Fifth-grade teachers at Seymour-Jackson Elementary School used a class project to hit many different goals all at once.

The challenge was for students to choose a Native American tribe and a project.

The students could create a diorama, make a costume, make a food item, create a small scrapbook of the places the tribe lived, design a poster, make a miniature version of the shelter, make a necklace or do another type of project.

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“They may not years from now remember how many tests they took or how many papers they did, but they will remember projects like this,” said Melanie Klakamp, a teacher at the school.

“They’ve done a fantastic job,” fifth-grade teacher Jill Waskom Kloss said. “Three of the five classes did it this year.”

The project ties into the state’s standards in a number of ways.

One part of the standards requires the students to learn about early Americans, another requires teaching about writing projects and a third one has the students do an oral presentation to practice public speaking.

“It covers not only our social studies requirements but others, as well,” Kloss said.

After studying what they could in the classroom, students chose a tribe they wanted to learn about, and then worked on the project.

“We stressed that they did not have to buy things unless they wanted to while creating their projects, and many didn’t,” Klakamp said. “Of course, parents were welcome to help with the projects.”

Many of the students received help from their parents or guardians, making it more enjoyable for the students.

“It took a little while to make it, and I had help,” fifth-grader Cohl Moore said of his display. “I think it took me like three to five days.”

Fifth-grader Amber Ault made a model of a Pueblo house.

“The Pueblo didn’t have doors on the first floors of their houses,” she said. “Instead, they had ladders they could take down if they didn’t want people visiting them.”

Carlos Miranda Fontanez did a project on the Inuit, a tribe from the northern parts of North America, including Alaska and Canada. He made a model of an Inuit home, an igloo.

He spent a large part of the time putting down the first layer of the snow on his diorama, but he was happy with the results.

Throughout the project, teachers and students learned many new things about the indigenous people they studied.

“I thought it was really cool the Kwakiutl made masks to make them look like animals,” fifth-grader Sallie Nicholson said.

“I learned they had handmade knives specifically to carve out ice for their igloos,” fifth-grader Ashley Collins said.

The project came about after Kloss’ father, who also was a teacher, did a similar project when she was younger.

“I think the kids had fun, I had fun and it’s amazing seeing what they came up with,” she said.