“We are so proud celebrating 100 years at West school,” Principal Amy Dirolf said. “We have spent the year doing various events that highlight 100 and what it means to be 100.”

After a full school year of recognizing the school’s 100th birthday, the students and staff of West Elementary spent June 16 taking an imaginary journey back to the 1920s. Dirolf, whose father graduated from West in 1959, explained that the fourth- and fifth-grade classes turned the school gym into an interactive museum, guiding the younger students through a series of educational exhibits to highlight different aspects of life during the school’s earliest days.

“This is beyond our expectations,” Assistant Principal Sarah Kugelman said. “The students really were able to gather so much information about what life was like 100 years ago and then come up with a plan on their own about how to teach the younger students and bring history to life.”

A series of 10 stations were set up throughout the gym, each featuring a different aspect of life in the 1920s. Students learned about silent movies by watching clips of Charlie Chaplin. And because they live in a beach town, lifeguarding was one of the highlights.

“They wore wool bathing suits in the summer,” said fifth-grader Fiona Petruso, who researched the lifeguard station. “That was crazy. Now they wear highly functional gear that’s water-friendly, and it won’t be so heavy when they get out of the water.”

Attendees learned about the Charleston and the fox trot while listening to music from the Roaring ’20s. Orchestra teacher Noelle Bach, accompanied by several students on stringed instruments, played “Boogie Blues” to set the mood.

Participants used an old-fashioned telephone and typewriter, and had a chance to ride in a makeshift Model-T car — a cardboard-covered Little Tike push cart. Students also saw jacks and yo-yos — popular toys of the era — and had a chance to work on an assembly line.

“For the younger kids, I think this is really going to give them a glimpse into history in a way that is meaningful to them,” Kugelman said. “I think it’s something that will stick with them for a very long time.”

The most directly relatable presentation was “school life,” in which students viewed photos from West Elementary’s own history. Pictures of the original cafeteria, playground and classrooms connected the past to the current building, with two very distinct differences made clear.

“They would wear this yellow hat, with the ‘dunce,’ if they weren’t paying attention or listening,” explained Erica Parler, a fifth-grader who oversaw the display. “The teachers would put this on them and they’d have to wear it all day. There was also physical discipline, but that was only on rare occasions.”

Lisa Pignataro, a teacher in the WINGS program — What I Need to Grow as a Student — emphasized the self-developed nature of the presentations, with the fourth- and fifth-grade students being loosely guided and largely left to their own research skills. “They created all the exhibits themselves,” she said. “And they created hands-on activities for the younger students to learn about the decade.”

Each class spent a full period in the museum, soaking up the local history, taking part in the activities and seeing the connections between the school’s centennial and the work they’ve been doing throughout the year.

“Our second-graders have been working on different service projects,” special education teacher Dana Wachter said. “They’ve collected things like 100 pairs of socks, 100 cans of food. Everything that we’re trying to turn into 100 years. One hundred acts of kindness.”