The grade five students at Fireside School got into character this past week.

This past term the students have been studying Canadian history and what factors have influenced Canada's development; looking to build on that, Katerina Iverson, Grade Five teacher shares a year-end research project was created.

Students were tasked with creating an engaging and hands-on museum exhibit of a great Canadian who has changed our country's history by making it a better place to be. Given the freedom to choose characters from the fourteenth century to present day, the students got to work. 

Iverson shares the guidelines the students had to follow. "They had to research the historic Canadian individual, create a script, create a button for their guests to press as if they were a museum and then they could start talking and come up with a costume or props for their presentation. Some students went over the top by creating posters, tri-folds and bringing music."

Student Mia Tuff-Overes, researched James Gladstone who was born Cree but adopted by the Blood Nation. "His name means many guns. He worked as a farmer, rancher and the Royal Northwest Mounted Police. He eventually got elected to be the Senator of Canada and was the first aboriginal to be in office. He also stood for aboriginals to be enfranchised and that is why he was so famous."

For Mia, researching Gladstone was not necessarily easy but she appreciated learning to do it on her own. "It was a lot more fun doing it this way than the teacher just standing up there and reading from a textbook."

The students were super engaged throughout the project, says Iverson, not just through the building of the project but being able to teach others. "I think throughout the duration of the project they were really excited and engaged because they knew their presentations were going to impact the learning of the other students and parents that were coming."

Mia says she had roughly three weeks to complete the project and she was quite happy with how the project turned out. Dressed up and speaking with a British accent she was able to find all the props and pieces she needed right at home.