The third graders have been studying the history of our part of Western Michigan. Last Friday we had the opportunity to spend some time in the community learning about the people who came before us and what their life was like. We had a great day!
We started out visiting the cemetery of one of our local families. We recognized a lot of names from our studies in class! We made gravestone rubbings to remember them.




After that we visited the Tiffany House, a local museum that shows us what it was like to live around the year 1900.

Our wonderful tour guides explained what life was like in 1900. It was very different from the world we know.

The kitchens were different. Most people didn’t have running water. They had wood burning stoves so to keep the stove hot enough to cook, they had to keep adding wood to the fire!

They didn’t have tv, video games, or computers in 1900. They had to find other ways to entertain themselves. Here’s one form of entertainment, Thomas Edison’s Talking Machine. After listening, everyone agreed that we like what we have now!

We also looked at some more recent musical history. Most of us didn’t know what that large black circle our tour guide held up was. Then Jacob guessed it was a record for a record player. We had to turn the crank by hand to get it to play.

Our area has certainly changed over the years! Mr. Williams showed us the difference as we looked at pictures from the 1800’s, the 1960’s, and the 200o’s.

There was so much to see and do there so we can only show you a little on the blog. After we finished our visit we went on a walking tour of where old downtown used to be, then headed to the park for lunch and some time to play. Then we went back to school. All in all a great day!
Here are some more pictures from the day!
Third Graders, comment below. What was your favorite part of spending time in the community learning about the history of our town? Remember to leave a QUALITY comment. Parents, if you grew up somewhere away from West Michigan, can you tell us about your hometown? Guests, can you share with us something about the history of your part of the world? We would love to hear it!