School enjoys Nevada Day

      Pupils at Griffith Elementary School recently got a taste of the Old West during the school's Nevada Day celebration, a day marking Nevada's entry as a state in the union.
      "It seems like Nevada wasn't really touched upon even though it's a big part of the fourth-grade curriculum," fourth-grade teacher Kalandra Thomas said about the event, which the school has held for the past four years. "So instead of a Halloween (celebration), which all the kids think they get off for anyway, we started the celebration with Nevada school-wide, where they are learning different activities involving Nevada."
      Oct. 31, 1864 marked the original day of statehood for Nevada, and, while the state had insufficient population to gain this distinction, Congress and President Abraham Lincoln authorized it because of a satisfactory state constitution.
      Originally called Admission Day, the state Legislature changed the name to Nevada Day in 1933 and made it a discretionary state holiday. Only Nevada and Hawaii have state holidays which include formal celebrations.
      Principal, Peter Gallagher, also known as Sheriff Gallagher for the day, said the class activities were based on Nevada history, including the Old West and mining.
      "Most people here aren't natives," Gallagher said. "It's new to them, and of course to children, everything is new. They have no experience or background. This is the first time that many of the younger children come across history. Social studies in the elementary school starts with the neighborhood and the post office and the supermarket. And then their first year of history is in the fourth grade. Through this program, we start history a little bit earlier and they get exposed to some of it."
      Children, some who were dressed as cowboys and miners, rotated through classrooms, singing "Home is Nevada," making dream catchers and participating in cupcake geology and cookie mining -- an event the Cookie Monster would have enjoyed.
      "They have to pretend they are Nevada miners," fourth-grade teacher Terry Kraus said about the cookie mining, in which children were given plastic utensils to use for mining tools. "The cookie represents their land and the chips represent the silver. It's kind of a contest to see who can dig out the most without ruining their land. There is a worksheet involved that uses math and money. At the end, whoever gets the most wins a little prize. The rest get to eat the land."
      Teachers Louise Pickett and Margaret Pittsenbarger read the story "Knots on a Counting Rope," by Bill Martin, to pupils. It is a story about a special relationship between an American Indian boy who is blind and his grandfather, who helps him find hope.
      "They have this little rope and for all the special events or memories they have, they put a knot on a rope and that knot represents that special event or story in his life," Pittsenbarger said. "We are giving the kids a piece of rope and we are trying to encourage them to think of a special event or happening, or special person in their life who has had a real major influence on them, and to share their story with another child. This is kind of a good introduction to some of the Native American traditions."
      First-graders Alex Garcia and Nicholas Kydd both planned on catching some dreams with the dream catchers they were making in Sue Spitlers class, while fifth-graders Austie Lavietes and Daniel Williams learned how geologists take core samples via multilayered cupcakes.
      "It's really cool. I like history," Lavietes said. "It's not only important, but it's interesting to learn about new stuff."
      Besides, the core samples tasted rather good, according to Williams.
      Gallagher said the stray from a Halloween theme helped the children learn about the state in which they live, without losing a day to noneducational activities.
      "Even though they are working with cupcakes in there, they are learning something about mining. They are learning about how to take core samples, they learned about how to look at it, they learned about how to draw what it looked like. This way we still have a festive party atmosphere, but the kids are learning something," he said.