FORTVILLE — Downtown Fortville never looked so sweet.
Fourth graders at Fortville Elementary School have once again created a “gingerbread” version of the quaint little town, with graham cracker replicas of the stores along Broadway and Main streets and a model train running through the center of town.
It even has the town’s iconic pink elephant statue sporting sunglasses and the tall white water tower with Fortville in big black letters across the front.
While not exactly to scale, teacher Lydgia Palmer said the size and layout of the buildings are meant to represent the actual layout downtown.
This is the fifth year the school has participated in the project, which is part of a global STEAM-inspired initiative which challenges students around the world to create graham-cracker versions of their cities and towns.
STEAM is a teaching concept which stands for science, technology, engineering, art and math.
Palmer said the gingerbread challenge incorporates all those concepts into one fun project, shared by students around the world.
On Wednesday, Dec. 14, the Fortville students shared their creation via a Zoom call with students in a Kansas classroom, who in turn shared their own gingerbread town.
Earlier this week, parents and downtown business owners stopped by Fortville Elementary to see the village for themselves.
Nine-year-old Emily Schank proudly showed off the model storefronts she helped create — the Time & Again gift shop and Studio 309 art studio on the south end of town.
Her favorite parts were the blue frosting drapes on the gift shop, and the tiny framed sign of Buddy the Elf in the studio’s front window.
“Our strategy was to make everything to be as flat as possible so it would be easier to ice,” Schank explained, pointing out the graham cracker shutters on the windows.
When her team ran low on black licorice for the studio’s roof, they improvised by cutting each piece in half longways to make it go farther, and went around the classroom seeking out black licorice from other students.
Palmer said the students not only had a blast building the village, they learned plenty in the process.
“It’s such a fun project that they learn without even realizing it,” she said.
The learning incorporates all the elements of STEAM, said Palmer.
For science, the students design circuit boards to light up the village. For technology, they create slides showcasing all they learned about their individual buildings.
The art element was perhaps the most fun, as students worked methodically to adorn their businesses in plenty of icing and an assortment of candy and cereal.
They learned engineering through the planning and building process, which incorporated math by having students figure out the area and perimeter of each building, calculating how many graham crackers it would take to build each one to scale.
The students took great pride in the level of detail, coloring their icing to match the color of each building, and adding color copies of the signage in each one. One student pointed out that the toothpicks on the front of the Foxgardin building in a crisscross partner were there to replicate the historic building’s brick façade.
One building boasted a roof made of Cinnamon Toast cereal, while another featured two chimneys made from stacks of Starburst candies. Skittles, gumdrops and peppermint candies adorned the outer walls while furniture fashioned from candy and crackers were placed inside.
Local business owner Mike Staton was impressed by the level of detail when he stopped by the display earlier this week.
“This is really impressive,” he said, as he checked out the replica of his business, Seal’s Funeral Home, which he’s owned for 20 years.
Along with other downtown business owners, Staton stopped by the school to speak with students before their village-building began. It was a great way to connect with students and help them put faces with the names behind local businesses they see every day, he said.
Town planner Adam Zaklikowski also stopped by, teaching the students about city playing and development.
“I definitely learned a lot about the businesses and people in Fortville,” said Schank, who frequently walks from her home into town.
After learning about local business, students were divided into groups of two to four to study and build a particular building. Each group was required to write a research paper and create a slideshow sharing what they learned.
Then, it was time to build. While most groups were assigned businesses, others were tasked with creating local parks or each of the schools in their school system.
Once complete, all the creations were displayed within the common area shared by the fourth-grade classes at the school, where it will remain through the start of Christmas Break on Dec. 16.
While the display is too delicate to transport for public display, Palmer said it brings plenty of joy to students each year.
“When you think about it, what are you going to remember from school when you grow up? Building a gingerbread version of your town is probably right up there,” she said. “The kids really love doing it, and it gets bigger and bigger each year.”
