The kids were asked to come to school dressed 'in period' (think of Laura Ingalls and the gang). They also had to bring lunch in a tin pail and bring a tin cup to drink water (fetched from the "well").
I say "field trip" because it wasn't your typical fun and ordinary field trip: the kids had to sit with their feet firmly planted on the floor and their hands folded on their desks and they couldn't talk out of turn and they couldn't get out of their desks for any reason. When they were dismissed they had to do it VERY orderly. They basically performed all the school activities, lessons and tasks that were performed / expected in 1889; and they had fun doing it. They especially enjoyed using the ink and quill to write in their copy book.
They would also have to raise their hand (of course) to use the 'necessary room' but the only similarity it shared with an 1889 outhouse was the fact that it was outside.
The schoolmarm has rung the bell and the children line up.
Drinking well water.
Tin pail lunch.
After lunch, they learned some fun games, played dolls and skipped rope.
Potato Sack Run. See the 'outhouse'?
Their favorite game was a game similar to Duck Duck Goose. All the children sit in a big circle and sing as one child, who is given a handkerchief, walks around all the children and drops it behind a child at the end of the song and chase each other etc. Super fun.
"A tisket a tasket,
a green and yellow basket,
I wrote a letter to my love
and on the way I dropped it..."
If you were naughty you were made to sit on a one-legged stool. Not easy.
(Ezra was merely demonstrating, of course)
Standing for the Spelling Bee.
What an educationally entertaining day!
