float of Presque Isle State Park. Students in fourth grade at Trinity South Elementary recently completed a project in which they made model scale floats out of shoeboxes. The floats had to represent a place, historical event or famous person associated with Pennsylvania.
Alexis Allum is shown with her shoebox float depicting the Battle of Lake Erie. Students in fourth grade at Trinity South Elementary recently completed a project in which they made model scale floats out of shoeboxes. The floats had to represent a place, historical event or famous person associated with Pennsylvania.
Emma Lorenzo, 10, shows her shoebox float depicting PPG Place in Pittsburgh. Students in fourth grade at Trinity South Elementary recently completed a project in which they made model scale floats out of shoeboxes. The floats had to represent a place, historical event or famous person associated with Pennsylvania.
Fourth-graders at Trinity South Elementary School may not have visited every state landmark, but thanks to a recent school project, they know a lot more about them.
Kim Parks, a fourth-grade teacher at the elementary school, asked her students to create a scale-model parade float out of a shoebox. The float had to represent a place, a historical event or a famous person associated with Pennsylvania.
“I’m just blown away,” Parks said Friday as she looked around the room at the floats.
Parks was part of a committee that had to come up with a performance task, a project that also incorporated Common Core standards. After testing the project last year, it was expanded this school year and all 52 of her students participated.
“This project involved many of the Common Core standards for writing, researching, technology and use of visual aids,” she said. “In addition, students were able to gain knowledge about Pennsylvania that cannot be found in our textbooks.”
Besides creating the floats, students also wrote informational reports and gave short speeches on the subject.
“It gives kids the opportunity to see what’s out there,” Parks said. “They work so hard. The community needs to see what we do in school and we’re proud of our work.”
Student Briana Kovscek made a float depicting Fallingwater in Fayette County, a unique house built over a waterfall. Famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright designed the house for the Kaufmann family. It was built in the 1930s and is now a National Historic Landmark.
“I was interested in Fallingwater because it was built over a waterfall,” Kovscek said. “It’s nice all year-round. My mother said she’s going to take me.” Kovscek incorporated a lot of different elements into her float, including sandpaper for walls of the main building and fake moss for grass.
“I’m really into arts and crafts,” she continued as she proudly pointed out each piece of her float. “I put it together really fast. I’ve been doing art forever. I thought it was really fun to do.”
Other notable projects included PNC Park, PPG Place, an oil well and a mine.
“My great-grandparents used to work in mines,” said Zachary Losko, another fourth-grader. He said he even found out a relative on his dad’s side had died in a mine accident.
Student Emma Lorenzo was inspired by her birthday party at the skating rink at PPG place. She modeled her float after the ice skating rink.
Though some of the students had different project inspirations, they could all agree they were excited and nervous when they found out about the project. Many of the students got their inspiration from a parent or artistic relative.
“They’re happy to come to school,” Parks said. “You can tell by how much work they put into it.”