Lesson Plan - Mill Lane Schoolhouse

One Room Schoolhouse 
Online Lesson Plan

Pretend that you are a child living on a farm near Middletown, Delaware in the late 1800's and that you attend the Mill Lane Schoolhouse along with ten or more other children ages 5 to 15.   To get started,  complete each of the pre-activities under Section 1:  Pre-Activity.   Afterward, work your way through each topic covered under Section 2:  Virtual Assignment.  Enjoy the one-room schoolhouse "experience"!
To be covered: life in a country school, topics the children would have studied, how they were taught, the materials they used etc. Common Core Standards, Grades 4-6 

Section 1:   Pre-Activity

For a truly authentic experience, students should dress in attire appropriate for the late 1800s and early 1900s. See pre-activity guide Costume Guide & images of children.

Copybooks are needed for the visit to practice penmanship. Look at images of original copybooks and directions for making copybooks below. Have a parent or guardian make the copybooks OR have students make their own copybooks. Copybooks were used in the 1700s and 1800s to practice penmanship as well as to learn correct behavior by committing proverbs and other maxims to memory. The copybook can also be a keepsake of their day.

Section 2:  Virtual Assignment

Click on the time of day to review example topics covered in the Mill Lane schoolhouse and complete the online activities. Students will click on the topic and time of day and progress through each example assignment.

DAILY SCHEDULE
10:00 AM Arithmetic problems
11:00 AM Penmanship exercises
12:30 PM Geography and current events using a turn-of-the-century map
1:00 PM Old-fashioned spelling bee (with family or friends)
1:45 PM Chores including restocking of wood stove and general clean-up of the
classroom and schoolhouse grounds
2:00 PM School dismissed
ARRIVAL TIME
Practice introducing yourself as students did with their teacher at the start of each day. The Morning Routine of schoolchildren in the 1850s was very different from our routines today. Students entered the schoolhouse at the sound of the teacher's bell- girls first, followed by boys. The children had to "make their manners" to the teacher. This involved bowing for the boys and curtsying for the girls while saying, "Good Morning, Sir/Ma'am." Try introducing yourself to others this way in your home and see how they react! This is your chance to teach them about life long ago!
READING AND RECITATION
For example, select a lesson from a McGuffey Reader. A possible lesson from McGuffey’s Second Eclectic Reader - 
  • Using Lesson #1 on page 11, review the vocabulary. Students take turns reading the passage entitled. “Evening at Home.” Students should read it again themselves. Each student should be able to read the passage perfectly with good fluency and use of punctuation.
  • Use the line numbers to refer to particular parts in the passage. What is the feeling in this passage? How do you know?
RECESS GAMES
Learn Songs and Recess Games: Have students be familiar with singing “America” by watching the video and reading the lyrics. OR Teach students how to play tag, Simon Says, ‘Mother, May I?’, Duck Duck Goose and Cat’s Cradle. Ask families to participate. Which recess game did you try? How does it differ from the games you play now?
LUNCH RESEARCH
Follow this link and take notes on what foods were available in the 1800s under the section '"Right Cozy Place" For Lunch'. For example, no juice boxes, canned or bottled drinks, chips, fruit roll-ups, or packaged cookies. Plan what your lunch would be with these items: sweet potato, cold pancake, piece of bread, lard, piece of cake, peach, apple, carrot, cabbage and/or biscuit.
COSTUME GUIDE
Look at images found here and make your own Mill Lane Schoolhouse costume: What do you notice girls and boys wearing in these images? Girls wear dresses or long skirts, cotton blouses, bonnets, shawls, pinafore aprons. Boys wear cotton pants, suspenders, and cotton or flannel shirts. No tee shirts, sweatshirts, sweatpants, baseball caps, or sneakers.

The costume suggestions below can easily be fashioned from items found at home.
  • Boys wore knee-length trousers. Jeans or corduroy pants rolled up to the knee work well. Dark- colored socks should be tucked under the pants at the knee. Shirts were white or light-colored and buttoned down the front. Shoes were plain leather. Newsboy type caps can also be worn by the boys. Other appropriate attire includes vests, straw hats, knickers, bow ties and neck ties, and bib overalls.
  • Girls should wear dresses. Country-looking gingham checks and small calico prints or dots would be appropriate. Turn-of-the-century girls wore knee-length dresses with long, dark heavy hose underneath. Full aprons were often worn over the girls’ dresses—mom’s kitchen apron would do the trick! Large hair bows were common. A plain, white blouse and knee-length dark skirt would also be appropriate attire. Long, floor-length skirts, however, were not worn until girls were 16 years of age. Dark, leather strap and buckle shoes or slip-ons would be appropriate. Hair was worn away from the face, pulled back into pony-tails, pig-tails, or braids.
It is not necessary that the children create a costume, but it is strongly encouraged to add the unique qualities of this learning experience. Below are some illustrations of children and adults in period clothing are included to help you get some ideas for costumes.
CREATE A COPYBOOK
Look at some images of copybooks and create your own.
 
