ADAMS TWP — The second graders at Mars Elementary School on Wednesday took on the personas of the Pilgrims and the American Indians they were studying.

The 10 classes of costumed students participated in the annual Second Grade Colonial Day, which is held each year on the day before Thanksgiving.

The students, who dressed as either a settler or an American Indian at the first Thanksgiving, rotated between classrooms that each offered a different early-American or Native American-based activity.

Butter churning, colonial dancing, American Indian games, totem poles, achievement feathers and the history of popcorn were among the activities in the classrooms.

Teacher Jim Sinchak guided students as they created replicas of achievement feathers from construction paper and beads. He explained that in certain tribes, American Indian boys received a feather as they mastered various tasks, such as hunting.

Sinchak also discussed with students the rewards children receive today for accomplishments.

He said the students enjoy making and then wearing the feathers they create.

“It teaches them the history of goal setting and contributing to society,” Sinchak said.

Teacher Vicki Stenner dressed in a bonnet and long skirt to portray an early American settler for her students. She said the event is much more than fun activities or dressing up, as it coordinates with their early American social studies curriculum.

“It's a hands-on way of showing the students what life would have been like during the time of the early settlers,” she said.

Student Ellie Koma dressed as a settler because she liked Pilgrim clothing better than American Indian attire.

Ellie learned that today's abundance and availability of meals and snacks was an unknown concept to the earliest Americans and the natives who helped teach them to farm in the New World.

“We have way more food now,” Ellie said.

She and her family were to enjoy Thanksgiving dinner at her Aunt Beth's, where Ellie planned to reflect on her studies on and around Colonial Day.

“It taught us how they used to live back then,” she said.

Her classmate, Ella Schupp, dressed as an American Indian because she was interested in learning the lifestyle of native children of long ago.

“The plains tribes had to take down their tepees and carry them on the back of their horses so they could follow the buffalo to another place,” Ella said.

Ella was to have Thanksgiving at her Grandma and Grandpa Schupp's house.

Teacher Kelli Schiffhauer helped students build small tepees from construction paper that the students had decorated with American Indian symbols in a variety of colors. The students also learned about American Indian wigwams, longhouses and pueblos in her classroom.

Schiffhauer said Colonial Day opens the students' eyes to the difficulties faced by settlers and American Indians.

“It gives them a better understanding of how they lived back then,” she said.

Schiffhauer said her students were surprised to learn that fish and seafood accompanied turkey on the first Thanksgiving table, and that the celebration lasted for three days.

Her students also learned that American Indians were instrumental in teaching the Pilgrims how to farm, that a large tepee could house 30 to 40 people, and playing with sticks was the top hobby of young American Indians.

Student Adeline Rocco, who wore the traditional white hat of Pilgrim ladies, said she learned that it was difficult to make butter and provide food in the country's early days.

Adeline was to celebrate Thanksgiving at her Aunt Renee's home, where she was anxious to dig into her favorite Thanksgiving fare.

“My favorite is turkey and pumpkin pie,” she said.