Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Tales from the cave

We're beginning a new unit at school. Part of the grade 2 curriculum is to compare and contrast how life was in the late 1800s to what life is like now. There's a perfect chapter book called "Matt and Jenny" that follows the adventures of, you guessed it, Matt and Jenny, as they find themselves transported back to the Vancouver of 1886. Before I began reading the book today, we did the math to find out how many years ago that was, and then I asked the kids what they thought life was like a-waaay back then, just to see what they'd say. The results were hilarious!

What do you think toys were like in 1886?
- they didn't HAVE toys back then, Miss Hillary!
- sticks and rocks
- toys made of mud


What do you think transportation was like in 1886?
- they rode goats! (J. - seriously! That was the first thing out of their mouths! What IS it with goats???)
- they didn't have cars back then.
- no, they rode motorcycles!


What do you think school was like in 1886?
- in a cave!
- they went to the beach and instead of paper they wrote with sticks in the sand
- in a building with walls and no roof
- they didn't have to go to school! There was nothing to learn
- ... I wish *I* lived in those olden days!


Oh, how those rugrats crack me up!

1 comment:

Paul said...

Haha.

Your city is so young, I guess the kids are trying to imagine the whole of human history compressed into a few hundred short years.

I'd be really interested to hear their stories of how the dinasours used to roam my city for its first few centuries.