Walnut Canyon students learn about family history at annual school event

Walnut Canyon Elementary School will host the ninth annual Family History Day on Tues., May 20 from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. on campus, 280 Casey Road, Moorpark.

Second grade students will be learning about history and cultures through crafts, games, and an artifact and cultural museum. Students are encouraged to wear costumes from their cultures during the handson activities.

The children performed a musical and dance performance about family history earlier this week. One of the performers was a second grade band directed by Tom Walsh, a student teacher at Cal State Northridge.

In preparation for Family History Day, students were asked to interview their parents, grandparents, and other family members. The students completed an ancestor packet which included a family tree. Each student created an ancestor doll that is displayed in the hallways of the school.

The teachers involved with Family History Day are musical director Cambria Tooley, Grace Fitzgerald, Peggy Weak, Natalie Meeks, and Allison Yager, event coordinator.

The event was created by Allison Yager, a second grade teacher who wrote the unit as part of The Beginning Teacher Institute for Social Studies. The institute is part of the California History/Social Science Project. This is the eleventh year that the unit has been taught to second grade students at the school.