PERU — Fourth-grade students in Kristi Holmquist’s class at Dirigo Elementary School presented a Boston Tea Party readers’ theater to family and friends Thursday.

Some students dressed as colonists or representatives of the British government to tell the story of colonists throwing chests of British tea into Boston Harbor on Dec. 16, 1773.

Besides their performance of the events leading up to the Boston Tea Party, students also researched and created booklets to share with guests. 

While sharing their booklets, some students talked about what they wrote and what they learned through their research.

Tanner Bradeen read from his book titled “The American Revolution” and said “the colonists were mad because the British put tax on tea.”

Camden Averill-Curtis said the colonists were “wicked mad at the British because they taxed tea and paper products and molasses, so they threw the tea off of the ship.”

Reeghan Nisbet said she researched how King George III created The Stamp Act and colonists had to buy stamps to put on newspapers.

Mitchell Giberson pointed out that the difference with taxes we have today and the Tea Party taxes is that our taxes go to our country and the colonists taxes were going to the British.

Keira Reny pointed out that the colonists planned their tea party revolt by whispering their plans to each other to dump the tea overboard.

And Boyd Benson said George Washington had to cross the Delaware River to attack German soldiers. The attack led to better morale for the soldiers, Benson said.

Molly Cormier thought the Intolerable Acts set by the British Parliament were interesting and she liked that another name for the acts was the Destruction of the Tea, she said.

At the conclusion on their presentations, students served hot tea and muffins.

mhutchinson@sunmediagroup.net

Fourth-grader Rylee Bedard dressed as a colonist for her performance in a readers’ theater Boston Tea Party on Thursday at Dirigo Elementary School in Peru. (Marianne Hutchinson/Rumford Falls Times)

Dirigo Elementary School fourth-grader Tanner Bradeen serves tea to Regional School Unit 56 Superintendent Pam Doyen at the Boston Tea Party readers’ theater Thursday in Peru. (Marianne Hutchinson/Rumford Falls Times)

Dirigo Elementary School fourth-grade student Jack Sweatt reads his booklet about the Boston Tea Party to his mother, Rebecca, Thursday at the school in Peru. (Marianne Hutchinson/Rumford Falls Times)

Dirigo Elementary School fourth-grade teacher Kristi Holmquist, right front, helps her students serve tea and muffins to guests at the readers’ theater on the Boston Tea Party on Thursday in Peru. (Marianne Hutchinson/Rumford Falls Times)