LAGUNA BEACH : All the World’s a Learning Stage

The 20th Century vanished briefly for dozens of fourth-graders Friday as they donned Elizabethan costumes, munched on meat pies and twirled themselves around a Maypole as part of Top of the World Elementary School’s 12th annual Shakespeare Faire.

The 16th-Century celebration is the culmination of an eight-week study of the days of William Shakespeare that is almost as much fun for the children as it is for their parents.

“This is a particularly important day,” said Kay Ostensen, one of about 50 parents who helped with the celebration. “We all take off work and look forward to it.”

While parents said the girls were thrilled about dressing up as royalty, initially at least, the boys weren’t too keen on slipping into tights.

Adam Bienvenu’s first reaction was: “I don’t want to go to school that day, I don’t want to wear tights, everybody’s going to laugh, it’s going to be hot,” his mother said.

But on Friday, Adam appeared to be having as good a time as the other 75 or more youngsters who were braiding the Maypole, watching puppet shows and playing ring toss and blindman’s bluff.

“This is pretty fun,” Adam said. “We get to do all sorts of things--chess, puppets.”

But would he have liked to live during the time of the great playwright? “Probably not,” the 10-year-old admitted. “The plague was awfully easy to get.”

Tim Shoffner, 9, stood dressed in puffy purple knickers, a high lace ruffled collar, white tights with grass stains on the knees and purple flats with bows on the toes. He pondered the pros and cons of the 16th Century.

The games were pretty neat, he said. “There weren’t any gangs and stuff and you were just friendly to each other.”

On the other hand, Tim said, there weren’t any hamburgers, French fries, Coca Colas or pizza either. “I’d just be happy to get on my regular clothes,” he concluded.

The festival is the brainchild of two Top of the World teachers, Lois Rake and Terry Hustwick, who 12 years ago used grant money to travel to England to study the Elizabethan period and then devised the program for their students.

During the session, speakers visit the three fourth-grade classrooms and describe such things as Medieval clothing and 16th-Century teaching methods. Period information is wedged into reading, writing and math lessons.

Ostensen said her daughter Joy was particularly amazed that even wealthy 16th-Century citizens bathed only two or three times a year and, to offset body odor, wore fragrant sachets on their belts.

“It was just a world of discovery,” said Carolyn Wake, a fourth-grade teacher. “I didn’t believe they could comprehend Shakespeare. But you present it in a manner like this and make it interactive and hands-on and they’ll come through.”