Tea Party Offers a Taste of England

The boys wore jackets and ties and the girls sported hats and party dresses as the third-graders at Thousand Oaks’ Weathersfield Elementary School had a spot of tea Thursday.

Using silverware, they ate scones, cucumber sandwiches and cakes laid out on china, and then dabbed their mouths with linens after drinking their tea with their pinkies stuck out prominently.

The annual tea parties have been held for more than a decade at Weathersfield and highlight the third grade’s “heritage studies” unit. The party is meant to immerse students in the habits of another culture, in this case the English practice of having tea.

“This is meant to give them a taste of other cultures,” said Helene Weinstein, the teacher who first organized the tea parties and invites district officials and parents each year. “In this case in particular, it is really a taste. In England, the tea is such a special time for children to sit with their parents.”

Third-grade teacher Kim Heesch said that students at lunchtime usually gobble down their food in five minutes before running off, so the tea is a good way to show them what it is like to sit down for an hour and eat.

“They learn etiquette, and it is nice for them to dress up,” she said.

Principal Carol Philips said the tea party is like a time machine for the students. “It is a little taste of what it’s like to be grown up,” she said.

The students also said they felt like adults as they drank their tea and engaged in civilized conversation.

“It feels like I am grown up,” said Shannon Bertea, 8, who completed her outfit with an attractive beret. “It feels like the olden days when people used to get dressed up and have tea together.”

“I feel like I went back 100 years or something,” said 8-year-old Nicole Halby.

Cassini Tubb, 8, wore a fine hat and fur coat to the tea. She said she felt grown up and liked spending teatime with her family and friends. However, she said, it wasn’t her first tea.

“I used to have tea parties when I was little. My brother was the servant.”