LaPlace – St. Joan of Arc fifth-graders Brennan Mader and Christian Prince captured first prize in the recent regional social studies fair at Nicholls State University, earning the students a spot in the state competition on April 23 in Lake Charles.

Mader and Prince reconstructed the battle scene at Omaha Beach in their project, “D-Day: The Battle of Normandy.” They draped plaster cloth over newspaper and cardboard to recreate the landscape and then added toy Army men and numerous handmade details. They constructed models of Higgins boats, formed barbed wire from picture-hanging wire and built beach obstacles for the display. Their backboard consisted of pictures, maps, a timeline and other historical information about D-Day.

The project placed first in the History category in Division I. More than 400 projects and 600 students participated in the regional fair.

The project continues a winning tradition for St. Joan of Arc social studies projects. Last year, students Alexis Keys and Kymberly Hillstrom won the regional and state fairs with their economics project, “The Cost of Vintage and Contemporary Barbie Dolls,” and displayed it at nationals in Washington.

Teachers tapped Mader and Prince to compete at regionals after their project placed first in St. Joan of Arc’s social studies fair.

Other Division I winners in the school’s contest were: For Economics, first place went to Hailey Louque; second place to Jude Guidry, and honorable mention to Maddie St. Pierre.  Jake Vicknair received an honorable mention for Anthropology, while Maddie Sympson placed first in Geography.  In History, a project by Alex East joined Prince and Mader in first place. April Bourlet took second place, Pierson Bernuchaux, Seth LeBlanc and Jess Plaisance placed third, while honorable mentions went to Sophia Bonadona, Chloe Faucheux, Branden Fertitta, Matthew Hattala, Ian Kot, Brook St. Pierre, Saige Clark, Destiny Myers, Maddie Millet and Grant Vicknair.

Division II winners at SJA were: In Sociology, first place went to Alex Miller, second place to Lillie Smith, third place to Lexie Brown, and honorable mention to Lily Hauge.  In Economics, Brianna Pray took first place and Jessica Cline received second place. In Geography, Bailee and Bryce Cortez won first place. No second place was awarded, and Alexis Porche and Madison Smith took third. For History, first place went to Halie Fertitta and Conner Loup. Second place went to Matthew Templet, Jacob St. Pierre and Sadie Kelly. Third place went to Aakash Patel and B.J. Guient, while honorable mentions were awarded to Java August, Wesley Melancon, Evan Simoneaux, Lori Press, Thomas Celestin, Chaz Brown and Daniel Francois, Emily Eymard and Darin Tate.