10:00 PM PDT on Saturday, March 15, 2008
By ERICA SHEN
The Press-Enterprise
A group of third-graders from Whittier Elementary School in Hemet spent Wednesday morning rolling acorns, riding a horse and scrubbing laundry on washing boards.
No, they did not teleport back to the 1800s. Rather, they were participating in the Third Grade Program at the Hemet Museum.
The Third Grade Program began about four years ago to teach students from local elementary schools about the history of Hemet.
Erica Shen / The Press-Enterprise Volunteer Joan Walters helps Whittier Elementary School third-grader Cobi Koger ride a practice horse as part of the Hemet Museum's Third Grade Program.
"The things they learn here mirror the third-grade history curriculum at school," said Marian Shellaberger, a volunteer and board member of the museum. "Plus I just think third graders need to know the history of their area and what's gone before them."
Among the group of about 30 students on Wednesday only a handful had previously visited the museum. Students were instantly drawn to the museum's wealth of artifacts, like the rusty lamps sacks hung from the ceiling and the faded photos displayed on the walls.
After a brief introduction to the local history, students were split into two groups. One went outside and the other stayed indoor for a museum treasure hunt.
The students who went outside were divided into smaller groups so they could rotate through a circuit of activities. The students learned about historic domestic life by scrubbing clothes on washing boards, seeing the evolution of the metal iron to the steam iron and listening to a talk about the area's earlier food such as wheat and acorn.
They also practiced how to ride a horse by straddling a horse made out of cardboard, learned how to weigh themselves with a traditional scale and bought souvenirs like shark teeth and magnifying glasses at the museum store.
"I would like being in the olden days because I think it'd be fun to work outdoors like riding horses or hunting," 8-year-old Juan Jaramillo said.
A museum volunteer manned each activity, and they enjoyed sharing their knowledge with the students. "I used to work at the local schools," said Al Willey, one of the museum's volunteers. "It's just so nice to come back and work with the children."
For the museum treasure hunt students were paired up, and each pair was given a booklet of 25 artifacts in the museum. The booklet contained the picture, the name and three possible uses of the artifact. Students had to find each artifact and read its description to choose the correct use listed in the booklet.
They pointed to the walls and screamed across the room.
"Oh, I know!" a third-grader said to his partner and pointed to an old dentist's chair.
"No, that doesn't look anything like it," the frustrated partner said.
Students stared at the fossils at the entrance of the museum, looked at the Native American basketry in glass enclosures and studied how the old saddles were fixed on horses.
"This is wonderful," said Kathleen Bates, third-grader teacher at Whittier Elementary School. "The value of field trips is that they can apply what they learned in class like reading skills out here."
Many students said that they were just happy to leave their classrooms and books behind for one morning.
"This is much better than being in school," 8-year-old Aurora Delgado said. "Much, much better."
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