Atkinson in the Middle Ages Features Costumes and Customs of The Renaissance

The Atkinson Middle School became a school for the ages on April 21—the Middle Ages. For that day, more than 25 teachers and hundreds of sixth-graders came to school dressed in elaborate Middle Ages costumes to celebrate the school’s first Renaissance Day.

Organized by sixth-grade teacher Jeanne Dione, the day featured classes and activities with Renaissance themes, an exciting and colorful complement to the topic that the classes had just concluded studying.

Art classes talked about Renaissance-related "perspective" issues; physical education focused on games that might have been played centuries ago; music teachers and students basing themselves in different parts of the hallways served as roaming "troubadours," performing numbers that might have been familiar to visitors to the king’s court in the 1500’s.

In one unique, interactive activity, students positioned like statues played the roles of historic figures and recited descriptions of their character’s achievements and significance when physically "tapped" on the shoulder to "activate" their brief presentations.

"We wanted to give life to the world history we had just concluded studying," said Dione.

Among the more non-traditional sights at Atkinson on that colorful day were teachers dressed as sorcerers, kings and queens, elaborately costumed handmaidens and robed monks. Students wore costumes handmade or purchased and became princesses, knights, and court jesters.

Students were shepherded from class to class, where often exotic activities and lectures by costumed teachers created a sense that at least for that morning, their school had been transformed into a mini-Disney World.

Observing the clusters of kings, monks, knights, jesters, sorcerers and troubadours walking through the hallways and in and out of classes, one fifth-grader had a decidedly non-Renaissance reaction: "This is so cool!" she said.