School's pupils honor famous faces from state
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Greenbrier Elementary third-grader John Salter portrayed golfer Bobby Jones in the school's Famous Georgians presentation May 7. Each pupil dressed up like someone from Georgia and told their classmates something about the person they were portraying.
Photo by Jim Blaylock
Julia Roberts, Jimmy Carter, Oliver Hardy and Gladys Knight were
there.
Ty Cobb, Amy Grant, James Oglethorpe and Bobby Jones were, too.
Greenbrier Elementary School attracted a lot of star power recently when the school held its fifth annual Georgia Day Celebration.
Third-graders dressed as their favorite state historical figure for The Walk of Famous Georgians. There were politicians, inventors, sports figures, actors and actresses, singers and writers.
The event concluded a unit on Georgia history.
"They've researched their famous person on the Internet, wrote a report and drew illustrations," said third-grade teacher Tara Moreno, who was dressed as Gone With the Wind author Margaret Mitchell. "This is a way to bring it all together and for parents to see some of the things we've learned. There's a lot of people you don't even realize are from Georgia. And if you dress as that person, you'll have that memory for the rest of your life."
Lori Hopkins dressed as James Brown. She said I Feel Good is her favorite song.
Wearing a cap and knickers, Stephen Hill dressed as golfer Bobby Jones.
Connor Wingrove (left) portrayed writer Lewis Grizzard, and Tyler Brown portrayed physician Crawford Long.
Photo by Jim Blaylock
"I play golf, so I thought I would like to dress like him since he's a golfer," Stephen said. "He was the only person to ever have a Grand Slam - win all four majors in the same year."
Besides the parade, each class presented a skit to show interesting facts about Georgia, such as the state symbols and tourist attractions. After the show, parents and students enjoyed Georgia-related foods, such as barbecue roasted in Coke, Vidalia onion pie, peanut butter cookies and peach muffins.
Parent Rene Mackey made spiced pecans to bring to the event.
Greenbrier Elementary third-grader Derek Gilstrap portrayed Cherokee Chief Tomachichi and Lauren Gill portrayed Margaret Mitchell during their class presentation of Famous Georgians.
Photo by Jim Blaylock
"I learned a lot," said Mackey, whose daughter Rebecca dressed as Rebecca Felton, the first female U.S. Senator. "Our Georgia history wasn't this detailed. They got to learn a lot of different things a lot of different ways, so it sticks. There were some of the entertainers I didn't know were from Georgia."
Third-grade teacher Lisa Duncan dressed as Emily Saliers, one of members of the Indigo Girls singing duo.
"It's just a fun way to culminate our study of Georgia," she said. "The children know it's coming, so they seem to get into the study of it more. It's become a tradition of the school, so they know when they hit third grade, they get to participate in Georgia Day."