Colonial Days 2009

What fun we have had this week with our thirteen activities related to colonial life. Monday included a formal tea, tin smithing, and calligraphy in the morning and by afternoon we were making hats and wigs, cooking, and playing games. Then on Tuesday we created pomanders, practiced our weaving, and learned to quilt during the first part of the day, while the afternoon included designing a whirligig toy, making candles and learning papyrotamia. We prepared for our feast Wednesday morning by decorating our tables symmetrically with fruit, nuts and ribbon. This art form is called dellarobia and the colonial homes often featured these types of centerpieces on mantels and tables. Dancing the minuet for our parents was another memorable experience and then we enjoyed a scrumptuous meal of turkey with all the trimmings. Our principal, Mrs. Leadford, joined us for our feast as did many of our parents, enrichment teachers, Mr. Caldwell, Mrs. Catania, Big Bob, and Mr. Les. I don't believe any of us will forget these last few days for a VERY LONG time!

Touring a Colonial Home

Would you ever imagine that a home patterned after a New England colonial home exists within ten minutes from our school? Scott and Debra Duncan were so kind to allow our fourth graders from OCS to tour their home yesterday. They have spent the last 28 years researching colonial history and collecting authentic pieces for their home. We learned how the houses were often attached or very near the barns due to the weather extremes. We saw how a colonial kitchen might function with a reflector oven, fireplace, and other wrought iron, pewter, and kitchen tools. What a treat to taste oatmeal cooked over an open fire in a cast-iron pot! Mrs. Duncan showed us how rosemary was ground up with a mortar and and pestle. Other items of interest included seeing a handmade lock used to lock all the windows in the house and understanding how precious and costly nails were to a homebuilder as each were handmade. We learned about different types of wood used for furniture including pine, maple and mahogony. Mr. Duncan discussed some of the reasons that lead up to the Revolutionary War including taxes and laws that Britain imposed on the colonists that made life very difficult.
Perhaps the favorite part of our field trip was watching Mr. Duncan load a Flint lock rifle. It took several attempts to fire it, but at the last moment as we were literally watching away, the rifle finally fired, much to the delight of the fourth graders!



A bucket hanging in a hallway would be filled with sand in case of fire. This is also a "Good Morning" stairway. There was a hallway on the left and right of the top of the stairs and members would greet each other with a "good morning" as they met at the top of the stairs each day.

Learning about cooking with a dutch oven.

Grinding up rosemary with a mortar and pestle

Mr. Duncan tells about some reasons for the Revolutionary War.

Examining a handmade window lock

Looking at musket balls

Ready. Aim. Fire!

Letters to our Colonial Friends

This past week we wrote letters to the main characters from our colonial novels: Maria's Story (1773) and John's Story (1775). As we read our novels, we notice that life for children over 200 years ago carried far more responsibilities. For instance, Maria is expected to care for her younger brothers, cook meals and keep up with the housework. Going to school is not an option for her and she is intent on teaching herself to read and write so she can assist in the family business of operating the printing of the Virginia Gazette. John, on the other hand, is part of the elite gentry class and lives with many privileges including household servants. John is struggling internally with the decision to fight against the British along with his older brother, or to try a more diplomatic approach to solving problems, as his father suggests. Both John and Maria are close in age to our fourth graders.
In our letters, we asked questions about games they play, hobbies, clothing, and friendships. We also drew pictures of John and Maria based on what we have read out in our novels and other sources regarding colonial attire.

Canine Surprise With Our Book Buddies

Book Buddies with Mrs. Nelson's first grade class is something we always look forward to. This week we were invited for a special time of learning about Titan, a very special German Shepherd who sniffs out bombs and catches criminals for the Oklahoma City Police Force. Titan belongs to Mr. Reedy who is Taryn's dad in first grade. Titan came from Slovenia and is trained to respond to German commands. We watched Titan sniff out a "pretend" bomb in the classroom and when it was located, he showed he had found it by immediately sitting down. Titan is a very friendly dog when not "on the job" and Mrs. Nelson and Mrs. Anderson both had a turn as he practiced his "attack mode" on them. He is definitely a strong puppy!

A Colonial Concert

Despite the dreary weather today, our three fourth grade classes boarded the bus and headed to the Oklahoma History Center for a special concert with Dr. David Hildebrand, one of our country's top musical historians. Dressed in period costume, Dr. Hildebrand taught us about various instruments and songs from the colonial period, especially those favored by our first president, George Washington. We enjoyed hearing the harpsichord and learned the difference between a piano and harpsichord as well as learning about drums, flutes, and stringed intruments similar to guitars. Some tunes played were familiar to us and we learned how old tunes have sometimes taken on new words or rhythms over the years.
We definitely feel better prepared to learn our minuet now in preparation for our Feast Day on November 18th! Best of all, we purchased some CD's of Dr. Hildebrand so we can enjoy him all throughout our colonial unit.

Grandparents Day

Hannah has a green thumb.

Plant displays. Great job, Amanda!


Alyssa and Brandon enjoying their grandparents.

What fun we had getting ready for Grandparents Day. We made drawings of how we thought we would look as grandparents someday as well as writing our thoughts on what kind of grandparents we hope to be. An acrostic about our grandparents also was added to our desk display and we had an list of questions we planned to use when we interviewed our grandparents about the "good old days". We also gave tours of our room showing our grandparents things like where we hang our backpacks, our cubbies, the job chart, our calendar, class photo album, and other things that are unique to our classroom.

In addition, we were proud to show our plant unit experiments with growing seeds in the dark and the light. Each student made a display that showed their observations over a two week period as well as the cycle of a seed as it germinates and forms into a mature plant.

Fun, Frenzy, and God's Protection

With great anticipation, our class set out to celebrate our fund raiser feats with a bowling/pizza party. We savored our thick crust cheese pizza and pitchers of Pepsi and 7Up to start us off followed by a hunt for just the right bowling ball and shoes. With four lanes assigned to us, we divided up into boy and girl teams and participated in several games of fun. There was plenty of laughter, cheering, and delightful conversation as we enjoyed one another's company. Even our wonderful parents took time to sample some yummy pizza.
Satisfied with our fantastic event, we packed up and got ready to depart. As the first group of girls left with Mrs. Rice, a surge of powerful wind flew across the parking lot, blowing the glass doors of the bowling alley, inward and outward along with debris blowing hither and yonder in the entrance. I watched in disbelief as the wind picked up speed and literally sucked Bailey backwards like a gigantic vacuum cleaner. It picked her up off the ground and she did several backward flips MID-AIR prior to landing upright on her twisted foot. The adrenalinedefinitely had kicked in for me and I took off through the damaged doors to retrieve my precious students. All were directed back to the bowling alley where we calmed one another, called the school, and waited until Mrs. Leadford gave us the clear to exit the building following her up-to-the-minute weather findings! No, it was not a tornado, but it was definitely some powerful display of force!!!! We are so thankful that all of us were safe, especially Bailey. God was DEFINITELY watching out for our class. We offered a prayer of thanksgiving as a class, and decided that we could write some pretty creative stories about our day at the bowling alley. Wow! Not one of us could go home that day without being filled with gratitude

Grow Seeds, Grow!

Science is definitely hands on in our classroom. We recently planted some lima bean seeds. Those seeds were soaked in water for 24 hours first, placed in dirt in a clear cup, watered and place in two very different environments---darkness and light. We wrote our hypotheses regarding how light and absence of light would effect our plants. We are now recording our observations and will make a display for Grandparents Day.