Morning Lesson
Before break, we jumped right back into our local geography block with a walk to Rush Hospital. This opened up a presentation of Chicago’s journey from a small town to a big city. The land for Rush hospital was donated by real estate investor and Chicago’s first mayor, William B. Ogden. It was named after one of the signers of the Declaration.
The “mud pit” as it was called was initially viewed as a bad investment by the New York yankee, who quickly realized is first impression was wrong after half the land he purchased sold for 80,000 (a profit of 75,000). Chicago officially became a city in 1837- By 1860, its population exploded thanks to the building of the Illinois and Michigan canal, the railroad and entrepreneurial inventors like McCormick. At this time many immigrants from Germany and Ireland came for a better opportunity.
The class created a map of early Chicago. What we know as downtown was the sight of Fort Dearborn, a few churches, schools and even Hubbard’s Warehouse. Wolf Point had a few taverns and the first drawbridge connected Dearborn street to the north side of the river. Our amazing city exploded with innovation and became a central hub of the midwest. In addition to creating a map, the class was asked to create a persona of an early Chicagoan. After character development, they were asked to write letters to family and loved ones describing Chicago.
In the middle of the week, the wonderful city that was built up over night succumbed to a great fire. The story was told from a first person perspective and was the highlight of the week for many students. From the ashes, the second city was build and in less than 25 years the city was chosen to showcase the Columbian Exposition of 1893.
Today, the class heard about the great Chicago reformer who was born in a western suburb near Rockford one year before the Civil War began. She was 11 at the time of the fire; At an early age she saw what privileges money granted her. I could spend hours writing about all of her accomplishments and still not capture the grit, perseverance, and courage Jane Addams exhibited in her 75 years of life. The work of Jane Addams focused on slums of Chicago that existed right just a stones throw away from Urban Prairie. We took advantage of the wonderful weather to walk to the Hull House.
Classroom Words for Friday:
-reform
-library
-exposition
Earth Day: April 21st
Urban Prairie will be celebrating Earth Day at school on Friday, April 21. One of our Earth Day activities is to spruce up Arrigo Park. Every year we help the park district keep the Arrigo trees healthy by mulching. Its a great way to serve the neighborhood and the park we use so often.
Practicalities:
- Clothing: Students should wear working clothes on this day that can get messy. Jeans, hiking shoes/closed toe shoes, and an old t-shirt work well.
- Gloves: Send gardening gloves labeled with the student’s name if you have them
- Jugs: If you happen to have gallon-sized ice cream jugs, send those along as well, as they are useful for hauling and spreading mulch.
- Helping hands: Interested in helping? Keep an eye out for an email from the school. Or I guess you could also just show up in Arrigo, ready to work, at 1:00pm