Next month, we have planned a visit from Classrooms Past (http://classroomspast.com).

Children will be able to learn first hand about what many schools were like in 1913.  It was a time when there were no computers but slates and slate pencils, pens and ink.

Your child will be assigned to either a morning or afternoon session. We will explain to the children that they will be in a “role play”. Desks will be in rows and they will face the board. Boys and girls will be seated separately.

To add realism, we ask that you send your child to school on the day with a simple costume. Dressed, your students get so much more out of their “Colonial School”.

• For boys, wear long trousers or jeans with long socks. The long socks should be worn over the trousers. A shirt with or without a collar, and black shoes complete the picture.
• For girls, wear either a long dress or a skirt and blouse. Young “ladies” should remember not to expose their ankles

Food for the break and lunch can be in keeping with the era. Bread and cheese or bread and jam (no butter) wrapped in brown paper bag or “damp” tea towel and tied with string. No “poppas” but water or a soft drink.

A note will be sent home shortly with all the details of our incursion.

I would like to extend a warm welcome to the parents and children starting Year 2 in 2013.

For our Inquiry Unit in Term 1, we will be exploring the past and considering what history might teach us. In particular, we want to find out how the world might have been different for those who had their childhood in the 1900s. 

To help us, I would like to invite parents and grandparents of the children in 2P to visit the class for about 30 minutes and share with us:

• Where and when did you spend your childhood?
• How was the world of your childhood different or special?
• Can you show us one or two things from your past (an old toy, photograph, etc.)? 
  

If you think you would like to take part, please drop me a line with your name, phone number and the place and decade of your childhood. MP.