4th Grade Indiana History Project

Today marked the culmination of several weeks of hard work for Kari, and well, let's be honest, the whole family.  A large part of the 4th grade curriculum focuses Indiana history.  Earlier in the fall the class took a field trip to Fort Ouiatenon to learn about the earliest settlers and interactions with the Native Americans.

Right before Thanksgiving the students were given the assignment to identify an Indiana advancement, landmark, development, or natural space.  Students were not allowed to pick a person as that will be the major spring project.  Kari narrowed her choices down and thoughtfully selected the West Baden Springs Hotel in French Lick.  (Her parents think she ultimately chose this because it has gambling and she thought it might interest them in visiting!)  While visiting the landmark was not a requirement of the project, we thought it would be best to learn about it first hand.  So, early on Black Friday morning we steered clear of the mall shoppers and headed South... for three long hours.

Upon arrival to the cute Southern Indiana town, Kari and I headed straight away to the gift shop to sign up for the hotel tour.  Not knowing what to expect, we discovered that the Keckler family significantly brought down the median age of the tour group by probably 30 years.  Kevin and I quite enjoyed the tour, the long and winding history of the hotel, and the secrets it holds.  Unfortunately, the tour was not geared for kids and the 90 minute tour could not have ended a minute too soon for K & B.  We persisted and Kari gathered pictures and facts for her project.

 Intricate tile work all imported from Italy.

 The atrium with hotel room windows overlooking the gathering spaces.

 The atrium dome is a national engineering landmark.

 Kari used the windows as inspiration for her project.

 Spurtle the gnome above the grand fireplace.

We might have made a short detour in Bloomington on the way home to do a little Christmas shopping for family members who made poor higher education choices.

The next couple of weeks saw Kari working on her project a little bit each night.  Finally, things came together and the entire 4th grade of six classrooms gathered in the cafeteria for a showcase for family. To our surprise, Kari ended up being the only one who had chosen West Baden.

 Behind each window Kari had selected a significant fact about the hotel and local area.  Overall, all of the kids did a really nice job on their projects and it was interesting to see what others had chosen.

Kari was right next to one of her best friends, Marley.