BUCKLAND — About 90 fifth graders from the Mohawk Trail and Hawlemont regional school districts recently took a field trip to the Wilder Homestead on Ashfield Road to experience glimpses of what life was like in the late 1700s.
Students from Buckland-Shelburne Elementary, Colrain Central and Hawlemont Regional schools, as well as Sanderson Academy, have studied the time period in American history from early colonization to the Revolutionary War and the formation of the American government.
Students explored the Wilder Homestead’s historic buildings and attended sessions, led by educators in colonial-period dress, that featured activities that were a part of daily life for settler homesteaders, such as cross-stitching, metalwork and an oxen pulling. Students also learned Narragansett and Mashpee Wampanoag histories from that time period through corn husk doll making and storytelling in a traditional conical wigwam.