Snowflake Elementary School

This is an early picture of Snowflake elementary school, perhaps when it was first built. In the background you can see the old Snowflake Academy established in 1888 by the Mormon church.  Most of the academies became colleges later on but this one was given to the school district and remained a high school with several more buildings added around it.  The elementary school was built on an entire city block. It has since been torn down.

Although this land looks flat, the northwest corner of the playground had to be built up and a fairly high yellow sandstone retaining wall held the dirt in place.  There was also a big culvert to drain water away from the playground.  It was big enough to play in.  I remember having "club" meetings in this culvert.  

Across the street was the Relief Society building or the cannery.  Part of this lot was used for a playground, too.  The above  picture was taken while standing on this extra playground.   I remember playing soft ball in warm weather and playing "Fox and Geese" in the winter on this cannery lot.  In the above picture there is a street in front of the school, but since it is dirt, you can't distinguish it very well from the dirt lot on which the photographer was standing.  It was still a dirt street when I went attended school there.

The picture, below, was taken many years later and just before the school was torn down.  It looks almost exactly the way I remember it, only no added classrooms in the background.

The school was more yellow than this picture shows.

To the north of the school was a playground  that had a slide, several swings, a merry-go-round and maybe a sandbox.  At least there was sand under the slide.  The slide was strange.  It was two galvanized pipes that you had to straddle to slide down.  I think the tree shown in the above picture was still there when I attended Snowflake elementary.  On the south side of the building were basketball courts and track meet essentials such as a pit for long jumping and the" hop, skip, and jump" event.

The building was made of yellow bricks all marked, "Gallup" which I assume meant they were made in Gallup, New Mexico.  There were only eight classrooms for eight grades since there were no kindergarten, then.  

On the first floor, there was a principal's office, an auditorium, grades 1, 2, and 8, and two restrooms.   The second floor had grades 3,4,5,6, 7 and in the middle above the front entry hall and principal's office was a library, which was used for sewing classes and teacher's meetings.  
You can see the skinny windows from the end of the building and an entire wall of windows on the left in the picture below.  Notice all the plants and several bulbs blooming in this picture.

This is the third grade room in Snowflake Elementary,1928-29.  My mother taught there before she was married.
On the teacher's desk is  bottle of ink and  a clock.  Someone has given the teacher an apple, too..

 Each classroom had one huge wall of windows and on the opposite wall was a door to the hallway. There was a wall of blackboard at the front of the classroom and in the upper grades there was a map rack with rolled-up maps that could be pulled down.  The teacher's desk was in front of this.  There was a narrow bulletin board above the blackboard that usually had a row of  Palmer handwriting alphabet letters on it or was used for seasonal decorations as seen in the above photo.

There was always a flag at the front of the room, since we pledged allegiance to it every morning.  There was a standard school clock on the wall, as well.  As near as I can remember all of the rooms except first grade faced to the north.  This was helpful when looking at maps and orienting yourself to compass directions.  On the map east was to the right and as you stood facing the maps, east really was to your right.  I still have to face north when looking at a map or at least mentally face north.

Our desks were similar to the ones in the photo and were attached to the floor either directly or an entire row was attached to two long wooden boards. The desk chair for the person in front of you was attached to your desk so they had to be in rows.  Because class sizes differed from year to year some more movable and much newer desks were added at the front or the back of the rows of the solidly attached desks.  

These new desks looked like this and had a top that lifted up so you could put books and pencils inside and nothing ever fell off onto the floor.  I always wanted one of these desks, but in six years never got a chance to sit in one of them.

Ink Wells and Pens

All of the desks and even the new ones came with a round hole in the top of the desk.  In the middle grades, you were expected to practice your cursive in ink.  The teacher would pass out the ink bottles and they fit exactly into the round hole.  Then you got the wooden ink pens to dip into the bottles for writing.  Often ink blobs and spatters went all over your paper.  You also had to use a blotter to soak up extra ink.  These wooden pens, below, look just like the ones we wrote with in school.

This fit into the hole in your desk..

                                           The Principal 

The school principal was also the eighth grade teacher and there was probably a door between his office and the classroom.  I don't know for certain as I didn't go to the 8th grade in Snowflake.  I was only in the principal's office one time and that was to use the telephone.  Hardly anyone had a telephone.   During the time I lived in Snowflake, there were only two principals,  Lee Johnson  and Ezra Shumway who took over after  Lee Johnson moved to Phoenix.  

Fine Art in the Hall

Somewhere in or near the principal's office was a copy of Gainsborough's painting called the "Blue Boy."  It was probably the first famous painting that I had ever seen.   I don't recall any other art work being in the school nor do I recall doing any artwork in class, other than drawing with crayons and cutting and pasting.

