Apple Valley Graduation - 2016

The Sutton Museum is proud to be a part of 4th grade Apple Valley program each fall.

Fourth graders at Sutton Schools have a block of study each fall about early Nebraska. They come to our Wolfe School Museum at the beginning of the study block. We tell them about our school and about the rural schools in our area.

Their teachers then assign the students to families for their Apple Valley experience as they re-enact rural school for the next six weeks.

There are 3, 4, maybe five students in each family. The students may play the part of

a 5-year old kindergartener, a 21-year old farm boy who only gets to go to school

a few months each year or anyone in between.

The students return to the Wolfe School for Apple Valley graduation, typically about Halloween.

Here, Apple Valley graduation begins with a song by one of the two 4th grade

classes at Sutton Schools.

The 4th graders have a schedule of tasks to complete to qualify for to be an Apple Valley graduate. One task is to learn a poem and recite it at the graduation.

Poem recital has two learning experiences: memorizing the poem

and performing the recitation.

Nineteenth Century costumes and style is part of Apple Valley

A portion of Apple Valley graduation happens outside on the lawn of the Wolfe School Museum. There are two classes of

4th graders this year so the classes alternated between inside and outside activities. Outside activities included making ice

cream and games. Parents and grandparents are spectators.

And there is a Graduation Certificate

Sutton Schools Apple Valley Class of '16

We don't usually find this many cars parked at the Wolfe School Museum. On a Friday. In the morning.