By staff writer Kyra Kong

On October 30th, Teacher Katie Linderme’s 8th grade class held an event called Colonial Booth Day, where students did presentation on eight of the original American 13 colonies.

Colonial Booth Day was for the 8th grade class and the 5th grade classes; each colony group tried to persuade others to settle in their colony.

“The colony booth was a wonderful example of how to use your creativity to make something of your own to appeal to those around you,” said 8th grader Liang Goh. “While doing these fun stuff, you can also learn slowly about the first American groups that you represent.”

8th graders separated into small groups, chose their colonies and were given deadlines for informational materials and more. The 8th grade class visited the 5th grade classes (who were also participating) to share their colony’s presentation in their colonial outfits.

Then students presented their official colonies and pitches to Ms. Linderme, other teachers, and their own classmates for an evaluation/election. The colony that won the election from the 5th grade and the 8th grade received extra credit for their efforts.

“The Colonial Booths are one of my favorite things to do. It’s fun to watch it happen, lots of creativity,” said Ms. Linderme. “I want it to be better than last year, so this year we incorporated the 5th grade, really because the curriculum is similar, and I wanted to reinforce the connection between K-8.”

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The colonies that were presented were Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Georgia, and Virginia. Each colony had to make and provide a brochure that explained the main elements of their colony: geography climate, religion, founders, etcs. They also had to come up with a slogan, jingle, sales presentation, and gimmick.

Over the course of when they started the project and when the Colonial Booth Day ended, the entire class had two weeks to prepare and finish.

“I thought it was a good experience, but there were some issues,” said 8th grader Caroline Gee. “The jingle had technical difficulties… we had to think about it more often as a group project and we had to learn that it wasn’t such a big deal when we mess up.”