Toga Teddies is one of the most popular and sold-out workshops at Latin Day hosted at Holiday Hill that students attend each spring. Latin teachers Stephanie Spaulding and Alison Orlebeke wanted to bring that workshop to the classroom for students to experience it along with enhancing the current study with a fun activity. The students have been learning about Saturnalia, the Roman solstice holiday. Saturnalia was an ancient Roman festival held from December 17-23 that honored the agricultural god Saturn. The festival welcomed public celebrations, feasting, music, decorations, and gift exchanges with joke gifts or small statues made of wax or clay, called sigillaria.

For the Toga Teddies, all students selected one of the thrifted bears Ms. Spaulding supplied. With the bear in hand, the students chose either to dress it with a toga or stola and sewed the piece of clothing together using colored or white fabrics before accessorizing it with belts, ribbons, ivy headbands, flowers, jewelry, and more. Each bear was given a Roman name of the student’s choice such as Lucius, Decius, Antonia, Verita, Metella, Tiberius, Nero, to name a few. Once the toga teddies were complete, all students completed a certification of authenticity with the date written in Latin signed by Ms. Spaulding.

“We deeply believe that learning Latin needs to be fun and memorable,” said Ms. Spaulding. “The project worked out perfectly to make this a part of learning about Saturnalia. We are confident that our Toga Teddies party will be a long-lasting memory and ‘fun’raiser for our Latin Program. “