Friday, March 30, 2007
Yesterday, the whole 4th grade -- and 4th grades in many places in San Diego, it seems -- participated in a Gold Rush Day. It was a re-enactment of the 49ers and the California settlements during the Gold Rush.
This thing was way elaborate. Don and my friend Joan's husband, Tom, were in charge of getting hay bales for the decor. We are city slickers and I daresay have never purchased hay, so naturally, this was a to-do. Not to mention spray-painting 50 pounds of pea gravel gold, which was spread over the whole school field for "mining". We had to sneak a letter into school a week in advance so that the Pony Express could deliver it as a surprise to the kids. It was a-somethin'.
The Pony Express delivers during lunch
Growing up in Missouri, we had to learn a unit on Mark Twain and I think we had a field trip to some caves... but I don't think we did anything this involved on Missouri state history. So we were all amazed by it!
Sarah worked in a group with 3 other girls. The kids had to create and learn to put up a tent and they had to sell a product or service. They decided that they wanted to get there earlier than any other group so that they could be the first to stake their claim on the gold fields. So there we were at 7:15 in the morning!
At 7:45, the kids were let onto the field and I schlepped our huge cooler filled with ice over to the Saloon, where I had to work the early shift. After we set up the saloon, I had some time, so I went to see how the girls were faring with their tent-building.
Not So Good Actually. One of the girls was screaming at a group of boys next to them: HEY THAT'S OUR CLAIM! GET OUTTA THERE! (This was not affecting the offending parties in the least) The other 3 girls were hopping up and down holding some twine. They told me that when they went to get their deed and stakes at the PO, the rope they were given to stake out their claim was tangled up, so they couldn't get any further.
I figured, hey, if I untangle a rope that was supposed to come untangled in the first place, that's not really "helping" per se. So I took the rope and untangled it and explained to the kids that they should stop yelling at the boys. After all, in the actual Gold Rush, people probably got killed over their claims. There was no "hey no fair, I got here first". So the boys were just being authentic to the spirit of the times. They all stared at me as if I had 7 eyes, and continued to berate their neighbors.
After the stakes were up, they constructed their tent. Actually it was more of an awning. I am not sure any of these girls would have enjoyed the actual Gold Rush so much.
The kids' "tent"
After the tent was up and they had posted their deed, things seemed to calm down a bit. The kids collected gold from their claim and any unclaimed areas in tin cans, and then set off about the task of seeing what there might be for sale and selling their own goods -- signs made out of popsicle sticks and twine. This was a clever thing to sell, because each team had to have a sign identifying their team name. Being kids, some of the claims forgot the signs they had prepared beforehand. And who doesn't need a sign?
Sarah and her friend Emily took their show on the road... they roamed through the crowds selling their signs instead of waiting till kids came to them. Sarah said this was her favorite part of the whole day!
Not So Good Actually. One of the girls was screaming at a group of boys next to them: HEY THAT'S OUR CLAIM! GET OUTTA THERE! (This was not affecting the offending parties in the least) The other 3 girls were hopping up and down holding some twine. They told me that when they went to get their deed and stakes at the PO, the rope they were given to stake out their claim was tangled up, so they couldn't get any further.
I figured, hey, if I untangle a rope that was supposed to come untangled in the first place, that's not really "helping" per se. So I took the rope and untangled it and explained to the kids that they should stop yelling at the boys. After all, in the actual Gold Rush, people probably got killed over their claims. There was no "hey no fair, I got here first". So the boys were just being authentic to the spirit of the times. They all stared at me as if I had 7 eyes, and continued to berate their neighbors.
After the stakes were up, they constructed their tent. Actually it was more of an awning. I am not sure any of these girls would have enjoyed the actual Gold Rush so much.
The kids' "tent"
After the tent was up and they had posted their deed, things seemed to calm down a bit. The kids collected gold from their claim and any unclaimed areas in tin cans, and then set off about the task of seeing what there might be for sale and selling their own goods -- signs made out of popsicle sticks and twine. This was a clever thing to sell, because each team had to have a sign identifying their team name. Being kids, some of the claims forgot the signs they had prepared beforehand. And who doesn't need a sign?
Sarah and her friend Emily took their show on the road... they roamed through the crowds selling their signs instead of waiting till kids came to them. Sarah said this was her favorite part of the whole day!
They did a variety of activities throughout the day, some of which they had to "pay" for with their gold, and some of which they wouldn't have paid for in a million years (aka square dancing with BOYS).
Working the saloon was fun. I was reminded that root beer could be called "sasparilla" by Old Timers... a fourth grade boy had to gently re-educate me. A teacher came by at one point and said, "OK... we need to get you a list of the kids that are allowed to do this activity at this time. We've heard we have had kids ditching out of their assigned activities to hang out at the saloon." I told her: Great! Isn't that probably the way it was in the real Gold Rush? She stared at me as if I had 7 eyes, and continued to pass out the rotation lists.
LEFT: That's Emily at the front of the sack race.RIGHT: Yippee Kay Yay! Sarah spent most of her gold riding the various horses in the "town."
The day culminated with the Gold Rush Show which marked THE END OF THE RECORDER UNIT... and there was much rejoicing. Though Sarah was one of 4 kids picked to also play the kazoo. Which they let her keep. So we have a whole collection of Most Annoying Woodwinds in the house.
The boy to the very left in the row behind Sarah is Ben, Joan's son! And there's Emily to the left in the front row, though she's grown some facial hair since lunchtime. Gotta watch out for that chili...
3 comments:
Wow, that is awesome! And it sounds like an experience that Sarah (and the rest of 'em) won't forget.
But I do have to say that we had a similarly involved project, the Fifth Grade Dig, and in 1984 or thereabouts Mrs. Captain's class was proudly represented by the fine archaeological spinnings of the mind of Yours Truly, who had to do all of her Dig project with viral hepatitis and barfing uncontrollably for three weeks and still got her project chosen anyway to be our class's ancient society.
Hmmmm I don't remember that! Sounds fun!
Maybe it was before your time. I think Todd's class did a Dig though. You would definitely remember it! Each kid had to create their own civilization and write this big paper about every aspect of daily life (which I did with my head in a garbage bag, thanks to Mom, who as you remember viewed sick days as days to catch up on homework and every extra credit thing you could possibly do). Then the class voted on which one to use for the Dig (yay Ali!) and then studied that culture and made artifacts that reflected it. Then the class buried them in a huge area on the lower field, and on Dig Day the three classes would swap dig sites, set up the grid, dig for artifacts, brush them, map them, the whole bit. The next week was spent analyzing the artifacts and trying to understand the ancient culture.
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