On October 20th, the 7th graders went on their field trip to the Capitol Building in Topeka and the Constitution Hall in Lecompton. They left the school around 8:00 that morning and arrived at the Capitol around 9:30.
The first thing they did was go through security and then met up with their tour guide. The tour guide started them off by taking them to the very top of the building. They had to climb stairs to get to every level. At each level, the tour guide stopped the students to talk about important events that took place while constructing the building project. Some of the students were scared climbing up the stairs but they all ended up making it to the top. Anna shared that they noticed there was a name signature towards the very top of the dome. The tour guide wasn’t sure how it got there but mentioned that there was a time period when the building was not supervised so it could have happened then.
After descending from the top of the capitol building, the class was split into groups to tour various rooms in the building. They saw murals and statues of different influential people in Kansas.
The 7th graders then went to Lecompton where they had the opportunity to reenact the Lecompton Constitution. Tate and Tyson were chosen to be the representatives. Tate represented pro-slavery while Tyson represented the free-staters. They ran with their flags and if the audience agreed, they would yell out, “Ha Zaaaaalll”, but if they disagreed, they would yell, “Boooooo”. The 7th graders really enjoyed having the chance to act out a real-life scenario from History. Lastly, they learned that the Constitution Hall is the oldest wood frame building in Kansas still standing in its original location, and has the oldest cottonwood floor.
After the Capitol and Lecompton Hall visit, the 7th graders went to a nearby park to have lunch and play for a while before returning home. The 7th graders had a great time on their field trip and look forward to using their new knowledge in class!