Materials: Paper for copybook cover (Brown paper bag or mail scrap paper), yarn (12”-18” long) or string and scissors or paper cutter.

Directions:
Cut two pieces of light brown paper 6” x 9”. These will be used for the front and back copybook covers. **(Leave the front and back covers blank.)
● Make a copy of each copybook page from the Appendix; then cut each page along the dotted line and place in order. (This will make six copybook pages.)
● Line up the short edges of all the copybook pages with the short edges of the front and back covers, placing copybook pages between the cover sheets.
● Make sure that page one of the copybook is the first page facing up just inside the front cover. Align the front cover over the first page and the rest of the copybook.
● Punch two holes approximately two inches apart on the left side of the front cover, passing through the covers and all the pages.
● Turn the copybook over, keeping the pages and covers aligned.
● Secure all the pages together by inserting the ends of the yarn through the holes on the back cover of the copybook.
● Turn the copybook right side up, pull the yarn/string through and tie a loose bow on the top cover.
● Write their first and last name on the back cover. Decorate the front and back covers will be decorated as part of a drawing Mill Lane school day.
One Room Schoolhouse - Follow-Up Activities

Visit Mill Lane Schoolhouse and complete the activities below.

1) Create a Venn Diagram comparing and contrasting your own life with a student’s life in 1855. You must include at least three different details in each section.
2) Write a poem about your one room schoolhouse visit. Try to remember what you saw, touched, heard and the emotions you felt during the entire day. (Put it to music or a beat to create a song or rap.)
3) Do you think life is better now or back in the 1850s? Write a detailed paragraph with your answer. You must include at least three different details from what you learned and experienced.
4) Draw a picture with all you remember about the one room school house. Use descriptive labels to help add details.
5) Pretend you are back in 1855, and write a letter to your “Aunt Linda” who lives in Philadelphia. Use specific details from your school day and include reasons why you liked or didn’t like your day and what you were feeling.
SUGGESTED READINGS FOR STUDENTS
Fiction and non-fiction accounts of a one-room school experiences

  • Alcott, Louisa M. An Old Fashioned Girl. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1897.
  • Garland, Hamlin. Boy Life on the Prairie. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1899.
  • Loeper, John J. Going to School in 1876. New York: Macmillian Publishing Company, 1984.
  • Turner, Ann Warren. Dakota Dugout. New York: Macmillian Publishing Company, 1985.
  • Walker, Barbara M. The Little House Cookbook. New York: Harper and Row, 1979
  • Wilder, Laura Ingalls. Little Town on the Prairie. New York: Harper & Row, 1968. 
  • Wilder, Laura Ingalls. On the Banks of Plum Creek. New York: Harper & Row, 1965. Chapter 20
  • Wilder, Laura Ingalls. The Long Winter. New York: Harper & Row, 1969. Chapter 9
  • Wilder, Laura Ingalls. These Happy Golden Years. New York: Harper & Row, 1971. 
  • Adler, Susan S. Samantha Learns a Lesson: A School Story. Middleton, WI: American Girls Collection, Pleasant Company, 1986.
  • Brink, Carol Ryrie. Caddie Woodlawn. New York, NY: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1935.
  • Loeper, John J. Going to School in 1876. New York, NY: Atheneum Publishing Company, 1984.
  • Montgomery, Lucy Maud. Anne of Green Gables. New York, NY: Bantam Books, Inc., 1992.
  • Sloane, Eric. The Little Red Schoolhouse: A Sketchbook of Early American Education. New York, NY: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1972.
  • Wilder, Laura Ingalls. These Happy Golden Years. New York, NY: Harper & Row, 1943.
SUGGESTED READINGS FOR TEACHERS
  • Cubberley, Ellwood P. Public Education in the United States: A Study and Interpretation of American Educational History. Massachusetts: The Riverside Press, 1934.
  • Falk, Bonnie Hughes. Country School Memories. White Bear Lake, MN: BHF Memories Unlimited, Stanton Publication Services, Inc., 1986.
  • Freeman, Ruth S. Yesterday’s School Books: A Looking Glass for Teachers of Today. New York, NY: Century House, 1960.
  • Good, Harry G. A History of American Education. New York, NY: Macmillan Company, 1962.
  • Gulliford, Andrew. America’s Country Schools. Washington, D.C.: Preservation Press, 1984.
  • Nasaw, David. Schooled to Order: A Social History of Public Schooling in the United States. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, Inc., 1979.
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