Barton House 2014

We were lucky to have two beautiful fair days for our visit to the Barton House this year.

Students dressed in historically accurate attire and packed traditional lunches for our trip. I'll bashfully admit my own hoop skirt got caught in the bus as I gracefully tried to exit. Historical reenactment isn't as easy as it looks. Luckily my students did an amazing job (as always) representing our school.

Our students began their field trip by visiting the black smith. He spent a portion of his morning explaining the art of metal work and created a metal rose for the students.

Next the children revisited the one room school house where they learned the history of one of Rupert's first schools. Children sat in the desks and listened to our guest speaker about the early days of education.

After school let out,  our students visited the historic exhibit building. Students learned about broom making, chair caning, and wood work from friendly artisans. One gentleman share with us some historic find from outhouses around the state. He even let us keep an ink jar dated from around 1870.

After our historic tours, it was the student's turn to present their knowledge of history. Students took turns teaching fair visitors how to play historic games. Students played the game of graces, created yarn dolls, classic outdoor games, and with wooden toys such as Jacob's ladders to name a few.

We thank the Barton House for giving us the opportunity to have such a special day at the fair!

Students who liked studying this time period should consider visiting the following PA Locations with Family:

American Civil War Wax Museum -- 297 Steinwehr Avenue, Gettysburg, PA

American Civil War Wax Museum presents a concise history of the Civil War era.

The Asa Packer Mansion Museum -- P.O. Box 108, Jim Thorpe, PA

The Mansion was the home of philanthropist, and railroad magnate

Edgar Allan Poe National Historic Site -- 532 N. 7th St., Philadelphia, PA

The poet lived in this house from 1843-1844....

Harry Packer Mansion -- 1 Packer Hill Rd., Jim Thorpe, PA

The little Victorian village of Jim Thorpe, PA 

John Harris/Simon Cameron Mansion -- 219 South Front Street, Harrisburg, PA

Built by the town's founder in 1766 and remodeled in 1863 by Simon Cameron

Lincoln Room Museum -- US 15 Business Route & US 30, Gettysburg, PA

The Wills House is where Abraham Lincoln stayed in 1863 and completed his Gettysburg address

Round Hill Exhibit Farm -- 651 Round Hill Rd., Elizabeth, PA

The small working farm includes the 1838 brick farmhouse....

Tara - A Country Inn -- 2844 Lake Road, Clark, PA

This 1854 Greek Revival mansion is decorated with antiques and period furnishings

Warren County Historical Society -- 210 4th Ave., Warren, PA

The society is housed in an 1873 Italian Renaissance house. 

Yarn and Clothes Pin Dolls, a Folk Tradition (lesson 2)

Last year at the Barton House, students taught fair visitors how to make corn husk dolls. This year we thought we try something new and make our dolls out of yarn. For centuries, dolls have been crafted by mothers for their children, using a variety of household materials.  In the   days of the early  American  settlements, girls  and  their  mothers crafted dolls of ordinary household materials such as wooden spoons, whittled  clothes-pegs, yarn, buttons, rags, socks and cornhusks.   Later,  fabrics,  felt  and    handkerchiefs became widely available and were used for doll-crafting. 

These  historical  folk  dolls  were  often a little girl's best play-friend.  A child could pretend her folk doll  was carrying on   a  conversation,  crying,  laughing  or  helping  out  with household chores.   

 Students will teach visitors to the fair how to create their own yarn keep sake.

Barton House Learning Objectives:

1. Children will learn how games and toys have changed from the past through today.
   
2. Children will learn about their families’ members’ lives when they were younger.

 History Extension
Sample of how Dolls have changed through history
Share with your child, your favorite childhood memories and keepsakes while growing up.

Expressions/Slang of the Victorian Era

As the students prepare for the Barton House living history trip, we had a class discussion on popular slang or phrases that people of the time period might have said. Thousands of words and phrases in existence in the late 1800s have drifted away or changed their forms. Just as many new phrases have been added or are being added into our modern day English language every day.  

Some of favorite Victorian Slang/Expressions:

Butter Upon Bacon: Extravagance. Too much extravagance. “Are you going to put lace over the feather, isn't that rather butter upon bacon?”

Chuckaboo: A nickname given to a close friend.

Gas-Pipes: A term for especially tight pants.

Start a Jolly: To lead applause.

Students created various classroom skits to showcase these expressions. Classmates had to guess what each student was talking about and how it related to modern day expressions.

(Rain Napper Skit)

Students were not sure how these Victorian phrases ever fell out of fashion, but we propose bringing some back!


More Sample Terms
http://www.victorianlondon.org/words/slang1870s.htm
 More Victorian Terms

19th Century Toys (Lesson 1)

Our first field trip this year will be to the Barton House. All gifted students in K-8 grade are invited to join us for this event. Please contact me via my school email if your student did not bring home a permission slip!

