What would it be like to live in the Town of Brunswick over 100 years ago? That might be hard for some of us to imagine, but you can ask any child in Mrs. Croson’s 2006-07 second grade class what it was like and they can tell you!

Through their teacher’s expert guidance each child assumed the persona of a child who lived here during that time period. With the help of our elementary librarian, Mrs. Toomajian and through using authentic research techniques and artifacts the children examined the 1880 Census to find a child who lived during that time. The children located names, ages, occupations of the parents, names and ages of siblings and anyone else living with their family, such as grandparents, aunts, uncles or servants. They found out which of the District Schools the child would have attended as well. Each chosen family was located on the 1876 Tax map to find where they would have had their home.

In the ‘style of the day’ Mrs. Croson held a series of Bicentennial Sewing Parties bringing together adult volunteers to cut patterns, prepare the fabric for sewing and to sew the outfits together. Why? Each child wore an authentic period costume when they assumed their role as a History Ambassador for the Brunswick Historical Society’s Hometown Heritage Day celebration on May 19, 2007. Visitors to The Little Red Schoolhouse were treated to visits with these learned students.

Mrs. Croson has very effectively used the service learning model of teaching to integrate local history, geography, graphing/organizational skills, math, reading and writing into this project. Service learning enabled these children to use their school skills to serve their community. What better way to educate others than to actually become an historical figure and share what you have learned?