Deer Meadow School students spent part of last Friday afternoon in the gym, excitedly participating in the school's third annual Renaissance Fair.
While Grade 8 students were proudly showing off their projects and their costumes, younger students were doing a scavenger hunt, trying to find out who had been the mother of Queen Elizabeth I and who had sculpted the statue of David.
“The kids are pretty excited,” said Jana Kemmere, Deer Meadow School social studies teacher.
“The scavenger hunt is so that they can find out a little bit of information about the Renaissance and then when they get into Grade 8, they will be doing the Renaissance Fair as well and they will have a little bit of interest invested in it already and get some ideas of whom they went to present.”
A total of 135 Grade 8 students partnered or worked by themselves to research the lives of 86 famous Renaissance individuals, ranging from Leonardo da Vinci to Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortes. The end result was a detailed triptych on each individual.
“The students also looked at what the Renaissance did and how it affected the society back then and how it helped to shape our worldview in the western world as well, so how the Renaissance affects the way that we look at the world today in Canada,” said Kemmere.
Some students got into the Renaissance Fair spirit and dressed in period costumes.
Samantha Statchuck did her project on Artemisia Gentileschi, an Italian painter. She also dressed up in an approximation of what Renaissance painters would have worn.
“I got my costume from the high school theatre drama production,” she said.
“I really enjoyed doing this project. It was probably the highlight of my Grade 8 year.”
A little farther in the gym, Baylen Unger answered younger students' questions about his subject, Michelangelo.
“I picked him because I have known more about his work than other historical figures. I first heard about him in connection with the statue of David,” he said.
“Michelangelo was a very skilled sculptor. To make the statue of David, three other artists tried to do it and Michelangelo was the first to succeed, after the other three artists.”
It took students about a month to do their projects.
“I gave them a list of probably 100 different names. They were able to have one period to do a little bit of research on people that they were interested in or someone that they had heard of,” said Kemmere.
“Then they got to choose. We actually did a draw because there were sometimes three people that wanted to do Michelangelo or someone famous.”
Kemmere believes that the fair has made the community more aware of the Renaissance.
“I think the kids are just raising awareness of what the Renaissance was all about and teaching the younger students and the community and their parents about it,” she said.
“Renaissance has been the big word over the last couple of months. The kids are so focused on it and so excited.”
