Release Date 4/25/2005
For Immediate Release
Heather Brown 620-273-8494

Lower Fox Creek School Holds Class Once Again

Strong City, KS - On April 8 and 21, 2005, the Lower Fox Creek School came alive once again with the sounds of children more than 70 years after the last classes were held there in 1930. Second grade students from Chase County Elementary School started their day by walking, lunch pails in hand, through the tallgrass prairie to the school. Park ranger Pete Smith explained the importance of the prairie ecosystem along the way. The children arrived as the teacher, Chief of Interpretation Heather Brown, rang the bell to signal the start of the day's lessons. Taking their seats in the one-room limestone building, the students studied lessons in arithmetic, handwriting, history, spelling, and reading. Using slates and copybooks, the students went back in time to learn what their parents or grandparents may have experienced when they went to school. The day concluded with a hands-on geometry lesson using a nine-patch quilt design, paper, and paste.

Park staff and volunteers have developed full and half-day education programs geared especially toward second through fourth grade students. The lesson plans are adaptable to other grade levels as well. The Education Days program was developed so that children may experience a day in the life of a one-room schoolhouse with actual hands-on activities. Curriculum-based teacher's manuals provide the historical setting for the period with lesson plans using tools such as the McGuffey's Readers.

Teachers may contact Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve at (620) 273-8494 to reserve a date for their class. Education Days will be scheduled in the spring of each year. There is no charge for the program.

Located two miles north of Strong City on Kansas State Highway 177 (Flint Hills National Scenic Byway), Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve is open daily from 9:00 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. except Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years Day. For more information or to make group arrangements,
e-mail: tapr_interpretation@nps.gov or call the preserve at (620) 273-8494.

-NPS-