BROOKINGS – Some Medary Elementary School third-graders had the chance to see history come alive throughout November as part of third-grade teacher Lara Langelett’s early American settlers unit.
In this unit, students had the chance to learn about the hardships settlers faced as well as their successes, the settlement and development of the United States, and more.
Ten guest speakers from the community came to demonstrate how early American settlers lived in the 1800s. These people portrayed in costume or taught about: a homesteader from the 1880s, George Washington and the Revolutionary War, a Civil War union soldier, a laundress, a fur trader and tanner, whalers and scrimshaw art, a colonial school teacher, a dressmaker, Native American culture, and Meriwether Lewis, William Clark and Sacagawea.
Above, students Sarah Collins, Finley Hogie and Lorenzo Lopez learn how to wash clothes from laundress Gwen McCausland. Below, mentor teacher Jonathan Burger shows student Dayton McChesney how to dip his candle wick into hot beeswax to make a candle.
A $610 grant from DonorsChoose.org helped supply the books and materials used in this unit. South Dakota Agricultural Heritage Museum Director Gwen McCausland also helped supply materials.
