Situated in almost plain sight amongst the hustle and bustle of modern life is Nashua’s one room school house and the attached cemetery. It sits almost forgotten, but with some advanced scheduling, it’s an amazing field trip opportunity and probably one of our favorites even out of the numerous ones we’ve been on in the last few years.
A Peek Into The Old Days: Nashua’s One-room Schoolhouse:
- Kids get to sit in on a “class” and are introduced to the elements and functions of a one room schoolhouse.
- A teacher that has come has prepared and in costume!
- The ability to ask questions, touch, and explore so many things within the room.
- The ability to respectfully walk through the old cemetery and examine graves and their headstones.
- 2-3 hours of educational fun.
With a group of homeschool friends (some of them dressed up in costumes), we piled into the one room schoolhouse for what was one of our least expensive, yet most fun excursions in years. (Updated to add that my children still talk about the things they did that day and it has been over a year since we visited).
Children are given the ability to write on slate boards, practice cursive, and explore recitation as a class. The teacher divided up the class into boys on one side and girls on the other and also humorously explained classroom dynamics from pinning a girl’s hair to the wall as a form for discipline to wearing a dunce cap.
Everyone got to sit at an antique one room schoolhouse desk and they had name plates of real students from the historic records of Nashua, NH of people that actually got their education in that exact room.
They each got to bring home a little replica reader and what a note home might have looked like (that had a cute little phrase on it to report to the parents they were doing well in school).
There were discussions about when school happened and why the timing was when it was and who might not show up and why — basically a great understanding for the more agricultural society of the previous generations.
We had lunch outside in the cemetery area; we were simply asked to be polite and respectful of the grounds with no running.
Key topics to plan to talk about at the One Room School House of Nashua
- Find the oldest headstone in the cemetery.
- Find the photo of the last graduating class of the Nashua schoolhouse.
- Looking at the grave markers, which one is most unique or interesting?
- Discuss the different flags of the U.S. over time and which ones would have flown there.
- Why would the teacher have the class split by gender?
- Was there any other order for how children were to sit such as age?
- How did the calendar dictate who was in school and who wasn’t?
- What was the average age that a child wouldn’t attend anymore?
One Room Schoolhouse Field Trip Prep
Audiobooks, picture books, etc that are available on Amazon* are linked and we earn from qualifying purchases.
Books with a setting inside of a one-room schoolhouse:
- The Secret School* by Avi
- Seal Island School* is set in Maine
- The Year of Miss Agnes* is such a great book and set in a one room schoolhouse in Alaska.
- For younger kids, School* is a wordless book set in a one-room schoolhouse.
Other Destinations and Resources to consider:
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