This 100th Day of School is one that the kiddos will surely remember, as it required a bit of time travel – all the way back to 1913. The students did research to learn what life was like in 1913 and then came to school prepared to learn just as students did then. As you can see from our photo, they came up with some amazing period costumes to wear and even brought authentic lunches to eat in our little one room schoolhouse (no cafeterias back then!).
Our school day was vastly different as well. They enjoyed participating in a spelling bee, recited poems from memory, practiced their multiplication facts for 2’s, 5’s, and 10’s orally, and enjoyed a special 1903 story written by Beatrix Potter. It was difficult NOT to use the technology that surrounded us in the classroom – no ipads, smartboards, or markers on this 100th Day – just pencils, papers and crayons. We even uncovered the blackboard to utilize it! At the end of the day we enjoyed a Social Hour and played games popular in 1913 – marbles, charades, Cupid’s Coming, and Snap. They had a blast learning some new games and to top it off we enjoyed the brand new invention of 1913 – Oreo cookies!
During our math survey, the class overwhelmingly voted that 2013 was better than 1913…and this teacher has to agree. It is very tiring standing in front of the room lecturing all day, though it was kind of cute to see them stand and push in their chair before responding to a question. I can honestly say that I believe that education has learned a lot about how children learn best these past 100 years. I am fairly certain that rote memorization and children that are seen and not heard is not the best we can do for kids. And while they LOVED the Dunce Cap on our historical day – I can guarantee that shaming children is NOT the way to get them to improve their behavior. But I can say that they were VERY well behaved all day!
Enjoy our photos of our amazing day!
1 comment:
Such a fun idea to give the kids a history lesson!
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