Our final social studies unit was on pioneers. This unit took up most of our final month. We had a special project to make a very creative log cabin along with an instructional flow diagram describing the process. Our teacher also organized two field trips as part of the study. The first field trip was to the Sarnia Quilter's Guild Quilt Show which was hosted at one of the local churches. The group had prepared a special presentation for our class. It started with reading a wonderful story about a quilt maker who helped a king learn to be generous.
Next the group toured the many quilts on display for the show. Our guide explained all the different kind of quilts, patterns, and stitches. The class was to keep a careful watch for the quilt patterns that they learned about from the story. But, the number one rule was.....Don't Touch the Quilts!
The kids also had the opportunity for some hands on work. They colored some of the many quilt patterns, learned to stitch, and made their own mini-quilt to take home. I did not expect this field trip to be as fun as it was. The Guild did a wonderful job of keeping the kids engaged and made things fun and interesting.
The following week we took our next field trip to Mooretown Pioneer Museum, which was just a short 30 minute bus ride away. The kids had an opportunity to visit a reconstructed pioneer village complete with homes of both the working class and wealthy, school, church, train stop, and general store. The kids all dressed the part. They learned to cook on an open fire stove and got a crash course in writing in cursive at the school.
These trips have been just one more reason why I love our school's curriculum. We had five field trips throughout the year and each one was not just fun, but also very educational and engaging. Each one related directly with the studies and applied a real world feel to each of the topics. This really helps the kids to better grasp the concepts.
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