{Pioneer Days}

On May 21, our class went to an old school house on Snokomo Road, circa 1883.  Each student dressed up as a pioneer and Mrs. Murray played the part of the school marm.  A few brief lessons were given in the school house. The students got to experience using a chalk slate.  Later on, the students got to play many pioneer games.  We also had an old-fashioned picnic with cold fried chicken, an apple, milk, and the butter and biscuits we made the day before.

Pin and Bottle Champ!

The stoic look (the kids wanted it to look like an old photo)

{Rolling Hills Zoo}

K - 3rd grade visited the Rolling Hills Zoo near Salina, Kansas....

Congratulations! 100 Points!

                 Congratulations for reaching 
                   100 points in A.R.!!!!!!!

{A Memorable Journey to the late 1800's}

        Our final social studies unit for this year is studying about the pioneers.  The students have been crazy about this subject!  (Some of the girls have even come to school wearing braids like Laura Ingalls - it makes a teacher's heart swell to see her students responding to the lessons.)
       This week the students were introduced to some pioneer activities.  With assistance, we used a hammer and nail to pound holes into soup cans (Mrs. Murray & Julianne bravely sacrificed our fingernails and fingertips in the process.)

        After the holes were punched, we put battery-operated tea lights in the bottom so they looked like punched-tine lanterns.  What fun it was to see the light twinkle through the holes we had painstakingly produced moments before!

       We also made hand-dipped candles.  Mrs Murray heated candle wax in a double boiler using a large soup can and a pot of hot water.  When the wax melted the kids were able to dip the ends of the string to create slightly lumpy, but beautiful candles!

logs cabins made out of pretzel sticks and milk cartons 

button tic-tac-toe!

Much of our learning came from the Laura Ingalls Wilder books.  In "little House in the Big Woods," Laura describes making butter.  On the day before our field trip, we made butter by pouring heavy cream in a small Tupperware container.  We added a dash of salt and a few drops of juice from a grated carrot (for yellow coloring).  Each child shook and shook their containers.  And when they were tired of shaking....they shook some more.  After about 10 minutes, lumps of butter and butter milk started forming in the containers.  What an exciting moment! Later on, we baked biscuits from scratch.  The butter and biscuits were packed for the next day's old-fashioned picnic.

reading from McGuffy's Primer

Do You See Jesus?

During our chapel message this past week, Mr. White showed our school this neat optical illusion.  My students were intrigued by it.
Here's how it works:
       Stare at the four dots in the center of the image for 20 seconds.  Close your eyes tightly.  What do you see?