Name: Scarber, Pam
E-mail: pscar@cswnet.com
Topic: How to incorporate local history into your Arkansas History
class
Grade: 5th
Time: 1-2 week unit
Ark. Hist. Framework: 1.1.5, 1.1.6, 3.1.4, 3.1.6, 3.1.7, 6.1.5
Objective: Students will gain a better understanding and appreciation of
their local history through researching and then providing reenactments about
the history.
Set: Do a K-W-L chart with the students about what they know about their
town or community's history. This can also be done with the school's history if
the school is made up of multiple communities.
Materials: Old school yearbooks
Interviews with local people who have lived in the area the longest.
Courthouse records
Old newspaper articles
Local historical quarterlies
Geneaology records
Old photographs
Key Terms: oral history, primary source, secondary source, archives,
geneaology, family Bible
Key Facts: Each town or community can be traced through interviews, old
documents, and pictures. This history can then be tied in to the broader
history of Arkansas.
Questions that could be answered when doing this research include:
When was the town incorporated?
How many people lived there when it was incorporated?
Where did it get its name?
How many schools were in the area?
When did the schools consolidate into the one it is presently?
How many businesses were first in the town?
Where is the oldest cemetary?
Did the town have a night watchman?
When were public utilies first installed?
Where was the first post office? Who was the postmaster? How
did he deliver the mail?
Did a train go through your town?
Was there a local fair/pageant/festival? What is its history?
What are the oldest buildings in town that are still standing?
Were there any WPA/CCC buildings, bridges, etc., built in the town?
What were some of the pranks played by children?
Activities: Students should interview their grandparents,
great-grandparents, or any of the older generation they can about what the town
and school were like. Research can be done at the local library and in
historical quarterlies to find articles concerning their towns. Copies of
old newspapers with articles about the town can be obtained for the students to
study. Examples of newspaper article subjects to look for might include
bank openings, store openings, deaths of prominent citizens, or courthouse
news.
Closure: Students can use the information they compiled to write a play
about their town's history to present to the community.
Students could also have a living history day during a local festival in
the oldest part of town to tell the story of its history.
A history day can be held at the school. Other grade levels would be
invited to see the students reenact the history.
Assessment: Students will write an essay on the topic of what they thought
was most interesting about their town's history.
Resources: Potts Inn Board of Directors
Pottsville Historical Association
Pope County Historical Association
Pope County Library System
Pottsville City Council
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