Camelot puts SD on parade

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BROOKINGS – Fourth-graders at Camelot Intermediate School have been busy with glue and shoeboxes, crafting parade floats dedicated to the things they’ve learned about the state of South Dakota.

It’s part of Sarah Stoltenberg’s social studies class, and the students could opt to work alone or in groups. Many of these miniature parade floats featured Mount Rushmore, pheasants and other wildlife.

“Our social studies revolve around our state, so that’s how this project came about,” Stoltenberg explained.

This project has been happening every year for the past few years, for as long as Stoltenberg has been teaching at Camelot. Camelot’s 350 fourth-graders have been working on their floats for two weeks.

There was just as much research that went into the creations as there was glue. The floats could be about any topic relating to the state that they liked.

Kale Cirillo and Jace Bauer, for example, made their float in the shape of the state fish, the walleye, incorporating other facts about the state into the build.

Maddie Jongeling, Aubryn Hendrickson and Sarah Olson’s float was topped with a triceratops, calling back to the state’s prehistory. The state tree, the Black Hills Spruce, was also present, as were facts about the state’s insect, the honeybee.

Brooklyn Ballis enjoyed the creativity that they could put into the project.

“I liked that you could explore new things about South Dakota that you didn’t know,” Julissa Peterson said.

Stoltenberg was also thankful for the support of parents, who helped provide a lot of the supplies used. It is a materials-heavy project, and not everything could be provided in class, such as color printing and shoeboxes.

It’s a messy project with a lot of cleanup involved, Stoltenberg said, “but I’m OK with that because they’re learning and it’s just amazing what they come up with. It’s absolutely amazing, the ideas that they come up with and what they think of.”

The class will have its parade today to show off the floats and see what everyone else did. The floats will be set up in the hallway for the students to walk around to view.

Contact Eric Sandbulte at esandbulte@brookingsregister.com.