Third-Graders Make History . . . Text

Acacia Elementary School’s 104 third-grade students have produced a booklet on the city’s heritage as part of a social science and language arts lesson.

The 68-page pamphlet features illustrations they drew, copy they wrote in English and Spanish, and photographs they shot.

A student note about the project experience appears on page 4. It reads: “I feel smarter about Fullerton. . . . I will always have Heritage House and the Amerige brothers stuck in my head, and, now, I know more about Fullerton than all of Connecticut!”

The Amerige brothers, as noted under the Historic Buildings chapter, “started Fullerton on July 5, 1887.” Their old house can still be seen today in Amerige Park. Heritage House, which appears in the same chapter, is in the arboretum at Cal State Fullerton. The Victorian-style house once was the home of one of the city’s first doctors.

Acacia is the first of 50 schools in California to complete the bookmaking project sponsored by Thomas Bros. Maps Educational Foundation in an effort to promote pride in the students’ hometowns.

By the year 2000, about 600 schools will have produced pamphlets, said Beth Cantrell, executive director of the foundation. Pages from each pamphlet will be published in a book celebrating California’s sesquicentennial (150th anniversary), she said.

The pupils who participated in the Acacia project learned how to put together their publication by reading about the city’s past, touring the area and getting tips from professional photographers, writers, editors, historians and artists.

The booklet will be printed this summer and distributed in the fall.

The work made the pupils enthusiastic about learning history, geography, grammar and language, third-grade teacher Kay Krausman said.

“They have taken charge of their own learning. This hands-on lesson has turned them into experts on their town,” Krausman said. “The kids now are walking around town pointing out historic buildings to their parents, saying ‘That’s the Dean building’ and ‘That’s the Chapman building.’ ”

Students said they were fascinated by what they learned. “I didn’t know that the Bastanchury ranch had sheep and hogs or that there used to be an ostrich farm here at this school,” 9-year-old Brenda Campbell said.

Felicia Granados, also 9, said, “This book is great. It was really fun to do, and I’m going to look back at it when I get really old before I die and pass it down generations.”