Lotus Students Experience a Blast from the Past

Lotus Students Experience a Blast from the Past

Remember the old days of rotary phones and records?  Our second grade students don’t! 

            We recently invited the Fox Lake/Grant Township Area Historical Society into the second grade classrooms in order to show the students “antiques” like electric typewriters and record players.  The students were fascinated.   

While launching into our social studies unit about the past and present, the students became so excited when allowed to “show and tell” their parent’s toys and old cell phones.  Sharing that history with friends became a gratifying moment for them.  The children were so excited realizing and talking about the past that the Lotus Second Grade team invited the Fox Lake/Grant Township Area Historical Society into the school for an “in-house” field trip. 

            The Historical Society shared all sorts of pieces from the past.  It was phenomenal.  The students were able to observe all sorts of objects from our past: an old-fashioned iron, T.V. antennas, rotary telephones, manual typewriters, toasters and much more.  The president of the museum, Nancy Kubalanza, shared so much information from the past and she even allowed the students to interact with certain objects on display.  She spoke of the famous people from the Fox Lake-Grant area.  Did you know Billy Klaus, shortstop and third basemen for six major league baseball teams was born in Fox Lake?  The students were so thrilled to know a pro-baseball player was from the same town they are! 

Community field trips allow the students to see things first hand instead of just reading about it or viewing a picture from a book.  Although it was only a 25-minute “show and tell” from the historical society, the students and teachers were amazed at the pieces.  The students began asking higher-level thinking questions. The second grade team would once again like to thank Mrs. Kubalanza and her staff for such an outstanding field trip! 

            It was such an honor to have the museum come to Lotus.  Having the historical society provide cultural and historical information was truly an honor and a pleasure.  We are immersed with information about reading, writing, math, science and social studies.  Why, it was only a year ago we were learning to read fluently and with confidence.  Now we are reading fiction chapter books and nonfiction biographies. We are tackling science topics such as, matter and interdependencies of our environment.  In social studies we have learned about communities: rural, urban and suburban.  We have a great appreciation of the past. 

It is so nice to be supported by our home community!  Thank you!