Project Box
Alexandra Targansky
Description
Sagamore Hill National Historic Site is where the home of Theodore Roosevelt,
the 26th president had lived for a time period of his life. This is a great place to plan a
fieldtrip for a third grade classroom. This site provided an example of a 19th century
house and can also be tied in to other content areas. This field trip can also be tied into
science because it has forested areas, meadows, salt marsh and beaches, which are homes
to many turtles, frogs, mammals and insects. The main purpose for this field trip would
be for Social Studies, but if wanted the teacher could incorporate areas of science into the
field trip.
This field trip is a great learning experience to introduce an important person and
time in history. Taking your classroom on this trip will allows the students to understand
life at the turn of the 20th century and how it was experienced through the Roosevelt
family. They will also get to understand the daily life of a family from this time in history
and why this house at Sagamore Hill was so important. They will get to understand how
his family lived in a time period of advancement of technologies in the house to make it
possible to move the seat of executive power from Washington DC to Oyster Bay (where
his “ Summer White House” was located). Objectively, this field trip offers many
objectives for the children to come out with. Some examples of objectives are, the
students will be able to identify the time that Theodore Roosevelt was president and when
he lived at this house. They will also be able to describe some of the events in the daily
life of the president and members of his family and become familiar with the settings of
the home and how it could have possibly affected living in it. This is important because
children can further this understanding by being able to relate it to events of the daily life
of their self and members in their families. Students will also importantly be able to
understand and give several examples of Theodore Roosevelt’s accomplishments and
how they affect us today. These objectives are important because they are able to fit into
the curriculum and standards that are grade appropriate and are also able to be evaluated
or tested. Students will be able to achieve a better knowledge by being able to connect
the past to visiting a historic site and rather then just learning about how people lived,
they are able to actually see it. It offers us to learn about different inventions and how
they may or may not have changed up until today and to see how the people lived in
order to get an understanding for how we live and who we are.
The learning experiences from this field trip fit into a few standards of the Social
Studies Framework. One of the standards it fits into is 1.1 – Students will demonstrate an
understanding of significant events and themes in United States History. With this
standard, children will be able to explain the significance of events surrounding a
historical figure such as Theodore Roosevelt. Another standard that can be reached is 2.3
– Create various forms of written work to demonstrate an understanding of history and
social issues. Under this standard, students will be able to write one or two paragraphs
descriptions of historical events, people or places using relevant social studies vocabulary.
This standard is important because it can show the teachers how well the children
developed an understanding about something that they learned while on the field trip.
These standards help tie the field trip into the curriculum because it is connecting the
field trip to their knowledge and what they understood from going there.
With relating the site to the students, the historical site is know for their
educational program for children that offers “ Junior Ranger activities”. The activities
teach the children about history, nature, geography and many more. These programs are
interesting for the children and enable them to work together with other students and even
adults, so they can also in turn learn something new. In this packet are rules and
instructions about how to complete this hunt. The hunt consists of different questions that
they will find to answer to through out their trip at Sagamore Hill. This packet will help
the children with what they will need to be asked for on the field trip. The other main
thing that is offered for the children is the tour that they children will be given. The tour
will be given through the view of a family member of Theodore Roosevelt. This will give
the children more of a feel for how someone of this time may have felt growing up in this
house, or during this time period.
The name of this site is called the Sagamore Hill National Historic site. Its
address is 20 Sagamore Hill Road Oyster Bay, New York 11771. The website for this site
is http://www.nps.gov/sahi/index.htm. The main phone number for the site is 516-9224788 and the fax phone number is 516-922-4792. The contact person for this site can be
reached through email; the email address is SAHI_Reservations@nps.gov. For
scheduling a trip to this area there are some important things that you need to know.
They accept group reservations for groups between 15 and 55 people. Reservations are
first come first serve and you can inquire a group contact person via the email listed
above. You may also be able to talk about specific details of your trip with a staff
member by calling the number listed above as well. There is nowhere for the students to
purchase lunch, although there are picnic areas so if the trip will last all day, then have
your students bring bagged lunches. There is handicap parking at the visitor’s center. The
restrooms are handicap accessible. The home is not handicap accessible so those who are
unable to enter watch a video, which is narrated by Theodore Roosevelt’s daughter
showing the interior of the house. You are able to rent a wheelchair with a form of I.D as
a deposit, the renting services are first come first serve. There are rides in electric
vehicles available for people with mobility problems, they can hold up to 3 visitors at
once. For planning this trip reservations will need to be arranged for transportation. Not
only will the teacher need to make reservations with the site for a visit, but also they will
need to make arrangements with the bus company that the school uses to make sure that
transportation is possible. An important arrangement that will need to be made is
permission from the student’s parents/guardians. With enough time before the trip,
teachers will need to send home a permission slip that describes everything about the trip
to make sure that the children are able to attend. Another important arrangement to take
care of is obtaining chaperones for the field trip. The site requests that there is an adult
chaperone at a one for every ten students ratio. For preparing for this trip, the teacher
should teach one unit on Theodore Roosevelt, ideas are available in the curriculum packet
that I provided. It is also important to bring your class here on a schedule and plan to
spend at least 2 hours at the park, with the tour lasting about 50 minutes.
This field trip will consist of most likely half a day, between transportation, the
activities at the field trip and lunch. If the class is going on the field trip solely for the
social studies purpose that the fieldtrip may not be as long as if the field trip was also for
other areas of content. The teacher will determine the length of the field trip. Class field
trip sessions are offered on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday at 10:30 and 11:30AM. On
this field trip, children will need to bring a bagged lunch and any other personal items
that they may need for their health of accessibilities. An important thing that can either be
brought by the child or held onto by the teacher is an epipen.
Before going on the fieldtrip children should learn background knowledge about
Theodore Roosevelt and the time period in which he lived. Coming into the field trip with
previous knowledge allows the students to enhance what they already know. This also
allows the children to engage in engagement of schema because they are connecting the
known to the new to understand more things regarding this topic. Coming into the trip
with some prior knowledge will only enhance the children’s ability to learn and will open
the doors for more opportunities at the trip.