While most of their classmates stuck with the shoebox size for their Indiana-related miniature 500 Festival Parade float, Axel Hernandez and Lilly Charlton chose to go a little bigger.
With the help of his dad, Hernandez created a large box that folded out on all four sides and displayed different parts of the Indianapolis Zoo, including the parking lot with a school bus and vehicles, a welcome sign, animals, a train, a dolphin show and a penguin display.
Charlton became intrigued by the Spencer County town of Santa Claus since she loves Christmas, so she included a miniature Christmas tree, a Santa Claus figurine, Santa’s mailbox, a Holiday World and Splashin’ Safari logo, fake snow and a picture of President Abraham Lincoln wearing a Santa hat. She put it all on a box covered with Christmas wrapping paper.
Those projects definitely stood out among the creative boxes made by three of the four fourth grade classes at Seymour-Jackson Elementary School. They recently were displayed on five tables in a hallway inside the school.
“Mine was the biggest one. I’m really proud of it. It was amazing,” Hernandez said, smiling.
Charlton made her project complete by wearing a skirt with Christmas bows and garland on it and a Santa hat.
“I wanted something that I thought nobody else would do, and so I wanted to think outside of the box,” she said. “I just thought of this because I really love Christmas, and I like to bring Christmas back any time of the year because I think it’s just such a joyful time of the year.”
Hernandez has been to the zoo and likes how some endangered animals are protected there, but Charlton said she has never been to Santa Claus and now wants to go there with her family.
Since Indiana history is part of the fourth grade curriculum, the Jackson fourth grade teachers once again participated in the 500 Festival and Indianapolis 500 Education Program.
Presented by Indiana University Health, the free program takes place in the spring and is open to all Indiana fourth grade classrooms. Teachers are provided with engaging lessons, classroom materials and an educational video series. There’s an optional study trip to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway or a mobile study trip to a school.
Jackson fourth grade teachers Heather Lewis, Emily Pardieck and Kathy Thurston chose to have students complete a shoebox project to end the program. It could be anything related to Indiana, and they had to include a paragraph about their choice.
“I think it gets the kids involved in knowing a little bit more about Indiana because we’re still not sure at this age where things are in Indiana,” Lewis said.
The students know about things in Seymour and can choose that for their project, but many research other things in Indiana and decide to incorporate that into their parade float.
“Each of these projects is teaching all of us about things in Indiana,” Pardieck said.
Fourth-grader Isabella Campbell was inspired by her hometown, in particular Rock and Roll Hall of Famer John Mellencamp. For her shoebox, she painted a house pink, wrote names of Mellencamp’s hit songs and included pictures of him, the mural that was painted of him in downtown Seymour and the cover of the “Falling from Grace” movie in which he starred.
“It’s the first thing that really came to my mind on what to do with Indiana, and with Seymour, I was like, ‘Well, I want to do something related to that, too, because it’s where I was born,’” Campbell said.
So what did she think of the finished product?
“I thought it was pretty good, I’m not going to lie,” she said, smiling.
Fourth-grader Wyatt Reasoner looked beyond Jackson County and featured the Madison Regatta on his shoebox. One of the largest hydroplane races in the United States has been held annually for 72 years along the Ohio River in Madison.
“I just was searching things up that are related to Indiana, and I found the Madison Regatta,” he said. “Then as I found out about it, I went to Wikipedia and read a lot of stuff about it. I didn’t know much about it, and I learned a lot. The boats go like 100 mph.”
He used blue clay for the water and found two toy boats for the top of his box.
“I thought it turned out pretty good,” Reasoner said.
Since the walls inside the school are being redone, the teachers weren’t able to make a large timeline with colored pictures of race cars and facts about Indy 500 winners. The students, though, were still able to meet academic standards for several school subjects and play fun games in the classroom and put their shoeboxes on display for everyone at the school to see.
“It’s different every year, so that’s why we keep doing it, and the 500 committee, they lay everything out for you so nicely. Everything is standards-aligned,” Lewis said. “It’s a nice way to end the year. We’re hoping next year, our walls will be finished and we can get everyone more into it.”
The 106th running of the Indianapolis 500 is Sunday.