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Activities of the Past WHAT MIGHT FAMILIES OR CHILDREN DO DURING THEIR LEISURE?
Make a Fraktur!
Look closely at our Nash House Fraktur then design your own Fraktur certificate using our handouts as a guide.
Examples and historical background handout here.
Old English Calligraphy lettering and Fraktur sample here.
Oak Grove Cemetery Walk
What can we learn by exploring Oak Grove Cemetery? Use our map to locate notable Delaware residents. Design a 19th-century tombstone.
Link handouts here.
19th and 20th century Games
Recess was a part of the school day even in the 1800s. What might you play?
19th and 20th century games handout link here.
A Walk through Downtown Delaware
Delaware is rich in history. Take a walk through downtown Delaware and nearby streets. Read the historical markers (see map) and notice architectural styles. Draw your own building or city block.
Weaving
Early settlers wove their clothes and coverlets. First, sheep were shorn, wool was carded (cleaned), dyed, and spun into yarn before the yarn was woven into an item.
What can you weave and how do we weave?
Word Search More info.
Sheep, wool, natural dyes, and weaving information here.
Bicycle Tour of Delaware's Historical Markers
Ready for an adventure? Grab some friends and ride your bicycles on this tour of Delaware's historic markers. Can you find all 17 markers? Here is a handout that will guide your trip. Follow bicycle traffic rules and wear a helmet! Map. Markers are identified by red heart pins.
Teachers: Use this resource to help students synthesize their learning by writing their own historical markers. HERE
FAMILY, BIG EVENTS, AND HISTORY
Journal Writing
Do you keep a journal? Journals are books where you can write about your life, or in this case, things happening with your family. You can tell a story, write a poem, draw out an event, or paste papers like a letter or ticket stub. Any book will do. You can buy one or make one, in fact, bookbinding is an art. Talk with your family and tell your story. You might start by writing about what your family has been doing during the Coronavirus-19 Pandemic.
Suggestions on what to write, making your own journal, and historical diary entries are here.
From a diary during the 1918 Influenza Pandemic. by Violet Harris, 15 years old:
" It was announced in the papers tonight that all churches, shows and schools would be closed until further notice, to prevent Spanish influenza from spreading. Good idea? I’ll say it is! So will every other school kid, I calculate. … The only cloud in my sky is that the [School] Board will add the missed days on to the end of the term."
Sound familiar?
Apple Head Dolls
Imagine living in Delaware 200 years ago. What would you do during the day? Most likely, you would attend school and do chores to help your family. Sound familiar? What toys would you have? Pioneer children didn’t have a lot of toys and would use natural resources found nearby such as nuts, twigs, corn husks, corn cobs, wood, and gourds were used to create their toys. Native American Indians taught many early settlers how to make apple head dolls. One such example is the apple head doll. Let's make an apple head doll!
Letter Writing
Can you imagine life without telephones, email, or ZOOM calls? In days gone by, people communicated through letter writing. Have you received a letter or package in the mail? Opening the mail can be the best part of the day. If you wrote a letter, to whom would you mail it?
