Your Class Visit to Morton School


Morton One Room School Historical Museum


Morton School Museum

Your Class Visit to Morton School !
(A Typical Morton Class Day Schedule)



Students Arrive on the Bus at about 9:30 am
(The time of arrival can be adjusted to suit your time frame.)




The students are greeted by Our School Marms on their arrival. They are asked to form a line at the rear entrance to the school and our school marm explains how students long ago had to "Make Their Manners" upon entering the school house. The students then enter the building and participate in opening exercises lasting about 10 minutes.

These exercises are derived from One Room School class programs dating back 100 years.

As a group the class:
Reads a Bible verse from the blackboard,
Recites the Lord's Prayer,


Recites the Pledge of Allegience to the Flag,
and sings "America"
(Our program is historically authentic, but also entirely voluntary.)




9:40 am
One of Our School Marms will present a very short school history including:
What was it like to attend a one room school ?
What facilities and supplies were available ?
What were the students like ?
What was the class routinue ?
What about school discipline ?
What books were used ?



Where did they get their drinking water ?
What did the students have for lunch ?
What were the games and toys that were popular?



10:00 am
Reading, Writing, and Spelling Demonstrations

We'll be using the recitation bench and "blab" school techniques as they were widely used during the period we are recreating.


"Their stories were pretty good !"


The class will be divided into groups, and using a rotating method, each group will use their desks, the recitation bench, and writing tables to gain an understanding of how a large number of students of differing grade levels were taught in the
typical single room environment.




Small group activities = lots of fun and learning too !



Recitation Bench (reading)
The Schoolmarm presents each new word (defines if necessary), which the students repeat and spell together. The group reads aloud together, a story that has been selected from one of the McGuffey Readers. A brief discussion of the story follows and if time allows, and depending on the age of the students, sentences in the story may be used to point out correct punctuation, capitalization, and grammar.



"This is different, and it's fun to see how they did it. "



Writing Table Activity (penmanship)
The students will take their copy books (supplied) to the table. They will dip stick pens into bottles of ink and use them to copy "The Golden Rule" in their books. They will also practice the alphabet (upper and lower case) in either cursive or manuscript.

Desk Work
Students will read the assigned story out loud at their own pace (blab school). They will write the new words from the story in their copy books and practice new words on their slates. They may look through their book and read other stories quietly.



"Well, their spelling words aren't much different from ours".



10:45 am
Spelldown
The whole class participates using words from the previous reading.


11:15 am
Math

Students will be given examples of oral story problems and they will all participate in a continous math problem.


Slates will be used for all the calculations.




11:30 am
Lunch ,,,(bring your own)


"So, did you get some neat stuff in your lunch too ? "


and afterward, a choice of Games !

The games could include:
"London Bridge is Falling Down"
"Annie Over"



"The Maypole"



"Drop the Hanky"
Or inside games if the weather is bad...




12:30 pm
Science, Geography, and History

The schoolmarm will demonstrate how these subjects were studied by all the students despite such a wide range of student ages and skills.





The techniques will include:
Experiments,
Demonstrations,
Memorizing,
Pictures & Diagrams,
Dramatizations,
Shared Books,
Maps & Globes




1:00 pm
Craft Work
Students will participate in the construction of a period craft.




Types of crafts that may be taught include:
Samplers,
Autograph Books,
Board Games,
Candle Making,
Paper Folding,
Stenciling,
Rope Twisting.



Students will take their craft with them when they return to the bus.





1:45 pm
Clean-Up
Summarize and prepare to leave.

1:55 pm
Class Group Picture
Outside before boarding the bus. (inside if the weather is bad)

2:00 pm
Dismiss to Bus



To schedule a class visit please email us.



Or write to us at:

Morton One Room School Historical Society
Post Office Box 148, Shelby, Ohio 44875