The Pony Express Arrives at School

On Wednesday, the students witnessed a special treat.  The letters they wrote were picked up by the Pony Express.  The local post office came riding in on horses, spoke a little about how deliveries ran long ago, and took letters from lucky students who got to place them in their saddle bags.  The letters were then hand stamped with a special Pony Express cancellation stamp and delivered through the current mail system.

In class we used this opportunity to expand on the information we read in the social studies curriculum.
First, we talked about different services and goods that are provided in our community including the contribution of postal workers.  Students thought about and shared what they would like to do when they grow up.

We discussed types of modern transportation, categorized them by land, sea, or air, and compared the way mail was transported in the past to the way it is transported today.  We learned what 'change' means and used the term in our comparisons.  We are thankful for technology and that today mail is delivered much more quickly.

I hope you enjoy the letter that comes to your home.  The process it took to get there contains a special piece of our history.  The letter itself is a directed group practice of the letter format written to the main character of this week's story from the reading curriculum, Minerva Louise at School by Janet Morgan Stoeke.

http://www.amazon.com/Minerva-Louise-School-Morgan-Stoeke/dp/0525454942

In the story, the hen takes a walk and finds a school.  Having never seen a school before, she mistakes everything she sees for something she has seen in her barn.  She even believes the red school to be a very big barn.  After reading the story, we made a chart showing what Minerva thought the objects she saw were versus what the students knew they really were.  She saw nesting boxes, but they were cubbies. We then used the chart to compose a letter to Minerva sharing what we knew the objects really were.

Here are the social studies standards that this unique experience helped illustrate:

1.4 Students compare and contrast everyday life in different times and places
around the world and recognize that some aspects of people, places, and things
change over time while others stay the same.
1.  Examine the structure of schools and communities in the past.
2.  Study transportation methods of earlier days.
3.  Recognize similarities and differences of earlier generations in such areas as work
(inside and outside the home), dress, manners, stories, games, and festivals, drawing
from biographies, oral histories, and folklore.

1.6.2.  Identify the specialized work that people do to manufacture, transport, and market
goods and services and the contributions of those who work in the home.

Special thanks to Mrs. M. for the photo.