Friday, May. 09, 2008

Charleston Elementary 'miners' pan for gold

Fourth-graders experience Gold Rush era with hands-on actvity

On a small patch of land in California, clusters of miners hunched over pools carefully sifting through water and mud. Back and forth the water flowed through the pan repeatedly until someone a camp away yelled good news.

"I found one," said the echo which prompted others to lift their heads up from their pans to view the shiny gold piece in the lucky miner's hands.

"I want to go to recess," an exasperated Wyatt Cotta, 9, said afterwards.

Cotta was one of the fourth-grade students at Charleston Elementary School who were transported back to the 1800s gold rush Monday at the campus where recess was not an option and hard labor was endured by everyone who wanted to strike it rich.

The day-long Miners' Day was the culmination of the students' studies of the California Gold Rush, which is required learning in the fourth grade. Throughout their studies of the era, spanning 1848-1855 teachers engaged students in several classroom activities such as sing-a-longs to "Oh my darling, Clementine."

"She is lost and gone forever..." sang Alexis Romero, 10, inviting his camp gold diggers to join in.

Romero and his fellow miners had been out in the sun all morning searching for spray-painted gold nuggets sprinkled among fool's gold (beans) in a mud-filled inflatable pool with their bare hands.

They had sold all their pans to competing camp but had plenty of nuggets in their pockets.

"The bartering, they came up with that all on their own," Michele Trent, fourth-grade teacher, said.

Two years ago Charleston Elementary's two fourth-grade teachers, Trent and Marylou Calcagno, came up with Miners' Day in which children spend time experiencing the gold rush.

They traveled to California, or in this case the far corner of the Charleston Elementary campus, via wagon. They staked claims, panned for gold and used that gold to buy very expensive supplies at a miners' store set up.

"We are going to have stew for lunch with beans and sarsaparilla," Hollie Hudson said, adding if this were real gold rush, there would be panning all day and sometimes all night. "Back then they would sing a lot of songs (to keep busy) they would also have parties at night and dance."

Trent said the fourth grade classes spent quite a bit of time learning about the gold rush that by the time pans were handed out, students knew what to do right away.

"Miners' Day just makes everything come alive," she said.

Enterprise reporter Minerva Perez can be reached by phone at (209)388-6565 or by e-mail at mperez@losbanosenterprise.com

Enterprise reporter Minerva Perez can be reached by phone at (209)388-6565 or by e-mail at mperez@losbanosenterprise.com