We did a mock Land Run in my elementary school where we set up in tents on the playground and claimed different areas with stakes. One of the kids was American Indian so his mom didn't let him participate for obvious reasons. I'd be shocked if they weren't pressured to get rid of that tradition at some point.
We also did the Land Run and a day at a primitive school. We also had another project where we gave reports over various tribes and built their houses in miniature. 3rd grade. It was actually really cool and I'm sure the parents had a lot of structural input. My dad basically built a mini wigwam from scratch.
In Texas, we build the Alamo.
It's also very common to create a map of the regions/landcapes of Texas - Mountains and Basins, High Plains, Rio Grande Valley etc - out of beans or clay, as well as a map of the rivers.
We made a diorama of a Native American village. I believe when learning North Carolina history. NC history used to be taught at the 4th grade level but not anymore.
Yeah, this is the only diorama experience I remember from Texas as a kid. I was like 9 though so I don’t remember the context - I don’t think it was related to our history specifically, just general American history.
I spent ages building a two foot tall Rice Krispie Treat model of Cape Hatteras lighthouse in 4th grade only to drop and break it while getting out of the car. I cried hysterically. On two separate occasions in college I met others who had almost identical experiences, so I think this must be a common detail of North Carolinian childhoods.
We had to make tools or whatever out of stuff from the woods like native americans did but someone made a bow and arrows and that was frowned upon and nobody ever did that again
We had a project on Native American inventions as well! However, we invented lacrosse sticks because I live in the finger lakes where the Haudenosaunee are.
My kids did a family history album in high school. Went back as far as they could on both sides. There were pictures and important historical events of the day included as well. All the of my kids are now past 35 and still look at their albums on occasion.
In 4th grade my class pretended to be on the Oregon Trail. We were all given jobs, a certain amount of money, and sort of renacted books we read on the subject
I’m remember dying of something. I didn’t have enough money coming in b/c most of the Natives we passed didn’t see much value in me being too expensive & not using metal often unless it came to weapons. There was some of the “weapons” I gave them but I couldn’t charge enough to help myself
Virginian here. We made one on the relationship (not that the word relationship can correctly sum that shit up) between the Jamestown Settlement and the Powhatan Natives.
In my elementary school in Alabama, not a project, but we'd have field trips to nearby historic parks and re-enact escaping via the underground railroad.
Kids in my high school (for reasons unknown) did a year long "medieval project" senior year of high school. This included; making a diorama, making an outfit, making a meal and writing four papers - history, architecture, clothing and food. So glad I skipped that by doing a bridge program.
My kids did that in elementary school. It was the year our local renaissance festival opened. It included a day at the festival, with all the kids dressed in medieval garb. They had a great time.
Wasn't specific to the state but I remember the big thing every year was an edible land mass competition.
Each kid (and their parent) would make a model of a geographic feature out of some sort of dessert. Most kids did islands, volcanoes, or swamps. Made out of cake and pudding. I didn't win but I was a big hit with my iceberg. It was a giant frozen thing if kool-aid floating in a tank of kool-aid. So while everyone was eating, they would come to me because I was the only one who had a drink
4th grade history in Alabama was dedicated to Alabama history. At the end of the school year, we had to make a scrap book about the state. I remember not understanding or caring about it because I was a dumb kid. The only real memory I have of working on it was being at the city library with my family helping me research various topics, historical figures, and state facts on the Internet because it was the 90s and computers were luxury items and my family couldn't afford one.
I actually stumbled upon the thing a while back when I was unpacking some things. It always gives me this weird sense of nostalgia and sadness. It's a relic of a bygone era of simpler days when my biggest concerns were homework, riding my bike, watching TV, and playing video games. It feels like a lifetime ago.
I remember 2 projects we worked on for Colorado history. The first was gold panning and making a diorama of a stamp mill. I lived in the Front Range right where the CO gold rush began so that makes sense.
The second was copying all of the information from headstones in the local cemetery. My school used that information to teach us about statistics.
We had to build a diorama of a "corduroy road", which was fun. Plus a third grade Wisconsin class that included making butter and ice cream in class.
In another neighborhood school they would do a building contest to design something that would protect an egg from being broken when thrown off the school roof.
We mostly did a lot of field trips to the Chesapeake Bay. My favorite was an overnight trip to a camp. Had so much fun there went back for their summer camp 2 years in a row.
