FOR RELEASE: Thursday, February 19, 2009
University Student Brings Arkansas History to Kindergartners
Jennifer Schaffner, education coordinator for the Arkansas Secretary of State's Office, brought a tub of rice as part of her lesson on Arkansas history for kindergartners at Reagan Elementary.
Jennifer Schaffner explains what a Dutch oven is to kindergartners while Michelle Sherwin looks on.
Children pass around Arkansas flags Schaffner brought for them.
Do you know what the Arkansas state insect is? How about the Arkansas state beverage? Did you know there’s a state historic cooking vessel?
Kindergarten students at Reagan Elementary School in Rogers can tell you all this and other information about their state, thanks to the effort of Michelle Sherwin, a University of Arkansas student studying childhood education. Sherwin plans to graduate in May with a bachelor's degree in elementary education offered through the collaboration of the College of Education and Health Professions, the university's Global Campus and NorthWest Arkansas Community College.
Sherwin is doing her student teaching at Reagan and chose Arkansas history for her senior project. She wanted to invite a representative of the state Secretary of State's Office to visit the students but was having trouble making contact by e-mail. So, when Sherwin and her husband were visiting Little Rock for a conference, the thought came to her: Why not just walk over to the State Capitol and see if she could arrange something?
The result was that Jennifer Schaffner, education coordinator for Secretary of State Charlie Daniels' office, traveled up from Little Rock in January to provide a 40-minute interactive program for each of the four Reagan kindergarten classes. Presentations, including travel, are free from the secretary of state's office. The office also has a Web site www.soskids.arkansas.gov that provides resources on Arkansas history.
Schaffner started by passing out small Arkansas flags to the 5- and 6-year-olds, describing the symbolism of the flag's design. She then let them sift through a plastic tub of lamprolite, a volcanic rock in which diamonds are found, that came from the Crater of Diamonds State Park near Murfreesboro in Pike County. The state park is the only diamond-bearing site in the world that is open to the public.
Students ran their fingers through another tub, this one containing the state grain - rice - and hefted a heavy, iron Dutch oven - the state historic cooking vessel - high in the air. They passed around a white tail deer antler representing the state mammal. Schaffner showed pictures of some of the other symbols. She gave each child a drop of honey in honor of the state insect - the honeybee - and showed them a film of the state beverage - milk - being collected in a dairy operation.
The children warmed up quickly to Schaffner, and she called several by name as she kept the lesson moving.
Sherwin, who has an associate's degree and previously worked as a preschool teacher, knew from her childhood that she wanted to work with young children.
"My mom has a picture of me at about 12 holding a cousin on each hip," Sherwin said.
She knew the children would benefit from having someone come in to do a hands-on lesson about Arkansas history. Earlier that week, she brought in Pody Gay, the education coordinator for the Shiloh Museum of Ozark History in Springdale, to expand the children's knowledge of their state.
"That's what this age group needs," Sherwin said. "If you break a lesson down into small parts, they get it. I have seen the kids connect with their history and their state."
Mary Christian, Sherwin's mentor teacher at Reagan, said the two work well together.
"I enjoy having Michelle in my class," Christian said. "I can step back and let her take over without concern. She's very good with the children."
At the close of the lesson, Schaffner gave the children white paper bags, ink pads and stamps with the Arkansas symbols to decorate the bags. The kindergartners happily passed the stamps around to make their own creations until it was time for them to move to another room and students in another class to come in to take their turn.
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Contact:
Heidi Stambuck, director of communications
College of Education and Health Professions
479-575-3138, stambuck@uark.edu