Fourth Avenue Junior High hosting WWII Extravaganza

What started out as an eighth-grade class project on World War II is now a community wide event with student presentations for people of all ages.

The third annual WWII Extravaganza will be held on Thursday from 6 to 8 p.m. at Fourth Avenue Junior High School, 450 S. 4th Ave. The event is open and free to the public.

Eighth-grade social studies teacher Stacy Malena explained that in addition to members of the public having an opportunity to hear and view presentations from groups of students, there will also be Marines and Kofa High School JROTC cadets present in their modern day uniforms as well as others in uniforms circa the WWII time period. She added that there will also be dancers performing 1930s style swing dance and various WWII models and displays as well.

Malena said that she and fellow social studies teacher Marie Hedrick taught students about all aspects of WWII over the past six weeks, after which time they had an opportunity to get into small groups and choose from a list of topics to do further research on.

Students will be displaying and presenting their projects at various stations throughout the gymnasium from various mediums such as posters, project boards or PowerPoints presentations.

“It's just a fun night to see what the kids have actually learned and just to see what they've come up with... It's really neat to just see the kids excited about a topic in history,” she said.

Malena concluded that students will be also be judged by teachers, administrators and the district superintendent during the event in categories of most informative, most aesthetic and best presentation.

For more information, contact the school at 502-7000.

Sarah Womer can be reached at swomer@yumasun.com or 539-6858. Find her on Facebook at Facebook.com/YSSarahWomer or on Twitter at @YSSarahWomer.