2nd Graders Study the History of Arlington Heights!

The children are hard at work at their brand new social studies unit: The history of Arlington Heights!

We started off the unit thinking about our needs vs. our wants. The children were quick to realize the difference between the two! We talked about income and making sure to spend our money on the things we have to have to survive first: food, clothing and shelter. THEN we can prioritize the things that we want. We also talked about how/why it is important to save money in case of emergencies!

Then we started learning about the land in our area back in the early 1800's. The children discovered that the Potowatomi Indians were the first people to inhabit our area, until the settlers starting rolling in on their covered wagons! We read and learned about what a long, difficult journey it must have been to spend several long months traveling along a bumpy trail, bringing only the bare necessities along. The children "packed" their own covered wagons and wrote about the journey!

We are now learning about the first settlers who arrived in our area, which in the 1830's was first known as West Wheeling. The children have discovered the Miner, Kennicott, and Dunton families who made powerful early impressions on our town!  We are looking forward to our field trip next Friday to the Arlington Heights Historical Museum to deepen our learning even further!