Windermere Elementary teachers bring St. Augustine to students

Every year, Windermere Elementary fourth-graders look forward to the class field trip to St. Augustine.

This year, the trip was added to the list of things canceled by COVID-19. However, thanks to the school’s fourth-grade team, not all was lost.

Nancy Bromhead, Kim Campbell, Shanta Johnson, Susie Ott and Shannon Reid put their heads together to come up with a way to give their students a special day. With some help from Curriculum Resource Teacher Betsy Shaw and the school’s Parent-Teacher Organization, they brought a taste of St. Augustine to their students.

Campbell said the typical field trip usually takes place the first Friday in December, and the children get to enjoy a day exploring and learning about St. Augustine and the history embedded in it. It’s one of the highlights of the year.

“A lot of these (students) have siblings who have gone, so they talked about it, and they always look forward to fourth grade to be able to go to St. Augustine,” Campbell said. “Even if they don’t have siblings, they still look forward to it. It’s something that they all know about. We started planning it and coming up with ideas to help do a special day for them. It’s not the same as going — it will never be the same as going — but we wanted them to have a special day that they would remember and (that was) still about St. Augustine while they were in fourth grade.”

The team got creative, and on Friday, Dec. 7, they transformed the hallway into the Castillo de San Marcos — the oldest masonry fort in the continental United States — and classrooms into the Colonial Quarter, the Oldest Wooden School House, the Flagler hotels and the Fountain of Youth.

“We just had to give them something special that they could remember and say, ‘This was our St. Augustine day.’” — Kim Campbell

A stone-wall background spanned down the hallway, along with five of the flags that flew over St. Augustine. Each classroom represented — and was decorated for — a different place in St. Augustine that the students would have visited. As the students walked in, they also were greeted by large signs reading, “Welcome to St. Augustine!” 

“It’s kind of like a room transformation, and the kids didn’t know — it was a big surprise to them,” Campbell said. “We just told them they had to wear their class shirts, because that’s what we would have done if we had gone to St. Augustine. We wanted it to be a surprise. They were surprised when they walked into the hallway and saw the hallway decorated and each of the rooms decorated. They really knew they were in for a special day.”

The teachers dressed in costume as Henry Flagler, a school teacher, a Spanish soldier, a blacksmith and Juan Ponce de Leon.

“We made butter, which would’ve been in the Colonial Quarter, because they would’ve gone in and saw the butter churned,” Campbell said. “We tried to do a little something from each (place). Then they made the Castillo de San Marcos out of edible materials that they built and then could eat. They made quill pens — which kind of represented the oldest school house — and they were able to write with the quill pens all day. We had some old-fashioned paper that they wrote on, so they did that with the school house, too.”

Each student was given a “passport” containing all the different activities that they had to complete throughout the day. All in all, it ended up being a big hit.

“It’s such a different year,” Campbell said. “We just had to give them something special that they could remember and say, ‘This was our St. Augustine day.’ And at the end of the day, we all talked about, ‘What was your favorite part of the day?’ Everybody had something different and had wonderful things to say about everything that they did. … They were the first ones we’ve done this with … and do things that other fourth-grade classes haven’t done.”

The team spent a few weeks preparing for the big day and coordinating with Shaw, as well as the PTO, to gather everything they needed for the students. Campbell said the project was a complete team effort, and it ended up being a success.

“The most rewarding part was seeing the excitement on the kids’ faces when they knew they were in for this special day of St. Augustine,” she said. “We told them, ‘We know it’s not going to be the same as going, but this is your special day.’ They’re the first group that’s ever been able to do this with St. Augustine.”