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East Prairie School
The week after Labor Day was an exciting one for the second grade
students at Armstrong School. They were able to attend a full day at
our one-room schoolhouse called East Prairie School. They spent the day
learning about and living the lives of pioneer children attending a
one-room school.
The day began with an historical trip back to the 1850’s where
they learned about the life of pioneer children. Then their day began
with a memory gem, “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.”
Most of the lessons back in that era taught students a lesson about
life. The memory gem had to be memorized by the end of the day and it’s
meaning established. Then the students copied the gem in their copy
books, practicing their penmanship. They were also introduced to their
spelling words for the day and practiced them with partners.
At that time we divided into three groups and rotated the
students between biscuit and butter making, learning games from that
era, and milking the cow.
After that we moved on to a math lesson in adding and
subtracting. While students worked on their problems on their slates,
the school marm called various groups to the front for a reading lesson
out of one of the McGuffey Readers, one of the very first books designed
for classroom instruction.
At the conclusion of the reading and math
lessons, we washed our hands in a pan with homemade soap and had lunch
from our buckets. We learned a few songs during our lunch period and
then students had a short recess.
After recess we had our spelling bee, and
the gentlemen won. The ladies put up a valiant fight, however. Then
the students recited their memory gem.
We discussed the responsibilities of the
children, both at school and at home during the 1850’s and then took
corn kernels off the cob and fed them to the animals at the park.
At the conclusion of our day we compared
East Prairie School with Armstrong School and students named their
favorite activities of the day.
The day was an exciting time for students
to live history. It was also a perfect kick-off to the year-long study
of the book Little House on the Prairie for the enriched second
grade literacy group. |
