Going Back in Time...

Today we were transported back in time over 100 years ago to the year 1892.  We were fully clothed from head to toe in pioneer attire.  The class was so cute carrying their "no-litter" lunch and wearing their handmade hats and bonnets.  The past few weeks we've been studying communities of the past and present in social studies.  We read the "Little House in the Big Wood" books together as a class.  The kids have really enjoyed learning the stories of Laura Ingalls and her life in the 1800s. 

Today we traveled to the Bloomfield Hills Nature Center and lived a day in the life as a pioneer child.  We were split into two families and each family had a "Ma".  We did the work of a pioneer child which consisted of making pegs to use for building houses, sharpening our tools on the grind stone, and sawing wood for the fire. We made candles so our house would have light and we also baked cookies for a sweet little treat...they were delicious!  When all of our chores were completed, we had a little time to use the toys pioneer children played with.

Washing our hands before we made cookies.

Making candles.

Using stilts was HARD work!

Fun on the swing.

Weeee!!!

Checking out the loft where we would have slept.

Making cookies.

Carrying in fire wood for the stove.

Pumping water from the well.

Push!

All that work made us hungry...time for a pioneer lunch.

After a hard days work, it was time for school.  We all went to the one room school house to spend the afternoon learning like a pioneer student.  We wrote on slates (they were really squeaky) and we practiced spelling.  We wrote the definitions for many words pioneers were familiar with.  We did mental math and even had a little bit of time for some indoor recess. 

Today's date!

All ready to learn.

Our class was divided into 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th graders. 

We all learned different spelling words.

If the teacher wasn't teaching our grade, we practiced our handwriting.