Early American one room schoolhouse living historical reenactment activities

Hello my friends of the Omschool! Have ever wanted to live in the olden days of American history? What if I told you I could "time travel" you back there so you could experience it? Here's a DIY guide for students, teachers and homeschool parents to create your own "One Room School House" experience. I created this Early American history unit 40 years ago! And I've been adding to it since in my museum docent role and historical re-enactor. It was designed around the living history or cultural immersion model.  Think Laura Ingalls and Little House on the Prairie. 

The original "day in a one room schoolhouse" in 1986 was held at Walden Green Montessori school. We dressed in costume, ate period correct foods and did lessons like they would have in a "dame school." Then I was able to elaborate on it, by renting a one room schoolhouse from our local Blandford Nature Center Interpretive history facility for our homeschool group. That's an extra special treat but you can just as easily do this unit as an in-school field trip in the classroom or outdoors at any park. For years, I did hosted a dame school at our Grand Haven "Feast of the Strawberry Moon" voyageur encampment. on Harbor Island. The lessons are adaptable. Here is the procedure to  set up a one room schoolhouse. 

Get parents/ homeschool families involved 

Alert parents that you are going to host a "day in a one room schoolhouse" activity. Request volunteers to help you create an environment, share artifacts and prepare an Early America picnic lunch. I invited some teen girls in our homeschool group to create roles as teachers. 15 was the age many young women began teaching. And they couldn't be married back then so onboarding teenagers is perfect. The girls totally loved the experience. They did a fantastic job, coming up with things I hadn't thought of. And, if you're homeschooling, it gives the older kids a chance to participate as teachers not just students. 

Set a specific time period and region

The one room schoolhouse will look different depending on which place and century you set it in. If you're going back to the 1600s before the revolutionary war, the "school" will be a "dame school." These were taught by women out of their homes and just for very young children, usually not boys. Women weren't considered intelligent enough to educate boys back then (😕). The more traditional one room schoolhouse (like Laura Ingalls taught in) was the Monitorial or ladder school. This one works the best for a large group. Here's a breakdown of education systems in US history. 

Colonial–Early 1800s Informal tutoring and Dame Schools (private/home-based).

1840s–1850s Transition to Graded Elementary Schools; birth of age-based classes.

1870s–1890s Establishment of public High Schools as the next tier after primary school.

1920s Inclusion of Kindergarten and Junior High as common rungs on the ladder.

Create period correct costumes 

Assign each student to make his costume. Kids can get as fancy as they want but simple is fine too. I The simplest are overalls and flannel shirts for boys. Girls can wear long skirts and blouses and straw hats if available. They can go barefoot if parents allow. Or you can get more creative and make drawstring breeches with white muslin chemise-style shirts gathered at the neck. Tell students that these would be worn as nightgowns too, by boys and girls.  A simple skirt pattern is to sew a "channel" of folded over fabric and run a ribbon or string through it. They don't even need to sew it. Just pin in place. Remind them that there was no money to waste and clothing was about function rather than style (despite the romanticized version you see in "period dramas.") Here are some free printable historical costume patterns. 

Lunch Menu

This was the favorite part next to recess! I left this to the parents and they did a bang up job! In my first one room schoolhouse I aimed it toward a New England school and served clam chowder and cornbread with fresh seasonal berries. You can also serve  

• hard-boiled eggs
• round sourdough bread
• homemade butter (made in school as a lesson plan, see recipe below)
• crackers (hard tack)
• cheese
• pickles
• apples
• nuts that grow locally
• jerky 

Beverage would be water with dipper but remind kids that many illnesses are waterborne and grow in impure water. So often times people turned their water into a mild ale to sanitize it. (the kids version could be ginger ale or "sarsaparilla." Serve lunch with cloth napkin, checked tablecloth and mason jar glasses. If kids can procure metal lunch pail that would lend authenticity. 

What to bring to school 

Along with a lunch, children should bring a quill pen or twig pencil, 10 little pebbles, "journal" or slate and hornbook (if desired). Here are instructions for creating each of these. 

• How to make a quill pen. These are quite frustrating to use so warn children ahead of time. 
• Make twig pencils. These are easier to make and use. Just burn the end of a twig and when the charred part runs out, stick it in the fire again. 
• Make ink from berry juice or from soaking walnut hulls. Here are some DIY ink guides. 
• Make simple journals using brown paper grocery bags as parchment paper. Fold a cover. Insert several pieces of paper bag, punch holes and tie with twine. In times past, vellum was used but vellum is freakishly expensive. 
• How to make a hornbook. These are reusable books you can write on and erase.
• Slates were commonly used, too. Make slates by spray-painting chalkboard paint on pieces of wood. 
• Coal scuttle "chalkboard." Abraham Lincoln did his homework by scratching on a coal scuttle. You can simulate this by rubbing chalk or ashes on a flat piece of wood. 
• pebbles will be used for counting and math

Teaching the lessons

If you will have teenagers teach, assign each girl a subject and time slot that she will teach that subject. Each lesson should be simple and last no longer than 15 to 20-30 minutes. Popular early American school subjects included: 

• penmanship
• spelling
• nature study
• drawing, geography,
• arithmetic
• civics
• dictation
• recitation
• reading.  Some ideas we've used include:

Here are some sample lessons. 

  --copy a proverb from Poor Richard's Almanack by Benjamin Franklin (here's a copy to download and print free)

--trace a map. Here are free printable early American maps. 

--figure sums using rocks  

--make butter (basically you just shake whipping cream in a glass jar till it forms a butter mass, but here's a full how-to recipe guide to making butter with kids)

--explore a fur pelt, taxidermy (stuffed) animal

--draw a tree

--recite a poem (The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge or Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's The Wreck of the Hesperus" were commonly used.)