As we prepare to do this living history event, students are studying life in America around 1855. Today's lesson involved making a toy from back then, the thaumatrope. A thaumatrope is a toy that was popular in the 19th century. A disk with a picture on each side is attached to two pieces of string. When the strings are twirled quickly between the fingers the two pictures appear to blend into one due to the persistence of vision.   Examples of common thaumatrope pictures include a bare tree on one side of the disk, and its leaves on the other, or a bird on one side and a cage on the other. They often also included riddles or short poems, with one line on each side. Thaumatropes were one of a number of simple, mechanical optical toys that used persistence of vision.

Students will be teaching children visiting the fairgrounds how to make these fun toys!

Lesson Extensions:
Animation in Cave Art?
Persistence of Vision

Seating Charts, Secret Codes, and History Lessons

Our first gifted classes have been rather fun. Students were assigned seats this year. Each of their names were written in a secret code. It took the class under 3 minutes to figure out exactly where to sit! Great job kids.

Information about Diagrammatic or Pigpen Ciphers

A diagrammatic cipher, used by many children in school, substitutes symbols for letters instead of other letters. This system is, in essence, the same as the letter substitution system, but it's easier to remember than 26 randomly picked letters. It uses the tic-tac-toe boards and two X's as shown below.

The exact origin of the cipher is uncertain, but records of this system have been found which go back to at least the 18th century. Variations of this cipher were used by both the Rosicrucian brotherhood and the Freemasons, though the latter used it so often that the system is frequently called the Freemason's cipher. They began using it in the early 18th century to keep their records of history and rites private, and for correspondence between lodge leaders. Tombstones of Freemasons can also be found which use the system as part of the engravings. One of the earliest stones in Trinity Church Cemetery in New York City, which opened in 1697, contains a cipher of this type which deciphers to "Remember death" George Washington's army had documentation about the system, with a much more randomized form of the alphabet. And during the American Civil War, the system was used by Union prisoners in Confederate prisons

Even though it looks like undecipherable outer-space alien text, this would take an arm-chair cryptologist only about 10 minutes or less to figure out. Why? Given enough ciphertext, certain patterns become obvious. Notice how often the empty four-sided box appears: six times out of a total of 29 characters or about 20% of the time. This would immediately indicate that the empty box was almost certainly the symbol for "E," the most frequently used letter in English. Other letters can also be determined by their frequency and by their association with other nearby characters (see "Frequencies"). Almost all substitution ciphers are open to this kind of analysis. 

BARTON HOUSE 2014

Dear Parents/Guardians,

I am happy to announce that we will be continuing the tradition of living history at the Barton House on the Bloomsburg fairgrounds this year.  Students in grades K-8 will have the opportunity to research and learn what it was to be a child in the late 1800s. They will dress up in period clothes, play games, and hear stories from the time period. Our unit will culminate with a visit to the Barton House in Bloomsburg, PA. Students will interact with visitors that day teaching them all they learned about life in antebellum America. Parents, Grandparents, and friends of the family are encouraged to come visit your student while they prefer their living history.

Students in Grades 2^nd- 5^th grade will attend the fair on Tuesday September 23rd*

Students in Grades 6^th-8^th grade will attend the fair on Wednesday September 24^th. Please note attached schedule. The Barton House does not operate if it is raining out. If the weather forecast does not look good for one of the days, we will ask that all students come on the day that does have sunshine. We would call parents the day before to make them aware of any changes.

Students are asked to wear period style clothing and pack an appropriate bagged lunch for the day. Students will NOT have permission to visit any attraction at the fair during our visit at the Barton House. Students will be escorted at all times to the bathrooms during the day.  We plan to leave school at 8:30 and leave the Barton House at 2:00 to return in time for afternoon dismissal.

If you have any questions or interests in helping chaperone this event, please email me at school!

We look forward to a wonderful day reliving history!

Mrs. Kozlek

Ambassador of Art and Peace

It is said in Nigeria, “Art is frozen music.”  We learned to appreciate this sentiment,  when we had a very special classroom visitor.

Yesterday we were very honored to be visited by the United Nations Ambassador of Art from Nigeria, Ibiyinka Alao. Ambassador Alao's artworks are characterized by bright colors and they express many themes including hope, joy, peace and love - a reflection of his West African roots.

Ibiyinka preformed a presentation to our 3rd through 6th grade students at Southern. Students learned songs in his native African Tongue and how to dance. Alao shared his artwork and meaning between each piece.

In between his presentations, he did multiple workshops with our middle school gifted students. The students created a piece of artwork and writing piece.  Mr. Alao also took time to answers student questions, and discussed his world travels.

Our greatest lesson learned from the ambassador is to be like the oyster. As you know, a pearl comes when a bit of sand goes into the oyster. In its discomfort, in its suffering, the oyster secretes a substance that covers the sand and which eventually becomes a pearl. If we pour love and respect at people that might irritate or annoy us, we might turn them too into pearls.  This global message of  caring is one that will stick with us.

Thank you so much for teaching us about Nigeria, Art, Music, and humanity! We will treasure your visit with us always.

If you wish to learn more about Ambassador Alao, please visit his websites below:
1. http://www.ibiyinka.com
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibiyinka_Alao
3. Ambassador Alao