Students at Lowry Elementary School traveled back in time to Europe during the Middle Ages to celebrate a Winter's Revelry, a performance designed by music teacher Sandy Lezotte to help students and their families become aware and appreciate culture, history and religious diversity. The celebration reached its apex on the night of December 13, 2007, when Principal Cari Reidlin and her husband Eric presided over the festivities as honorary queen and king, while Lowry's teachers and staff served as members of the royal court.

For the past several weeks, students in all grades levels at Lowry have been studying the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. The Middle Ages are commonly dated from the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century to the beginning of the Renaissance in the late 14th or early 15th century. In their art classes, fourth and fifth grade students designed their own crests using medieval symbols identified with the school and developed their own symbols as well. These same students then voted for their favorite design; Deja Monroe's design won the vote, and art teacher Gary Bloom made her design into a ripstock banner which was displayed in the auditorium. In their classrooms, the fourth and fifth graders researched aspects of medieval life ranging from knights and armor to the Black Plague, entertainment, and family life.

Third grade students created frescoes depicting the famous scene from the Sistine Chapel "God Creates Adam" by Michelangelo. They also built castles using paper towel rolls, aluminum foil, egg cartons, construction paper and yarn. Students in the gifted/talented program designed coats of arms with mottos which were meaningful in their own lives, as well as representations of their supporters. They also created helmets that represented what they wanted to be when they grew up.

Students in the second grade created mock stained glass windows using crayon shavings, black construction paper and wax paper, while children in the lower grades built castles out of cardboard, and decorated helmets, shields and cone-shaped princess hats with long ribbons flowing out of the top. In the art program, Leonardo da Vinci met Andy Warhol, in brightly colored variations on the Mona Lisa painted by the primary grade students.

During the performances of the Winter Revelry on December 13, fourth and fifth graders, as well as students participating in Lowry's unique Challenge Program, performed for an audience of parents, siblings and extended family, in addition to providing entertainment for Queen Cari and King Eric and their royal court, all of whom wore period-appropriate costumes. The auditorium at Lowry Elementary was transformed into the inner ward of a medieval castle, complete with turrets, a drawbridge and stained glass windows lighted from behind. The "peasants and merchants" re-enacted a medieval marketplace, complete with merchants selling baskets, brooms, poultry, pretzels, and flowers. There was even a thief who was caught and placed in the stocks as punishment.

The upper grade and Music Challenge class students sang traditional children's folk songs and Christmas carols, members of the Shakespeare Club recited Jaques' famous "All the world's a stage" soliloquy from As You Like It,and a group of students performed the Rigs O'Marlow stick dance, a Scottish Morris Dance.

Perhaps the most exciting part of the evening came when an impressively athletic group of the King's Acrobats entertained the royal court with their acrobatic skills, including back handsprings and back flips. Fourth graders Reilly Hanlin on violin and Maya Waldstreicher on guitar, accompanied by music teacher Mr. O'Connor, played the familiar favorite Greensleeves, a 16 th century English ballad.

Teacher Melissa Fogal generated the most laughter of the evening when, in the role of the dancing bear, complete with bear costume, she quickly progressed from crawling on all fours on a leash, to standing on her hind legs swinging her head in time with the music, to busting some tight hip-hop moves.

The Library Challenge class presented the Mummer's Play St. George and the Dragon, with the dragon sporting an impressive green tail. Luckily there was a doctor in the house, namely Grace Barker, who was able to revive the fallen with her magic elixir.

The performance ended with the North Skeleton Sword Dance and jousting by horsemen Breanna Pleas and Jorden Cammack. Then the entire cast, including the royal court, joined together for a rousing finale of Lord of the Dance, a Shaker tune with lyrics by Carter, with the audience standing to join in for the chorus.