Holiday Celebrations 

Halloween

Halloween was not a big dress-up holiday in Snowflake when I was a child.  They didn't have a costume parade and no one went trick-or-treating.  I remember going with my siblings to other houses and holding a jack-o-lantern up to the windows, supposedly to scare anyone inside.  We also might have knocked on doors and ran away.   Big bad boys would, however,  play tricks on people by putting some one's bicycle in a tree or writing words on your car with a bar of soap.  I heard stories about putting outhouses in trees but I never personally saw one.  A few people in Snowflake did still have outhouses, but most had indoor toilets.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving at school was all about pilgrims and Indians and turkeys.  We colored ditto pictures, cut and pasted turkeys, and made Indian headdresses.   I don't remember any big pageants, but we certainly dressed up because I remember the yellow paper buckles on shoes, tall hats on boys with more buckles, and paper bonnets on girls.

In middle grades we read or listened to stories about the Pilgrims.

At home we always had a big dinner, usually with relatives.

Christmas  

The entire school participated in an annual Christmas program.  I had parts in several of these.  Most of these were  held in the evening  in the church recreation hall rather than the school auditorium.  I assume it was because it could accommodate all the children, their older and younger siblings, and their parents.     Separation of church and state was not a big deal at that time and in that place.  The pageant was mostly of a religious nature including Bible passages and almost all of the Christmas carols.  There were shepherds, wise men, angels, and, of course, Mary and Joseph and baby Jesus. I think that every child from grade one to grade eight had a part in the program.
One year the whole school walked into the pageant carrying lit candles.  I have never seen that before or after that.  Candles are not usually allowed at functions held in the church house.

Another year the school put on a play based on Charles Dickens' Christmas Carol.  I distinctly remember a cloth "roasted goose" someone's mother had sewn and stuffed for the Cratchet's Christmas dinner. 

Classroom Decorations

Every classroom was decorated for Christmas. Often we made red and green chains from construction paper during any free time and hung them in swags on the high up  skinny                        bulletin board or the windows.

 Six sided Snowflakes were made from folded paper and pasted to the windows.  I don't recall having Christmas trees in the classroom, but they might have been there since I have distinct memories of paper chains hanging on trees.  I am sure there was a tree somewhere either in the hall or the auditorium.

Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day was really a big day in every grade from first through eighth.  Early  in February, every class decorated a Valentine's box with a slit in the top. Valentine's must have been readily available and cheap, because I remember almost everyone giving them to each other. Class members would address valentines at home and drop them in the box. Some valentines came with little lollipops attached. When Valentine's Day arrived, the box would be opened and the teacher or another student would call out the name and one or more others would deliver the valentines to your desk.  There was always refreshments, but the exciting part was to see who gave you a valentine and to read the clever sayings on them.

We also made homemade valentines to give our parents using red construction paper and paper doilies or home made lace cut from folded paper just the way we had made snowflakes.

Lincoln's Birthday

Lincoln's birthday was almost always celebrated in school with the teacher reading you stories of Lincoln's life, the students coloring  pictures run off on a ditto machine, or putting on a skit.  In second grade our class  cut and pasted three-dimensional log cabin on his birthday.(see Second Grade blog)

George Washington's Birthday

Actually the entire month of  February was a patriotic month with red, white, and blue decorations everywhere.  Washington's Birthday was celebrated in about the same ways as Lincoln's Birthday. And of course, we heard about the cherry tree and we made little hatchets and three-cornered hats. 

St. Patrick's Day

St. Patrick's Day was hardly celebrated at all.  Maybe at the first of March the class would make green shamrocks to pin up on that upper skinny bulletin board.  I never remember hearing the story of St. Patrick or singing any Irish songs.

Easter

Easter would bring dittoed bunnies to color or cut out, but I don't remember teachers reading us any Easter stories.  We never had Easter egg hunts at school like we did in Safford. 

 At home we colored boiled eggs and on Easter morning we got Easter baskets from the Easter bunny.  Inside were candy and marshmallow eggs and  the same yellow peeps they have still have today.  Almost every Easter our family got real baby chickens or baby ducks which we raised for eggs and meat.  It took several years to save enough down for one pillow. 

May Day

Sometimes we made this kind of basket.

This was the most common kind..

May Day was celebrated with little woven baskets of flowers.  In Snowflake we never did dances around a May pole like they did in Safford the year my brother was in first grade and like they did in Virginia when I taught school there many years later.  We did learn to weave baskets for flowers.  

Patriotic Programs

For four of the six years that I attended school in Snowflake, our country was at war.  We had patriotic programs during the school year where we celebrated America.  We did not wait until the Fourth of July.  We learned all verses of the National Anthem, America, the Beautiful,  My Country 'Tis of Thee, God Bless America and all of the armed services songs.

Track Meet

Every year a school track meet is held.  Dashes, races,  high jump, long jump, the "hop, skip, and jump," and "chin ups."  Ribbons were given out.  I can remember that I never won any of these.  Athleticism was not one of my gifts and besides that  I was  younger than anyone in my class even though I was just as big as they were.