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3rd grade ice harvest
TGS 3rd Grade Harvests Ice at Stonewall Farm on February 10, 2010
The third grade at The Grammar School took a field trip to Stonewall Farm in Keene, NH, a not-for-profit working dairy farm that offers educational workshops throughout the year. On a snowy February morning, each student had a chance to cut a 20" thick ice block from the pond, pull the chunk up an inclined plane, weigh it on a spring scale, and finally carry the 12-20 lb block to a pile. In the process the students applied their knowledge of simple machines and life in 19th and 20th century New England.
The trip built on the students’ yearlong study of life 150 years ago. Teacher Linda Kosiba noted that in the fall they had visited the stonewalls and cellar holes of the former settlement of Howeville, in Grafton, and they also had spent a day at Stonewall Farm experiencing daily farm life in the 1800s. As several students remarked about the winter workshop, “It was exciting because we got to use some pretty cool tools, and using the saw and the breaker bar made us feel like we were in the 1800s. Ice harvesting is hard, but fun!”
