Desiree dedicated her project for Missouri History Week to her grandmother Fran Eickhoff, who passed away last year. Eickhoff was a Route 66 booster and supporter of Cuba’s Route 66 enterprises. See May 2009 Blog “Before the Murals, there was Fran.”
Cuba, Missouri fourth graders know their history.
On Friday, May 15, Viva Cuba Members Jill Barnett and Jane Reed joined two busloads of Crawford County R-II fourth graders and their teachers on a bus tour. The Viva Cuba members narrated the stories behind the murals as the big yellow bus toured the town along the Route 66 corridor. While they were at the school, the members enjoyed seeing some of the students’ Missouri History Projects.
Viva Cuba provided the school a written curriculum on each of the murals that the classes had already studied. so the students had a good basic knowledge about the murals and Cuba’s history, including the coming of the railroad and the importance of Route 66 to the community. Jill and Jim Barnett also donated complimentary copies of the book Moments in Cuba’s History to each of the students.
Since students had studied the murals, transportation, and the Guinness World Record Largest Rocking Chair before the tour, they displayed their knowledge in some of the dioramas that they had built for their Missouri History Week projects.
The students were attentive, knew how Cuba got its name, the meaning of sesquicentennial, and other facts about Cuba’s history. The Viva Cuba members were impressed with both the students’ behavior and their knowledge of their hometown.
Students board the bus for their narrated mural tour.
The students were particularly interested in how Cuba High School graduate Chip Lange had played a part in the Civil War murals when he was a high school student and was pictured in one of the mural panels. (See April 2009 “Young people and the murals blog) Lange was scheduled to speak to the students the next Monday on Civil War activities in Cuba.
At the end of the tour, Viva Cuba members invited the students to someday become Viva Cuba members and join them in beautifying Cuba.
For Cuba 4th graders, history has stepped out of the history books and onto the streets of their town.
Viva la Cuba!
Dylan featured Route 66, the murals, and the big rocker in his display.
McKayla featured the story of aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart's visit to Cuba in her project
[…] Read “Cuba, Misouri fourth graders show-off their history” here. […]