Help me give my students a memorable trip to a Dutch colony full of full-size windmills, gorgeous tulips, wooden clogs, authentic food, traditional dancers, historic homes, and so much more during the Pella Tulip Festival!
My students range in age from six to 14 years old and are all part of our tight-knit, rural community. Our town has a population of just over 9,000 residents with over half our students qualifying for free-and-reduced lunch. All students in my WINGS program have qualified for gifted services based on their IQ, reasoning abilities, and academic achievement.
These 41 students are known for their curiosity and desire to fully understand the world around them, which is why they want to travel as often as possible!
Their inquisitiveness leads them through independent studies they work on weekly with me to push them outside their comfort zones. We also learn about history, culture, philosophy, science, technology, and so much more together. This group spends multiple years in the same gifted classroom together, so they are more like a family than classmates.
My Project
Students will explore historic Pella, Iowa, during the annual Tulip Festival. The city is transformed into a traditional colonial Dutch village based on its founding history along with hundreds of thousands of tulips in full bloom. The visit will include parades with Dutch dancers and singers, a Dutch-style show, famous street sweeping performances, and a Tulip Festival queen with her court.
Students can explore the largest working Dutch windmill and grinder in America as well as several centuries-old homes and shops and gardens to be transported back in time through an authentic learning experience.
In these shops, students will see craft demonstrations including yoke carving, rope making, needlework, blacksmithing, Hindeloopen painting, quilting, wooden shoe production, rug braiding, spinning, and Dutch letter baking.
Students will also have the chance to try Dutch food from street vendors and at sit-down restaurants. They can also shop from over a hundred different traditional Dutch vendors and tour a reconstructed 1882 Fire House and Museum. Students will have a dozen more choices of free tours, activities, and demonstrations to partake in while visiting Pella.
DonorsChoose is the most trusted classroom funding site for teachers.
As a teacher-founded nonprofit, we're trusted by thousands of teachers and supporters across the country. This classroom request for funding was created by Mrs. Chambers and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
