Luke's Colonial Feast

Have you ever wondered what would happen if we moved beyond frosted cupcakes and sugar cookies for classroom parties?? This year, Luke's teacher stepped waaay out of the box and held a Christmas Dinner-- Colonial Virginia style. What a perfectly grand idea- don't you think?! I thought I'd post about it before Christmas is long over. Their class has been studying Virginia history and geography for several months- culminating in a recent field trip to Jamestown and Yorktown. This dinner was a wonderful way for them to step back in time and get a small taste of what they have been learning.



Many of the students came to school in costume. They began their day ringing in Christmas- colonial style: banging pots and pans, cheering, yelling-- and then they exchanged simple Christmas gifts- colonial style. For their feast, they sat around a very long table and began with an introduction to George Washington's Rules of Civility. To improve table manners, of course!

Then dinner was served. Family Style. But not the way you might imagine it. Instead of passing the food, they passed their plates around the table, and each person dished up a serving of the food in front of them for every plate, one by one, until the plates returned to their owners.


And then they ate-- with only their knives.
And a spoon to help.

What was on the menu?

Ham biscuits
Sausage gravy
Mashed Turnips
Spiced Apples
Creamed Sweet Peas
Roasted Carrots
Crab Cakes
Hot Cider

Apple Pie
Peach Cobbler
and the most amazing Raspberry Tart I've ever tased...
among other things.

And it didn't all end with the dinner. The rest of the day was spent in even more colonial style activities.

No sirree. This was not your standard sugary, frosted class Christmas party.

This was an experience.

Bravo Mrs. Frye!