It was almost like a scene out of Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, except this version featured St. Albert’s downtown Perron Street.
The display case at Muriel Martin Elementary is the current location of a scaled-down replica of buildings from the area’s past, all created out of bright, colourful little bricks.
Patricia Toth and Matt Tripp had their Grade 4 and 5 students concoct the miniature mall. Toth said it was their way of responding to a request for school participation in the city’s 150th anniversary celebrations.
“Our school received notification that the chamber of commerce was doing this project,” she explained.
Initially it was meant to be a contest for all the elementary schools in St. Albert. Peggy Bergman, Muriel Martin’s principal, informed all of the teachers about it. Toth and Tripp both began working on their entries until they realized they could accomplish more on a joint effort.
Apart from being a great extracurricular assignment, they made it relevant to the students’ education as well. History, after all, is about all of the important things that happened in the past to make the present more interesting, especially in light of the sesquicentennial.
“It fits their curriculum, too. Our social studies curriculum in Grade 4 focuses on Alberta and our communities.”
Toth added this team of two teachers is also involved in planning other celebrations for the city’s special anniversary. “We thought this would be fun. The kids came up with the research. They found the pictures. ”
What their classes came up with is a real trip down memory lane. The Dawson block is there and so is the old Perron Street bridge. The Perron Garage sits next to the community hall and the St. Albert bank with the Ducky Dome not far in the distance. It doesn’t have a roof on it so that you can see the spectators inside watching all of the classic sports action on the ice.
One of the children was clearly enthusiastic about the project. Grade 4 student Pearse Schoenberger had a hand in building the blacksmith’s shop and the St. Albert hotel. He said that it ranks as one of his most favourite class assignments ever.
“I just love Lego,” he offered, an obvious air of restraint betrayed by the smile on his face. “I wanted to do more. If I had enough pieces, I would have loved to have built the whole thing.”
