The Mathews County Public School System is alive with celebration as the school division celebrates the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution.
Mathews Elementary
Mathews Elementary School will hold an America250-themed fine arts showcase today, Thursday, April 16, for third and fourth grade students and their families. Students are creating SAIL250-themed artwork that will be displayed in the hallways, and members of the Mathews VA250 committee will serve as judges.
The event will also feature patriotic songs that the students will perform with music teacher Eileen Edmonds. Additionally, the fifth-grade students are putting together a SAIL250-themed digital art showcase which will be available May 22. This will be an online exhibition of SAIL250 artwork created by fifth-grade students with a soundtrack of fifth graders singing a maritime chanty, available for the public to view.
In the school library with library media specialist Jenny Ewell, kindergarten and first-grade students are coloring a Revolutionary War primary sailing boat, second and third graders are designing a flag, and fourth and fifth graders are working on an acrostic poem. These activities have been provided by the Gwynn’s Island Civic League and will be displayed over the summer at the museum in its 250 exhibit.
Third graders will be visiting Colonial Williamsburg during the first week of June.
Thomas Hunter
At Thomas Hunter Middle School, art students are participating in a Tall Ships Art Contest. This is an art project being facilitated by teacher Katie Witowski.
Seventh graders went this week on a field trip to the state capitol in Richmond. While there, they took a guided tour and sat in the House of Delegates’ chamber where they voted on a mock bill.
Sixth and seventh graders will visit the Virginia Museum of History and Culture in June. While there, they will view a special exhibit on the impact that immigrants have made on Virginia history through the years.
Mathews High
At THMS and Mathews High School, band students are learning a song titled “American Spirit March” for a concert.
Michelle Williams’ Family and Consumer Sciences classes are creating a Mathews VA250-themed cookbook. This cookbook will feature 250 recipes from over the years in Mathews County. It will feature some of the community’s rich Chesapeake Bay history with the hope of having the tall ships artwork from THMS incorporated into it.
Williams has reached out to community members to submit recipes. The cookbook will be on sale to the public. It is being funded by a private donor with all proceeds going to her classes.
Additionally, MCPS students will visit Norfolk SAIL250 in June to greet the tall ships.
“Special thanks to the Mathews VA250 Committee, the Mathews County Historical Society, the Gwynn’s Island Civic League, and a private donor for sponsoring these revolutionary-themed events for our students,” said THMS seventh grade English teacher Mary Beth Burroughs.