One-Room Schoolhouse Day at Your School

Cool clothes, fun food, and rad rules in the comfort of your own classroom.

In this lesson, children will plan a special day at school to experience and share the one-room classroom. Children will compare and contrast clothing, lunch carriers, foods and schoolhouse rules100 years ago with those of today. They will learn about changes in lunch carriers over a chronological period. They can even make their own lunch pails if desired.

Curriculum Alignment:
8.1.3.A: Understand chronological thinking and distinguish between past, present and future time (time lines; continuity and change).
8.1.3.C: Understand fundamentals of historical interpretation (difference between fact and opinion; multiple points of view).
5.1.4.A: Examine school rules and consequences.
5.1.4.B: Explain rules and laws for the classroom, school, community, and state.
5.2.4.A: Identify individual rights and needs and the rights and needs of others in the classroom, school, and community.
5.2.4.B: Describe the sources of conflict and disagreement and different ways conflict can be resolved.
8.3.4.B: Locate historical documents, artifacts, and places critical to United States history.

Students will be able to:

• Describe the different articles of clothing that school students wore.
• Identify past and present lunch choices and describe a student’s lunchbox from the late 1800s and early 1900s.
• Be able to show a chronology of lunch pails to peers.
• List rules and discipline in a one-room classroom.