Going 'Old School' in Room 4

 We all got quite a shock when we arrived at school this morning. We were met in the classroom by Mrs. May, who sternly told us to hang up our bags and go outside until the bell rang. She was dressed up as a teacher from 100 years ago and she was being very strict.

When the bell rang all of the classes had to to line up outside their classroom in two straight lines. You had to have your hands at your sides, your eyes forward and you were not allowed to talk. The teachers came passed and they made children pull up their socks, straighten their collar and take their hands out of their pockets. When everyone was standing correctly we filed silently into our classrooms, where all of the desks had been set up in straight rows. The boys sat on one side of the room and the girls sat on the other. Mrs May made us all put our hands out flat on our desks and she came around and inspected everyones finger nails. Anyone with dirty finger nails had to go out and clean them quickly, and two girls with nail polish were sent to Mrs Holgate to remove it 'at once'

 After Mrs May had called the roll we had to take out a sharp pencil and we began to do our handwriting. We didn't use the whiteboard or Activ board or the computer. All of our lessons today were written up on the blackboard (that we hardly ever use!). We didn't put the lights on in Room 4 today either - because 100 years ago there would have been no electricity for lights. 

 Our handwriting today was harder than usual, it was all done in 'copperplate cursive' - which was even quite hard to read. We all had to do our very best work even though we didn't really know how.

 We took time and care as we copied.

 When we were finished we had to sit silently at our desks and wait for everyone else in the class to finish. We had to keep our arms folded and our mouths closed. It was a VERY quiet day in Room 4.

 After Handwriting we did Dictation, which we had never done before. Mrs May read out a lot of information about what school was like in the olden days and we had to write it down as neatly as we could. We had to try to spell the tricky words and add in the correct punctuation without leaving out any words. It was very tricky! If you didn't hear it or couldn't remember it, then you were in trouble because we were not allowed to ask for help or talk.

 Finally it was time to get outside for PE - although even that was very different. We didn't need to get changed or put on sneakers (and we weren't allowed to.) We had to stand outside in our rows and we stretched, up, down, across. Then we ran on the spot, then we marched on the spot, then we lined up in our lines and we went back inside. That was it! That was PE over!

 When we got back inside we learned about 'there', 'their' and they're'. We had to recite the spelling of each word and then put it into a sentence correctly, using the correct word and then also spell it correctly. It was weird all reciting the same spelling words and it was bit scary being put on the spot be Mrs May because you were scared you might get it wrong.

 After morning tea it was reading time. Each person in the class was given a 'Janet and John' reading book from the 1930's. We read the whole book together as a class, all reciting the words out loud at the same time. When we were finished reading it we made word families for some of the words that were in the book, like 'look', 'come', 'down' and 'at.'

Then it was time for arithmetic. We had to copy and complete some sums from the board. They started off easy, but then they got very hard very fast. We had to solve them in our heads.

After we marked out sums we learned our times tables. We had to write down our 2, 5, 10 and 11 times tables and then we recited them over and over again. Some of us actually got really good at not needing our paper to help us remember them all.

It was very hard work sitting still and being quiet all morning. It was strange to stay in our desks the whole time without moving around for anything. Mrs May was VERY strict, which she didn't like very much, she was pleased to be able to be kind again at lunch time.

Tomorrow we are going to be writing quick writes about our morning, so we will publish them to the blog and you can see what we all thought of our 'old school' experience.