Ms. Hartshorn’s Classroom News

Dear Families,

It will be 45 days tomorrow! That’s a startling fact when you realize that we’ve been in school for 45 days, and that’s ¼ of our student school year! We seem to be surviving the most exciting week of the school year—Halloween week. Christmas and Hanukkah may seem to take the title of Most Exciting in your household, but those holidays are during a school break. The much-anticipated night of spooks and candy-collecting usually comes smack dab in the middle of a school week, followed by tired children who have been on a sugar high (and low) for several hours, if not days. So, if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. We’ve tried to direct all of that energy into some activities that were necessary in order to survive in the "olden days." I’m sure you’re children told yo all about the candle-dipping we did this week. Thanks to help from Mrs. Allison, we were all able to make our candles. We certainly learned why it’s called candle-dipping and not just candle-making. We figured that it took us about 20 to 25 dips into wax and then cold water to make our tapered candles. One child asked, "Hey, why don’t we just leave the wick in the hot wax and count to 25, so we did. Lo and behold, we didn’t have a tapered candle. All we had was a wick with a thin layer of wax on it. Hmmm~ we figured the dipping, cooling, re-dipping must be what allowed the layers of wax to build up. We also noticed that our candles were skinnier on the top than on the bottom—tapered. We talked about how later in time, people developed a way to make candles faster by using tapered molds.

Another project that kept us busy and in the past was making our very own hole-punch copper lanterns. These were decorative and functional years ago. Your child will be bringing both of these lovely items (candle and lantern) home today. I have reminded them that they are not to burn the candles UNLESS YOU, the adult, are with them.

School pictures also arrived at school yesterday. Because of the excitement of Halloween, I thought you’d appreciate me waiting to send them home today, rather than you finding them in the bottom of a candy bucket some day. Look for these in your child’s backpack.

We’ve been reading Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder. What a fun book to help children imagine what it was like to live a long time ago. Although Laura was a pioneer girl, there are many similarities to her life as a child to that of a child a long time ago living in Vermont. Here are some questions you can ask your child about the book:

What did Laura and her sister, Mary play with after Pa shot a pig? (the bladder for a balloon)

What part of the pig did the girls find a special treat to eat? (pig’s tail to eat as a treat like a roasted hot dog)

Where did Laura and Mary sleep at night? (on the trundle bed)

Name at least three chores that Mary and Laura had to do each day. (dry the dishes, air the bedding, make the bed, help Ma in the kitchen with the cooking)

Here are the pictures of your children at the various schoolhouse sites he or she would have attended. When you look at these pictures with your child, help him or her name the neighborhood children in your area that are in grades 1 through 8. This will help your child understand better who else would have been in a one-room school house with him or her.

South Hill School                                             Common School

Honan School                                Jones Brook School                         Taplin School

Rockbridge School Cobb Hill School

Flanagan School Village School (missing Seth)

I hope you enjoy the upcoming weekend! I look forward to another busy week with your children.

Brenda