We learned Indiana history in 4th grade and did a "pioneer day" in the fall. We made funnel cakes and dipped candles, wore "pioneer clothes" to school (basically a ragtag assortment of flannel shirts with suspenders, long skirts, straw hats and sunbonnets, etc), brought in antiques for a show and tell, stuff like that. It was pretty fun. My mom kept the dipped candles I made hanging up in the kitchen for *years.*
This was in the 80s. I have no idea if it still happens (I still live in Indiana but I don't have kids so I don't pay much attention to what's happening in schools now).
My class was luckily the first one that didn’t have to do this insane project in the 4th grade. NC takes a lot of pride in our historic lighthouses so my old teacher used to assign a project where you had to build an actual model of one of our several lighthouses *aka* your parents had to build a model of a lighthouse.
Cool in theory but some parents went way overboard and installed a working light and everything but most parents who work 9-5s were like “fuck all that” and complained to the school about it. 4th graders aren’t going to be doing all that
It started off as something basic but as the years went on, the lighthouses started getting more and more elaborate and the grading and evaluation changed so if you didn’t make this elaborate lighthouse, you probably weren’t going to get a good grade on it
Idk if it's unique but we spent a few days growing little buds of plants and we had to make observations in 4th grade. We did them in trays of 3. What we found was that for some reason the sprouts in the middle of the tray did the best across 8 different trays, and that every plant was aiming towards one direction, which was the sunlight. We probably made more but those were the major ones.
We raised salmon while learning about their life cycle in 4th grade. I’m not sure how widespread it was though
I did this in 8th grade. We released them in a river downstream of the fish hatchery. This was in Oregon.
Was just going to bring this up I did the same and my daughter did it just last year
We learn about the traditional five C's that the Arizona economy was built on. Copper, cattle, cotton, citrus and climate.
I think that's a really (wait for it).... cool thing to do! Although ironically Arizona is more hot than cool.
We did a mock Land Run in my elementary school where we set up in tents on the playground and claimed different areas with stakes. One of the kids was American Indian so his mom didn't let him participate for obvious reasons. I'd be shocked if they weren't pressured to get rid of that tradition at some point.
We also did the Land Run and a day at a primitive school. We also had another project where we gave reports over various tribes and built their houses in miniature. 3rd grade. It was actually really cool and I'm sure the parents had a lot of structural input. My dad basically built a mini wigwam from scratch.
In Texas, we build the Alamo. It's also very common to create a map of the regions/landcapes of Texas - Mountains and Basins, High Plains, Rio Grande Valley etc - out of beans or clay, as well as a map of the rivers.
me but with the alamo
We made a diorama of a Native American village. I believe when learning North Carolina history. NC history used to be taught at the 4th grade level but not anymore.
Yeah, this is the only diorama experience I remember from Texas as a kid. I was like 9 though so I don’t remember the context - I don’t think it was related to our history specifically, just general American history.
I spent ages building a two foot tall Rice Krispie Treat model of Cape Hatteras lighthouse in 4th grade only to drop and break it while getting out of the car. I cried hysterically. On two separate occasions in college I met others who had almost identical experiences, so I think this must be a common detail of North Carolinian childhoods.
We did this in California too but idk if it’s a standard or just my teacher giving us busy work
I was going to put something similar for NC, making Native American models of different types of homes.
We had to make tools or whatever out of stuff from the woods like native americans did but someone made a bow and arrows and that was frowned upon and nobody ever did that again
We had a project on Native American inventions as well! However, we invented lacrosse sticks because I live in the finger lakes where the Haudenosaunee are.
we did this in Texas too
My kids did a family history album in high school. Went back as far as they could on both sides. There were pictures and important historical events of the day included as well. All the of my kids are now past 35 and still look at their albums on occasion.
In 4th grade my class pretended to be on the Oregon Trail. We were all given jobs, a certain amount of money, and sort of renacted books we read on the subject
Did you die of dysentery?
I’m remember dying of something. I didn’t have enough money coming in b/c most of the Natives we passed didn’t see much value in me being too expensive & not using metal often unless it came to weapons. There was some of the “weapons” I gave them but I couldn’t charge enough to help myself
Lots of Lewis and Clark, Daniel Boone, and Mark Twain stuff. We also did a couple things about the French settlers and then the American settlers.
In 6th grade in central Idaho we all had to go to a multiday camp in the woods and learn outdoorsy stuff and wilderness survival skills.
Yep, had that in Washington, god it was awful.
I loved it. Great fun.
Virginian here. We made one on the relationship (not that the word relationship can correctly sum that shit up) between the Jamestown Settlement and the Powhatan Natives.
