The School of the Ozarks second grade class enjoy the 10th annual Prairie Days in the Star School at College of the Ozarks.

On Tuesday, March 6, the School of the Ozarks second grade class enjoyed the 10th annual Prairie Days in the Star School at College of the Ozarks. 

Prairie Days offered second graders the opportunity to experience a day of education similar to what happened at the School in its first days, nearly 120 years ago. They wore prairie dresses and bonnets and participated in activities such as a spelling bee, arithmetic on slates, and grammar in a turn-of-the-century one-room schoolhouse. 

“I started Prairie Days my second year at S of O,” said Chrissy Martin, College of the Ozarks alumnae and associate professor at School of the Ozarks grade school. “A student asked if we could go to the Star School one day. My mind began to wander, and I began to dream. After many conversations, Prairie Day was born!”

Students put on prairie dresses and bonnets and experience a day of education similar to what happened at the School in its first days, nearly 120 years ago.

There was a lot of planning that went into making this day possible. Over the years, Martin has added and eliminated activities (depending on the schedule) throughout the week to fully immerse students in as many prairie day activities as possible. Students learned how to sew buttons onto pocket bags with needles and thread and to churn butter to eat on pancakes. They wove baskets with the help of College of the Ozarks student workers at Edwards Mill, learned about the production of sorghum molasses, and enjoyed fiddle music from various musicians. 

Chrissy Martin, College of the Ozarks alumnae and associate professor at School of the Ozarks grade school, reads the students a book of nursery rhymes as told in the late 19th century.

“I hope students come away with a sense of the grit and determination that has made our country what it is today,” said Dr. Brad Dolloff, dean of School of the Ozarks. “We also hope our students learn how a firm reliance on God in a personal relationship through Jesus Christ enabled those early pioneers to endure through faith as well as pray for and receive miraculous intervention from our Heavenly Father.” 

“It was out of the ordinary, fun spending the day like they would have,” said Lucy Snyder, fourth grader. “We went from churning butter for an hour to eating pancakes with the butter. We went to the museum to see the houses they lived in and tools they used to manage fields; we got to use chalkboards and clotheslines and eat little potatoes. It was amazing!”
 

Students participate in activities like a spelling bee, arithmetic on slates, and grammar in a turn-of-the-century one-room schoolhouse.

S of O provides a classical Christian education with a vision of developing citizens of Christlike character who are well-educated, hard-working, and patriotic. This includes an effort to use original source documents to study the past, rather than reading a modern historian’s viewpoint. The second-grade students read novels like "Little House in the Big Woods", by Laura Ingalls Wilder, to learn what life was like during the late 19th century in America. Afterwards, the students spent a day in Mansfield, Missouri, to see where Laura and Almanzo Wilder lived in their final years and where Laura wrote the "Little House" books. 

Jenna Hutchenson, seventh grader, plays the fiddle for students during recess while they learn to jig.

“I hope that from this experience students fall in love with literature and appreciate the importance of learning from the past and how the past shapes our future,” Martin said. “Developing students who are well-educated does not simply mean from seat work alone. Students need to experience as many wonderful things as possible to create curiosity and wonder. Learning that STICKS!”

More About Star School

Star School No. 38 is a turn-of-the-century, one-room schoolhouse located just north of the Ralph Foster Museum at College of the Ozarks. It was originally located on the bank of Flat Creek downstream from McDowell, Missouri, in Barry County. The schoolhouse was received by the College in 1975. Because of narrow roads, the building had to be taken apart in sections before moving and was meticulously reconstructed beside the museum on campus. Dedication ceremonies were held on March 28, 1981, and four teachers who had taught at the Star were honored: Ben Stubblefield (five terms), Edna Berry Melton (three terms), Leta Thomas Chastain, and Ella Garris (taught in 1910) who was represented by her daughter. 

The Star is closed to the public for the season from Nov. 1 through mid-March (weather dependent.) The schoolhouse is usually adequately staffed during the summer, and it can be opened on a museum student worker availability basis at other times of the year. Inquire at the front desk in the museum lobby.