Kids spend a morning in disguise

Top to bottom: Gerard Gonzales portrays Leonardo DaVinci, Mehgan McQuade portrays Marie Antoinette and Stephanie Otten portrays R.L. Stein in teacher Kelsey Plunkett’s “Guess Who’s Coming to Tea” at the Millstone Township Middle School on Jan. 29. PHOTOS BY JEFF GRANIT staff MILLSTONE — John Lennon, Queen Victoria and Benjamin Franklin chatted over crumpets while Neil Armstrong, Mary Antoinette and Barack Obama told jokes over juice.

After researching a historical figure and creating a journal from that person’s point of view, Millstone Township Middle School sixth-graders came to Kelsey Plunkett’s class on Jan. 29 disguised as their choice of character. While enjoying some teathemed foods, students used their acting and publics peaking skills to state facts about their character while others tried to guess who they were.

“The fun comes when some very different historical figures come together. Think conversation between George Washington and Barack Obama,” Plunkett said. “They are sitting with people that wouldn’t necessarily be together in history.”

This is the fifth year that Plunkett has taught the interdisciplinary unit that culminates with the students guessing who’s at their tea table. Plunkett never would have guessed that one of her students would come dressed as the same historical figure she got dolled up to look like. Meghan Mc- Quade also came to tea disguised as Marie Antoinette.

“I was beheaded for treason,” McQuade told her classmates.

Not only were there two of the titular French queens, but students were also seeing double when it came to Cleopatra and Emily Dickinson as well.

Olivia Storey, one Cleopatra, said she chose the last pharaoh of Egypt’s Ptolemaic dynasty because “she was a very powerful woman who would do anything to get the throne.”

Marissa Bertuccio said researching Amelia Earhart to write the first-person journal and to decorate the cover of the diary were here favorite parts of the learning unit.

“I discovered Amelia Earhart was very daring and brave,” she said.

Not all of the girls in the class came dressed as famous women. Stephanie Otten wore a blazer, a John Deere cap and taped on a mustache to portray her favorite American author, R.L. Stine.

Gerard Gonzales said, “My birth, death and work is a mystery” before revealing that he came disguised as Leonardo DaVinci.

Storey said, “ Every costume was beautiful.”