The fourth grade students in Mrs. Dustin' s and Mr. Libby's classes recently completed a study of Bowdoinham' s history. There were several different kinds of activities that the kids did.These will be described here and some links are provided to give you a chance to see examples of student work.

Each child was required to work on a project that centered on some aspect of the town's history. These ranged from a skit of the bank robbery of 1866 to models of different things that happened in town. Most kids worked by themselves, but a few worked with another student. These were first presented to the class and then to the rest of the school and again at evening that showed most of the unit activities. Many are displayed on the project page. See more student projects at this link.

There were several other activities that kids worked on during the unit. One was a pamphlet that showed several things about town. The kids chose a logo for the town on their cover, listed some important things from history with short summaries, draw a map of town, advertise for local businesses, a list of local events, and special places to visit. These were displayed for the evening celebration called Bowdoinham Night.

Another activity was to interview two residents of town. They gathered data about how long people had lived here, why they came to town, what they liked about living here and what disadvantages there might be to living in a small rural town. Students tabulated data, some of which was displayed at Bowdoinham Night.

The kids each did two maps of Bowdoinham. The first showed mostly physical features including rivers and streams. The second focused on political features. These were displayed also.

Two activities were displayed on the school web page. The first was a map of the historic sites in downtown Bowdoinham. This was developed after a local historian walked the kids around the area and filled in the history of the sites. The second was a game called So, You Think You Know Bowdoinham. This featured questions written by the fourth graders.

Students developed a time line of local and state history from 1600 to 2000. Many added the approximate date of there project to the Bowdoinham time line. These were put up on the wall for the night of the performance.

Information on individual parts of the unit is available upon request. Contact Lance Libby or Stephanie Dustin at Community School.