WARSAW — On Tuesday night, Ms. Zellers’ third and fourth grade class transformed the Lincoln Elementary into a Mock County Fair. Sixteen students had the opportunity to choose their own Indiana county and create a presentation on the county’s culture and history. Many family members and past Indiana County Fair participants filled the different booths between 6 and 7:30 p.m.

The class has spent the whole year learning about the different Indiana counties because it is an Indiana fourth grade standard. Every week the students visited and researched a specific Indiana county virtually until all were covered. Next the students each were able to pick a county to research even further for the event.

The students then spent the better part of three months creating their final project.

“We started by going through old photo albums and showing them different ideas from the past two years,” said Zellers.

Despite going through past ideas, each year the event includes new and original ideas created by the students.

“This year we have three different barns but we have never had a barn before,” said Zeller. “They really don’t tell each other or talk about what they are doing.”

The counties represented at this year’s event were Wabash County by Elle Brouwer, Noble County by Deaglan Gardner, Marshall County by Leila Knepp, Miami County by Michael Manes, Tippecanoe County by Shruthi Muthiah, Fulton County by Mattias Niebbia, St. Joseph County by Doondy Patnala, Brown County by Ayva Price, Elkhart County by Issac Rico, Kosciusko County by Aubrie Robbins, Grant County by Karter Shepherd, Spencer County by Lainey Slocum, Carroll County by Zane Studebaker, Marion County by Ada Thomsen, Whitley County by Max Vinkemeier and Allen County by Eddy Wielgot.

Along with current students, past students showed up to help volunteer with the refreshment and reminiscence in the past.

Leah Rhinehold, eighth grader, remembers researching Brown County when she participated in the event. She chose that county because it was where her parents were married and clearly remembers how long it took to put together the scrapbooks associated with the project.

“Their’s are a lot better than ours,” said Reinhold. “The projects have improved a lot.”