Monday, March 25, 2013

There's Gold In Them Thar Hills!

The girl's class took a field trip up to gold country last week. It was a very long, educational and fun day. The town of Columbia is several hours away so the kids took a bus. They were very excited as it was their first bus field trip. They were all fantastic. I had four kids in my group and they behaved very well. The town of Columbia is great. The area has been preserved and the people that work there dress up in costume. I think we will head back up there this summer to explore a little more. The bucket brigade. The "museum" part of the field trip was fantastic. A Ranger walked around the town with the kids and showed them the various areas of the mine and town. The had them play games each time they stopped to talk about something. They went to the well area and had the kids line up in a bucket brigade to put out a fire. There was a contest girls against the boys to see who could fill a large trash can up with water the fastest and then empty it back into a trough. The boys won the filling of the can and the girls won the emptying of the can. They were all wet and giggling by the end.


They also went to the blacksmith shop (where I got my kids each a horse shoe engraved with their name on it). This is the oldest brick school house in the state. The first one they built out of wood burnt down soon after it was completed. This one is only still standing, because it is made out of bricks. The had a fun interactive program, where the students got to participate in a typical day in school back in the 1860's. They each had a slate and a piece of chalk to write out their answers to questions from the teacher. He even showed them how kids that were misbehaving were treated. They had to wear the dunce cap and stay an hour after two after school to clean up. Needless to say, they didn't have many discipline problems. If you were late or absent 3 times you were kicked out of school.


The girl and her bff C sitting in the original desks from 1861 at the old school house.




On the stage coach, ready to take a ride back in time.


The town and its outskirts is so authentic that we were held up by bandits while riding the stage coach. Luckily, we didn't have any gold or silver on us, so they let us go on our way.


At the end of the trip, my group of kids all drank a bottle of Sarsaparilla to quench their thirst before the long dusty ride home on the bus. It was the best field trip I have been on. We all had such a great time.
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