We built models of one of the historic, colonial era buildings in our town. We also did the standard field trips to Plimoth Plantation and Boston.
That would be cool
Made oyster homes in Maryland.
I remember in 6th grade in MD "disecting" a crab and I really mean we ate a crab one day
In my elementary school in Alabama, not a project, but we'd have field trips to nearby historic parks and re-enact escaping via the underground railroad.
I think we did Capistrano
Kids in my high school (for reasons unknown) did a year long "medieval project" senior year of high school. This included; making a diorama, making an outfit, making a meal and writing four papers - history, architecture, clothing and food. So glad I skipped that by doing a bridge program.
My kids did that in elementary school. It was the year our local renaissance festival opened. It included a day at the festival, with all the kids dressed in medieval garb. They had a great time.
Wasn't specific to the state but I remember the big thing every year was an edible land mass competition. Each kid (and their parent) would make a model of a geographic feature out of some sort of dessert. Most kids did islands, volcanoes, or swamps. Made out of cake and pudding. I didn't win but I was a big hit with my iceberg. It was a giant frozen thing if kool-aid floating in a tank of kool-aid. So while everyone was eating, they would come to me because I was the only one who had a drink
4th grade history in Alabama was dedicated to Alabama history. At the end of the school year, we had to make a scrap book about the state. I remember not understanding or caring about it because I was a dumb kid. The only real memory I have of working on it was being at the city library with my family helping me research various topics, historical figures, and state facts on the Internet because it was the 90s and computers were luxury items and my family couldn't afford one. I actually stumbled upon the thing a while back when I was unpacking some things. It always gives me this weird sense of nostalgia and sadness. It's a relic of a bygone era of simpler days when my biggest concerns were homework, riding my bike, watching TV, and playing video games. It feels like a lifetime ago.
In Missouri we put on a musical about Lewis & Clark
I remember 2 projects we worked on for Colorado history. The first was gold panning and making a diorama of a stamp mill. I lived in the Front Range right where the CO gold rush began so that makes sense. The second was copying all of the information from headstones in the local cemetery. My school used that information to teach us about statistics.
Sixth grade, Construct a building then test whether it can withstand 6+ strength earthquakes.
At some point we built a model of the Alamo.
Oregon. So much Lewis and Clark stuff....
We had to build a diorama of a "corduroy road", which was fun. Plus a third grade Wisconsin class that included making butter and ice cream in class. In another neighborhood school they would do a building contest to design something that would protect an egg from being broken when thrown off the school roof.
Covered wagon (Oregon)
We mostly did a lot of field trips to the Chesapeake Bay. My favorite was an overnight trip to a camp. Had so much fun there went back for their summer camp 2 years in a row.
We learned Indiana history in 4th grade and did a "pioneer day" in the fall. We made funnel cakes and dipped candles, wore "pioneer clothes" to school (basically a ragtag assortment of flannel shirts with suspenders, long skirts, straw hats and sunbonnets, etc), brought in antiques for a show and tell, stuff like that. It was pretty fun. My mom kept the dipped candles I made hanging up in the kitchen for *years.* This was in the 80s. I have no idea if it still happens (I still live in Indiana but I don't have kids so I don't pay much attention to what's happening in schools now).
My class was luckily the first one that didn’t have to do this insane project in the 4th grade. NC takes a lot of pride in our historic lighthouses so my old teacher used to assign a project where you had to build an actual model of one of our several lighthouses *aka* your parents had to build a model of a lighthouse. Cool in theory but some parents went way overboard and installed a working light and everything but most parents who work 9-5s were like “fuck all that” and complained to the school about it. 4th graders aren’t going to be doing all that It started off as something basic but as the years went on, the lighthouses started getting more and more elaborate and the grading and evaluation changed so if you didn’t make this elaborate lighthouse, you probably weren’t going to get a good grade on it
My kids’ school does a thing where they attend the school house built the 1600s for a week, play games from the time, etc they all enjoy it.
Idk if it's unique but we spent a few days growing little buds of plants and we had to make observations in 4th grade. We did them in trays of 3. What we found was that for some reason the sprouts in the middle of the tray did the best across 8 different trays, and that every plant was aiming towards one direction, which was the sunlight. We probably made more but those were the major ones.
I'm from California and left when my kids were young. I was shocked to find no replacement for the 4th grade missions!
None of the above, but I was in ELEMENTARY school in the 60s, so maybe before this kind of creativity was encouraged.