Plimoth Plantation: A Field Trip Back in Time

The kids knew the idea behind Plimoth Plantation, the historical living museum in Plymouth, Massachusetts, where modern people dress in the clothes of long ago and interpret the past.  That means you can ask them about TVs and they will look puzzled.  Or mention President Obama and they won't know who that is, or even what the United States is, because they are living in 1627, seven years after the Mayflower arrived in the New World.

All our third graders saw a replica, or copy, of the Mayflower. They were able to study it outside...

and in.

In the village, it took our kids a little while to get used to the fact that modern people were buried so deep beneath their costumes, that visitors felt as if they were talking to someone who had actually lived in Plimoth almost 400 years ago.  These modern people had studied so much that they could answer any questions the kids had.

Once the kids understood that, the questions came fast and furious.  One group cornered a village resident for at least minutes. What does he eat everyday?  What is he building (a house).  How does he use his knife?  What was it like coming over on the Mayflower?  Was it scary?

They moved on to a women tending her garden.  Was she angry at King James, they asked.  Not really, she said.  Royals do not pay much mind to common folk such as themselves.  The villagers had much more anger toward the leaders of their church.  They left England, in fact, because they were not allowed to worship the way they wanted to.

The kids learned that this woman also tended her farm animals: cows, sheep, and chickens. Then one student asked if it was possible to be a cow and a bull at the same time.  The woman smiled a little.  "Well, maybe we'd call that situation a steer," she said.

The kids listened to a man from the Wampanoag tribe he told them how he was making a mishoon - the Wampanoag word for boat - by using fire as a tool to hollow out a tree. 

What did Wampanoag kids do?  What kind of games did they play long ago?  Our Perkins kids got to check out the homemade dolls and toy mishoon they would have used. 

That was cool, but the fact that amazed them most of all was that in this Native American culture, there was no breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  There was always food on the fire, so people could eat whenever they were hungry.

This was an amazing trip into the past, but it was part of school as well.  Each of our students had a journal. They all had to sketch the Mayflower, label its parts, and compare the lifestyle of the Pilgrims and the Native Americans.  

The long ride back to South Boston was much quieter than the one to Plimoth.  The kids had a lot to think about.  Also, they were pretty tired. It had been quite a day

Another Way to Give Thanks

The Perkins kids left for the long Thanksgiving weekend thinking of turkey, stuffing (and, of course, a mini-vacation). Now, however the kids also knew that other Americans had  different fall harvest holidays to celebrate.

Ms. Jannette Vanderhoop is a member of the Wampanoag Tribe of Aquinnah / Gay Head on Martha’s Vineyard.  She came to talk to the Perkin kids about what it means to be a member of a Native American tribe – in the present 21st century and at the time the Pilgrims arrived in North America in the 17th century.

Her book Cranberry Day explains the major thanksgiving festival the Wampanoag Tribe celebrated long before the Pilgrims came to their land. In the old days, the celebration of the cranberry harvest was three days long.  Nowadays it is just one, but it is still lots of fun.  Kids don't go to school.  Elders of the tribe share stories of the past with them and everyone eats a feast--including cranberries, of course.

Ms. Vanderhoop also brought some of the cloths and traditional jewelry her people used to wear.

After she left, the kids had their own celebration; many classes turned much of what they learned into beautiful bulletin board displays.

Ms. Leverett-King's class demonstrated that the cranberry can be used for another purpose besides food and a good way to get enough vitamin C.

It can also be used for painting!

Another Trip Around the World with Ms. Meadow's Class

If you remember, there's a big geography project going on in (and right outside) Ms. Meadow's room. Since people from all around the world are taking an interest in us by visiting our blog, these third graders are returning the favor. They are researching the countries that have shown up on our visitors list and writing down an amazing fact about each one.
Amazing facts about the world keep coming in...







Have you ever seen one? This is what it looks like:























Have you ever seen hieroglyphics? They look like this:


















Moving on to Europe, Mecca wrote about the view from a famous Paris monument.

There are lots of views, of course, but this one includes another famous monument, the Eiffel Tower.






We don't have an illustration of this last fact. Perhaps that's all for the best!

A New School for a Day

Once a month for much of the school year, the seventh graders from the Solomon Schechter Day School in Newton came to the Michael J. Perkins School in South Boston. They came to work with our first and second graders on things like reading and writing. A lot of other things were learned in the bargain--for both groups.

At the end of the year, it was our turn to pay the Schechter kids a visit.

It was a busy day. Our kids saw some things they had never seen before, for example, signs in Hebrew letters. What did they say!?!




Perkins kids paired up with their yearlong partners to create a book about their days. Some of the things they wrote and illustrated were perfect examples of their similarities and differences.















Look at this page, for example, where the kids are writing about how they start their days at school. The Schechter kid, who attends a private school devoted to religious and academic studies, says that he begins his school day with prayer.

The Perkins kid says that they go get the breakfast crates, eat in their classrooms, then get to work. Schechter kids eat breakfast at home.


While they are chatting, the boys also learn that they both like to play basketball.


Meanwhile, another pair is busy working on filling in how their education has made them want to have a particular job when they grow up. Or, at least the Perkins kid is because she has lots of ideas. "I want to be a doctor, no, a nurse...wait I have more ideas...a scientist..."

She is writing as fast as she can.

"I wouldn't mind being a teacher at the Schecter School," she adds.










"I like the fact that they seem so mature for their age," says a Schechter kid about his Perkins acquaintances.

"I think this school is cool because it's so big and they have a room just for music," says a Perkin kid.

What is another thing that all the kids like about the visit?











When the Perkins kids come to the Schechter, there is always pizza for lunch!

The World in Just One School

Every day is like the United Nations at the Perkins School, given all the different countries our students or their families have come from. One day last week, however, was extra special.

Our kindergarten and third grade classes had a visitor from Rwanda. Sister Felicity came to see what kind of books our school has for students in these grades, and if any would be good for the kids she works with in Africa. It turns out that Rwanda has decided to turn their official language from French to English. Wow, now it isn't just their kids who will be going to school!




















Up in Ms. Enos's classroom, kids who moved from different countries to Boston and our school were learning about Thanksgiving. They started with the basics: cider and pumpkin pie with whipped cream!

























Two of our new students come from Vietnam. So seeing teachers dressed like Pilgrims is a whole new experience!

























It was also our new music teacher's first day at the Perkins. Ms. Lynch was conducting her class outside so the kids could play a game and sing loud. The kids were playing a game of rock, paper, scissors. But they were playing it the way children do in Japan.
In the Japanese version, two people stand on a piece of paper facing each other. They sing a song (in Japanese, of course). At the end of tune, they throw out their hand signal for rock, paper or scissors.





The loser must fold his or her paper in half. Then it's time for another round--the song and the draw. The game goes on until one of them can no long balance on a piece of paper that has gotten smaller and smaller with each loss.




No matter who wins, learning a song in Japanese is a victory for everyone!