As part of our social studies class we are reading Hidden Riches, a true story about a Mennonite family from the Palatinate (modern-day Germany) which packed up a big trunk and braved the Atlantic Ocean to settle in Pennsylvania in the mid- 1700s to escape persecution. As the story goes on, I’ve been bringing in items to go along with it.
One of the first was the trunk. This was my college graduation present from my mother, and I treasure it. I put pots, pans, seeds, and a tool in it just like the people in the book did when they packed their trunk for their move to the New World. The students dug into the trunk and found all the goodies. Then in the story they ate brown bread, so we all sampled pumpernickel bread as part of class the next day.
Today we read about how the new community built the family a log cabin with a fireplace in the middle and beds in the loft. I was trying to figure out how to turn our classroom into a log cabin, buy I think I’ll save that for another year.
