This week committee members of the Saline Area Schools Preservation Foundation are busily transforming the Weber Blaess one-room School with hand-made decorations for the annual holiday pageant that will take place Sunday.

The decorations were made by schoolchildren during a November workshop that used teacher magazines from the era said Cheryl Hoeft, a member of the preservation foundation.

There are three performances, at 3, 5, and 7 p.m. at the one-room school located at 525 Woodland Drive.

“This is a fantastic fun performance done by children,” Hoeft said. “They sing, dance, recite and the school is decorated to the early 1900’s. It is a fantastic non-commercialized event.”

About 45 students, ages 6-12 years, worked on the decorations after school, Hoeft said. The decorations came from “Teacher Illustrator” magazine, which the school recently acquired from a retired Saline teacher.

Hoeft said Saline teacher Trina Bell, whose grandfather was a school board director of Weber-Blaess, and Carol Diuble Tinkle, whose father, grandfather, aunts and uncles attended the one-room school, put on the workshop.

Rebecca Groeb-Driskill is the director for the pageant in which 13 children perform. Her father attended a one-room school in the area, Hoeft said.

The event is sponsored by the Saline Historic Preservation Foundation, and proceeds benefit ongoing programs and restoration of the school. Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for students and children and are available at Saline Community Education. Call 734-429-8020, ext. 1 or 734-429-5922.

In May 2009, Weber-Blaess was named to the National School Houses Registry, one of 10 schools in the nation to receive this award. More than 1,100 students visit the school annually.

Lisa Allmendinger is a reporter for AnnArbor.com and can be reached at lisaallmendinger@annarbor.com. For more Saline stories visit our Saline page.