Dressed up and field trip

Is it Halloween already??

No.... it's Biography Day for the 5th and 6th graders. :)

For Social Studies this month, the kids have to pick someone in history to do their research, write a report, and give an oral presentation in character.

So last Thursday was the day for their presentations, and they had to dress in character for the whole day. Sweetie Pie was Jane Addams, one of the first women to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Pam's (my friend) kids were Laura Ingalls Wilder and Lawrence of Arabia. Technically, Lawrence of Arabia is a movie in 1960s, but it's based on the life of T.E. Lawrence.

Don't they look so cute in characters?

Then on Thursday this week was field trip day to Riley's Farm in Oak Glen. It's a working apple orchard and living history farm where visitors get to experience 18th century America History. This trip was the best educational field trip that I've attended as a chaperone. Take a look....

When we arrived, we were immediately greeted by this British soldier or "Red Coat". The groups were organized into townships. Sweetie Pie's class was the "Concord".

Then they marched onto the Heritage Homestead and were given instructions by the Red Coats.

I didn't get a picture of Master Riley (the owner of the farm), but Master Riley himself welcomed the groups, told them about the rules, where to find the restrooms, and entertained us with his flute.

While the students were still gathered on the field, a demonstration of how loud the muskets sounded.












... and what will happen should any one misbehave... they will be put into stockade for punishment.

Throughout the day, they were shown what life was like during the colonial days....

...... type of games that children played with....

..... weaving....











.... were shown how to march, load, fire, re-load a musket quickly....

of course, the muskets were just only sticks...













... black-smith....

... a mock trial to show how unfair the court system was under the British ruling ....




Unfortunately, my camera battery died after this. :(

Also, hands-on demonstrations of butter churning, writing with ink and quill, biscuit making.

For lunch, we were given the "ration" of dried beef, corn bread, cheese, apple, and lemonade. However, the adults were able to place their lunch at the "homestead". I ordered their chicken pot pie.... yummy!

The best part of the day was at the end. The groups were divided into Brits and Americans. They did a re-enactment of the battle of the colonials defending their homestead with muskets. Overall, the whole thing was well organized and well done. Every character we encountered stay in characters, spoke the Queens' English, and the costumes dead on.




Of course, I couldn't leave there without their 5lbs. apple pie! YUMMMMMYYY!!