1A and 1B: One Room Schoolhouse Day next Wednesday!

Dear Parents,

I am excited to share with you that, as a culminating activity for our one-room-schoolhouse unit, we are planning a One Room Schoolhouse Day for next Wednesday, June 10th.  In class, your children will be engaged in a variety of lessons and activities that simulate those from a historic one-room schoolhouse.  We started to plan for this special day as a class today, and we came up with many ideas that the children are excited to try.  Today the students made their own hornbooks, as first graders would have used in one room schoolhouses.

One idea that we discussed was wearing clothing similar to that worn by children who attended one-room schoolhouses.  We looked at some pictures in the books that we have been reading about one-room schoolhouses to get ideas for what the children might wear.  Here are some examples of items that we discussed that your child may want to wear to school on Wednesday:

Boys- loose-fitting pants, full button down shirt, suspenders, buckle or tie shoes

Girls-cotton dress, apron, bonnet (can be made out of a bandanna or handkerchief), ribbons in hair, buckle or tie shoes

Please note that while children do not need to wear uniforms, regular dress code guidelines still apply.

Also, as the children have learned about foods eaten for lunch in a one-room schoolhouse, they are eager to bring period-appropriate items for lunch on Wednesday.  Some easy suggestions that we talked about in class are baked potatoes, hard-boiled eggs, jelly or butter sandwiches, and fresh fruits or vegetables.  The children are excited to bring their lunches to school in buckets, like children did in one-room schoolhouse days.  We discussed how they can easily make their own historic-looking bucket at home by taking a pail (like one used for a sandbox or beach) and covering it with tin foil to make it look like it is made of metal.  I am attaching a photo of a sample that we showed to the children in class.

I hope that your children enjoy getting ready for this special day!  We will not have English homework on Tuesday in order to allow the children to use that time to prepare their lunch buckets, lunches, and clothing.  Thank you in advance for your help to make this day a success!

Shabbat shalom,

Sharon