By Laura Mazur
Community Post

Sixth graders at New Bremen and New Knoxville junior high students took a step back in time last week as they learned about and dressed like those in medieval times.

Since the beginning of the year, New Bremen's classes have researched life in these times, from castles and costumes to food and music. This is the second year for the school to host a feast to get such hands-on lessons.

New Bremen teacher Brigid Hegemier said, "They've learned a lot about castle life, starting at the beginning at the year. New Bremen has attended the Renaissance Festival and done research on the Internet on food, clothing and music."

New Knoxville's classes squeeze in a bit of the times at the end of the year, not studying medieval life in-depth until seventh grade. This is the first year, however, that the two schools have joined forces for a day of combined lessons at a Medieval Feast in New Bremen's gymnasium.

"We're trying to create a glimpse of life at the time in food, music and building replicas," explained New Knoxville teacher Nick Wilker.

Costume and castle contests, singing, a feast and games all rounded the day. The question lies in what the students learned from the events.

New Bremen students, like Laura Koenig, learned about castles. Emily Kaiser learned about styles of dress and music. Audrey Selby learned that "they ate big servings."

Lauren Bertke said, "It's fun dressing up like them. It's something different."

Something different is definitely correct, according to New Knoxville student Rebecca Heindel, who said, "It was almost like death without electricity."

Other New Knoxville students, like Lydia Felty, Sara Clark and Spencer Wolf learned that castles are not the easiest objects to replicate. Kayla Metzger and Kassee Ruppert also learned about the style of dress.

Ruppert said, "The clothes they wore make you really hot."

Next year's classes can most likely look forward to working on such adventures, as well, as Hegemier and Wilker said they plan on working together again.