Taking Tea

Taking Tea: Preparing for Your Visit

Preparation for the visit
A one-hour previsit session with a staff member from the Seneca Falls Historical Society or the Geneva Historical Society is required of all classes. This session will help to give students a better idea of what to expect during their visits to Rose Hill and Becker House. Using slides and discussion, the staff members will introduce students to the time periods and the basics of the program. Staff will share specific information about the families students will meet and discuss appropriate behavior and manners on the day of the visit. You may wish to further explore the time period using some of the resources on this page and other information on local and national history of the time. The better prepared students are upon arrival, the easier they will find conversation and interaction with the characters that they meet during the program.

All files are available as Adobe Acrobat pdf files. Acrobat Reader is required to view these files and is available for free. To download, click on Get Acrobat Reader, select your language and platform (Mac or Windows) and then download the Reader.

Background Information for Teachers
Directions to Rose Hill and Becker House (22 Kilobytes)

View Larger Map

Preparing For Your Visit (16K)
Updated Excerpts from 1986 Taking Tea Manual [Background History on the time period for Teachers] (40K)
Making 1-2-3-4 Cake Today (5K)

Pre and Post Visit Activities

To help students explore life in the 1800s, you may wish to encourage them to ask Mrs. Strong and Mrs. Becker these questions during the visit. Questions for Students to ask Mrs. Strong and Mrs. Becker (9K)
Before the visit, have your class read the information on manners and do the suggested activities. Students may wish to prepare calling cards for use at the Becker House. Information on Manners and Calling Cards (34K)
This vocabulary list will help students to master some of the unusual words they may hear from Mrs. Strong and Mrs. Becker. Vocabulary List (8K)
Some Basic Facts (14K)about life in 1840 and 1890, including popular music, population figures, politics, and new books.
Read Clothing of the 19th Century (1.65MB). Use the information and images of children in the 1840s and 1890s to discuss how clothes today differ from those of the 19th century. You are welcome to print or copy these for educational use. All images are from the collections of the Geneva Historical Society. Text links lead to images of paintings found in the collections of other museums.
Before or after your visit, read the story "Lucy Nelson: The Boy-Girl" with your class. This tale of an 1830s tomboy reveals both the restrictions placed on girls and the fact that some girls defied them. The story has difficult language for today's fourth grader and you may need to paraphrase much of it, but it really helps explain to the modern girl how important it was for a girl to dress like a girl and that wearing pants was not an option. Works well with the study of Amelia Bloomer. Vocabulary list for "Lucy Nelson" (3K).

Links with helpful material and resources:

19th-Century Children's Literature: http://www.merrycoz.org and http://palmm.fcla.edu/juv/
Food: http://www.foodtimeline.org/
Music: http://www.pdmusic.org/ and http://www.contemplator.com/america/

If you have any questions, or wish to receive hard copies of these documents, please call Anne Dealy at 315-789-5151.

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