For the teachers at Oakland Elementary School, the best way to get students to learn is to make learning more memorable.

Wednesday morning, fifth-graders at the school traveled back in time to experience what life was like during the Civil War era.

“It brings it to life for them – why it’s important, why it matters,” said Jodie Linkous, the art teacher at Oakland. “It helps them better appreciate history, better understand it, which helps them remember it better.”

The resource teachers at the school – music, art, library and physical education teachers – all came together with specific ideas to bring the 1860s to life.

For example, for physical education, the students played a baseball game using the 19th century rules and language.

“I like playing the sports because you get to learn some of the pastimes they used back then,” said Edie Martin, a student at Oakland.

In art class, the students made mosaics, a popular art form of the time period. Parents brought in snacks representing the food Civil War soldiers would have eaten, including hardtack biscuits and dried jerky.

“It’s awesome,” said fifth-grader Shaun Wilson. “It’s way fun to learn about. We get to eat some of the food and we get to get all dressed up.”

Students and teachers were encouraged to wear some of their more vintage clothes, with many girls wearing flowing ankle length skirts and long-sleeve button-up shirts.

Additionally, the students took part in an interactive reading of “The Drummer Boy,” reading along with PowerPoint slides as well as with the book. Then, students played games reviewing some of the cultural aspects of life during the Civil War.

The timing for the day’s events was purposeful. During the third nine weeks, the grade is studying the Civil War, and additional reinforcements of the subject matter are useful because the war is a fixture of the Standards of Learning test each year.

Linkous said it all comes back to showing children the big picture. She said that many times, even in art class, students lose focus when it comes to talking about the chronology of events or the timeline of history. This way, she said, it helps makes times and events stand out more to the students.

“It’s more of an experience for them and not just a lesson,” Linkous said.