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Steamboat Springs — The Christian Heritage School was full of tiny ranchers, hunters, skiers and even one furry horse Friday as the school and the younger children celebrated their love of the Yampa Valley and its history.

During the annual Fall Festival, a celebration when students dress up in costumes, which stands in for an elementary Halloween party, students got a chance to fish, camp, rope and play as they honored Yampa Valley and Steamboat Springs history.

The theme this year was the brainchild of Lauri Bradt, the fourth- and fifth-grade teacher. She said after last year's theme of "Children of the King," with an emphasis on princes and a Renaissance-fair atmosphere, the school switched to a theme with local roots.

"We wanted to celebrate the Steamboat community and what we love about Steamboat," she said.

The students were told to dress up to go along with the themes of ranching, skiing, camping, hot-air balloons and fishing. To accompany those themes, the five stations in the gym and cafeteria gave children a chance to curl up in a tent and hear a story, run relay races across the gym in oversized ski clothes, fish metal-tipped plastic fish out of an aquarium with magnetized lures and paint their ideal hot-air balloon.

At the fifth station, rancher and parent Cara Iacovetto laid out the history of ranchers and taught the children how to rope using a roping dummy.

One young roper, Anthony Vazquez, said he already is a rancher at age 9. Mason Brewer, who also tried his hand at the roping test, said he had lived on a ranch most of his life, and his get-up as a hunter wasn't much of a stretch.

Skier Decker Dean, 9, said he's a ski jumper but decided to dress as a skate skier for the event for a little variety. He said\ he plans to skate ski more often.

"I need to work on it, and I thought it would be a good start," he said.