Louisiana’s rich culture gets its own week at St. Charles Borromeo

Story and Photos By Beth Donze
Kids’ Clarion

Last month, students at St. Charles Borromeo School in Destrehan mounted a campus-wide “Louisiana Heritage Week” that culminated with student performances and a Museum Walk showcasing their state-themed classroom studies.

Each grade examined a different aspect of Louisiana’s culture and history and reported back on their area of focus. The special assignments, by grade, were:

• Pre-K3 students learned about the meaning of the fleur-de-lis and made fleur-de-lis collages.

• Pre-K4 students sang “Today is Monday in Louisiana” by Johnette Downing, a song about local cuisine.

• Kindergarteners created “Louisiana from A to Z” alphabet displays. At the week-ending school assembly, they performed “You Are My Sunshine” (co-written by Jimmie Davis, Louisiana’s governor from 1944-48 and 1960-64). The youngsters led their schoolmates in a second line out of the gym.

• First graders focused on Louisiana’s architecture, creating colorful paintings of shotgun houses and executing drawings of St. Louis Cathedral and examples of cast ironwork. They also received a Zydeco dancing lesson from religion teacher Lisa Hebert.

• Second graders performed a square dance (the official state dance) to the song “Calling Baton Rouge.”

• Third graders studied Oak Alley Plantation and made paintings of its famous tree-lined approach.

• Fourth graders sampled famous Louisiana dishes and made laminated placemats featuring their collages of local cuisine.

• Fifth graders studied the Battle of New Orleans and created instructive displays.

• Sixth graders studied the migration of Acadians to Louisiana and incorporated their findings into a “C-A-J-U-N-S” poster mural.

• Seventh graders were each assigned a different Louisiana festival and constructed a shoe-box float illustrating that festival.

The week also featured peeks into the lives of elected officials from campus visitors Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser, State Sen. Gary Smith Jr. and State Rep. Gregory Miller. Dr. Florent Hardy Jr., state archivist, discussed Louisiana symbols, and Lt. Jason Russo and Sgt. Kyle Wagner of the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries told students about the state’s fishing industry.

At the Friday conclusion of Louisiana Heritage Week, students were allowed to dress down in handmade, state-themed T-shirts or, in the case of the pre-K3 “Who Dats,” in their favorite Saints garb.