Common textbooks used were in early American schools included

• the McGuffey Readers series. 
• Spencerian Handwriting/Penmanship 
• Ray's Arithmetic
• Harvey's Grammar
• History/Civics Under God. You don't need to purchase textbooks if you can borrow from your local library or historical society. 

Teacher costume

 Teachers should create a simple historical costume for the day. Local history museums or community theater guilds may have costumes to rent or borrow. The costume can be as simple as a long skirt, blouse, bonnet and shawl. The girls who participated in my one room schoolhouse events had a wonderful time preparing their lessons and creating their costumes. It was a great experience for all of us.

One room schoolhouse schedule

Write the schedule on a chalkboard. Begin the day with the pledge of allegiance, prayer and a song. "Good Morning to You" was a popular one. 

Early American games

• Tag and Running Games: Tag, hide-and-seek, and "snap the whip" were popular, requiring no equipment.
Rolling Hoops: Children rolled wooden or metal hoops with a stick, often racing them.
Battledore and Shuttlecock: A forerunner to badminton, played with wooden paddles and feathered shuttlecocks.
Quoits: A ring toss game using rope, leather, or metal rings, similar to modern horseshoes.
Ninepins: A, Dutch-imported, table-top or ground bowling game with nine pins

Visit this link for games kids played in colonial America. Here are some more early American games suggestions. 

Recycled trash gift crafts for kids to make for Earth Day

Hello my friends of the Omschool! Do your students hate to write? That might be because they've not had enough practice. Writing skills are so important and yet often overlooked in curriculum given our digital communication age. One way I found to encourage writing is to help kids write with a flourish, so it becomes a treat instead of a chore. Today in the Omschool, we're making flower and feather pens! 

Now you know Teacher Omi, she always designs lesson plans with an eye toward eco-friendly and penny pinching. So we'll make our craft projects from reused, repurposed and recycled trash as much as possible. And just in time for Earth Day, Wednesday April 22, 2026, we'll weave these weave these activities into ecology lesson plans based. AND, with special holidays nearly upon us, these recycled trash crafts for kids make excellent gift crafts. Use this guide to design lovely flower pens, feather pens and decorated vases. Give gift crafts for Mothers Day, Fathers Day, Teacher Appreciation Week, birthdays, Grandparents Day (hint, teacher Omi would love one!) and any holiday that involves gift-giving. You could even make them as baby or bridal shower, wedding or graduation open house party favors. 

Recycled trash crafts for kids: Flower pens and feather pens (called quills) 

It's more fun to write when you have a fancy flower or feather pen! These make great gift crafts for loved ones. And they do double duty as interactive crafts for kids. Best of all trash crafts are cheap or free and lots of fun to make! Even the youngest can have success making recycled trash crafts for kids. You will need only three things: 

• a new pen or pencil
• a silk blossom or large plume feather (available from discount, dollar or craft stores). Or, save flowers from old floral arrangements for recycled trash crafts. Silk roses, carnations, daffodils and tulips are nice large single blossom flowers. Choose an ostrich feather or large plume for the feather pen. 
• strong tape. Floral tape works best for this craft project as is is both sturdy and easy to tear. . 

How to make feather or flower pens

• Trim blossoms and feathers to a point on one end so they will attach more smoothly to the pen or pencil.
• Attach flower or feather to the upper quarter of the pen or pencil, by winding tape around both. Begin just below the bottom of the flower (feather) and continue overlapping around for about two inches up the stem. You can leave the eraser exposed.

 Create a bouquet of flower pens using several different kinds of silk flowers. 

Recycled trash crafts for kids: Decorated vases 

Create decorated vases from recycled trash to place flower or feather pens in. Find any recycled trash glass jar or bottle. Remove label and scrub clean. To make decorated vases, paint jar with stained glass or window cling paint. Both of these dry clear bright colors!

❁ Omi (Grandma) Tip

You can also use paint pens. Kids love to color with these! My grandson Moses adores the set he received from us. You can even get paint pens designed specifically for very young children (sometimes called paint sticks). Our granddaughter Juno received some for her 3rd birthday and they've made craft projects so much more user-friendly for her age!

❁

Here's a link to some paint pens I bought from Amazon for Moses (10). Here are the paint sticks  designed specifically for very young children, like we got Juno.  

❀ ❀ ❀ ❀

Make your own window cling paint by mixing tempera paint and school glue or by adding food coloring to glue. Then water it down a little if it's too tacky. 

Decoupage decorated vases for kids to make as gift crafts

Decoupage was popular when I was young (a lot time ago). This craft involves painting a glue wash over paper scraps and applying them to recycled trash containers. Clear plastic or glass jars work best. You can try it on a sturdy cardboard container too. Just don't let it get too wet. 

• You can buy a special product called Mod Poge (boy does that take me back!) Or you can just water down white school glue, with half water and half glue. 
• Place glue in a recycled trash aluminum pie plate. 
• Tear recycled trash wrapping paper, tissue paper or any lightweight paper scraps into inch square pieces. Or you can cut out individual images and affix those. 
• Dip paint brush in glue wash and brush it on the back of a scrap of paper. Attach to jar. Apply another layer of glue wash over the paper. Continue doing this over the entire jar, overlapping edges to cover jar.
• Create different colors by overlapping primary colors. Layer red, blue and yellow to make the secondary colors - purple, orange and green. As your decorated vases dry, the tissue paper will become more transparent and the glue will give it some shine. It takes on a sort of stained glass window look.

Decorated glass jar vases. 

Here's a link to an article I wrote with instructions on how to make other recycled trash vases from glass jars. You can use these crafts projects for kids as ecology science lesson plans. They are just the ticket for Earth Day activities. Or have children make these crafts to give as Mother's Day gift.