{"id":92405,"date":"2025-12-12T22:03:11","date_gmt":"2025-12-12T22:03:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/92405\/"},"modified":"2025-12-12T22:03:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-12T22:03:11","slug":"students-get-hands-on-lessons-about-santa-clara-valleys-past-at-history-park-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/92405\/","title":{"rendered":"Students get hands-on lessons about Santa Clara Valley’s past at History Park"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Today\u2019s elementary school students in Silicon Valley are much more familiar with harvesting crops in Minecraft than they are with the thousands of acres of farmland and orchards that once dominated the Valley of Heart\u2019s Delight.<\/p>\n

There are Uber and Waymo kids who may never have heard the clang of a trolley bell. And phrases like \u201cdial a phone\u201d and \u201cwrite a check\u201d? Don\u2019t even get started, boomer.<\/p>\n

But thanks to History San Jose\u2019s<\/a> hands-on education programs, more than 12,000 students every year get to experience what it\u2019s like to live as an early California pioneer, to visit a bank branch that existed long before debit cards and tap-to-play and understand the painstaking work that went into taking a bushel of cherries from the tree into a can.<\/p>\n

\"TerrellTerrell Elementary School students listen to Eric Pfanhl museum educator inside the Santa Ana School, a former one-room schoolhouse originally located in Hollister, which is now located at History San Jose, to educate children on how classes were held in the 1890s, during a school tour of the park in San Jose, Calif., on Wednesday, Oct. 15, 2025. (Doug Duran\/Bay Area News Group)\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been teaching 23 years, and this is a place that holds an important part in my heart because of the hands-on experience that each student gets,\u201d said Sally Vigneri, a fourth-grade teacher at Zanker Elementary School in Milpitas who was at History Park in San Jose in October with her students.<\/p>\n

History San Jose is perhaps best-known as the repository and caretakers of the city\u2019s long history. It\u2019s warehouse is filled with items that chart the evolution of San Jose from a small, agricultural hub to a city of nearly 1 million people that is home to some of Silicon Valley\u2019s most well-known tech companies.<\/p>\n

The nonprofit, which celebrated its 75th anniversary recently, also operates three historic sites: the Gonzales\/Peralta Adobe and the Carmela and Thomas Fallon House, both near San Pedro Square Market, and History Park, a 14-acre park that includes more than 30 historic structures or replicas harking back to the 19th and early 20th centuries.<\/p>\n

\"Terrell<\/p>\n

Terrell Elementary School student Lorelei DeMartini holds a turn-of-the-century iron during a tour of the Umbarger House at History San Jose, in San Jose, Calif., on Wednesday, October 15, 2025. The Umbarger House, built in the Italianate style by David Umbarger at 2662 South First Street, San Jose, in the 1870s, was moved from its original location to History Park on August 1, 1970. (Doug Duran\/Bay Area News Group)<\/p>\n

\"Terrell<\/p>\n

Terrell Elementary School students listen to History San Jose museum educator Zion Wheaton inside the Stevens Ranch Fruit Barn in San Jose, Calif., on Wednesday, Oct. 15, 2025. The fruit barn is home to an exhibit which examines the Santa Clara Valley\u2019s agricultural past. (Doug Duran\/Bay Area News Group)<\/p>\n

\"Using<\/p>\n

Using faux cherries made out of modeling clay, Zanker Elementary School students Ishya Ala, left, and Charlize Lavandelo learn about piece rate work by sizing cherries, a labor system common in the late 19th century, at History San Jose, in San Jose, Calif., on Wednesday, Oct. 15, 2025. (Doug Duran\/Bay Area News Group)<\/p>\n

Show Caption<\/p>\n

1 of 3<\/p>\n

Terrell Elementary School student Lorelei DeMartini holds a turn-of-the-century iron during a tour of the Umbarger House at History San Jose, in San Jose, Calif., on Wednesday, October 15, 2025. The Umbarger House, built in the Italianate style by David Umbarger at 2662 South First Street, San Jose, in the 1870s, was moved from its original location to History Park on August 1, 1970. (Doug Duran\/Bay Area News Group)<\/p>\n

Expand<\/a><\/p>\n

But the real value in History San Jose\u2019s mission lies in its school programs, which serve as a time machine for students, transporting them back to different historical periods. Adobe Days covers the state\u2019s Spanish and Mexican periods, while Westward Ho! explores the frontier experience and Valley of Heart\u2019s Delight lets students delve into the Santa Clara Valley\u2019s agricultural peak. It costs schools $14 per student for field trips, and History San Jose is asking Wish Book readers for $7,800 to provide field trips for 500 students, as well as to update materials.<\/p>\n

Students on the Adobe Days field trips use dirt, hay and sand to make bricks, and those in the Valley of Heart\u2019s Delight experiences process \u201ccherries\u201d made of modeled clay. Sam Ricci, History San Jose\u2019s manager of education, says after a few sessions, the clay cracks and the cherries need to be remade.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s important for students like Ishya Ala, a fourth-grader at Zanker, who was at the fruit sheds with her classmates learning about how workers would use a tool to size cherries, can them and then create labels for the different canning companies.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like the history. I like the learning, and I like that we have hands-on activities,\u201d said Ishya, whose favorite activity was sorting the clay cherries, making sure there were enough for each can.<\/p>\n

\"ZankerTerrell Elementary School students listen to a museum educator inside the Santa Ana School, a former one-room schoolhouse originally located in Hollister, which is now located at History San Jose, to educate children on how classes were held in the 1890s, during a school tour of the park in San Jose, Calif., on Wednesday, Oct. 15, 2025. (Doug Duran\/Bay Area News Group)\u00a0<\/p>\n

Other students learned about finances at the Bank of Italy, a replica of the building that once stood in downtown San Jose. Their parents and grandparents would be amused to see them learning how to write checks, a once-common practice that\u2019s becoming more rare. Of course, all the blank \u201cchecks\u201d they practice on have to be regularly reprinted, as do the primers the students browse through as they sit in a one-room schoolhouse and learn about how different education was a century ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s helpful for kids to know history and to have places like this that show history so they can learn hands-on what they\u2019re seeing in textbooks,\u201d said Gloria Park, a parent who was chaperoning a field trip. \u201cAs a parent, knowing they can see it and kind of feel it and experience it themselves makes their learning come more live to them.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Vigneri, the Zanker fourth-grade teacher, there\u2019s always a special moment when students make the connection between the activities they\u2019re doing at History Park and the modern region where they live today.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis particular field trip allows them to see where we came from and how we\u2019ve changed \u2014 down to their own communities, where they live to the greater San Jose area and to California,\u201d Vigneri said.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

ABOUT WISH BOOK
Wish Book is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization operated by The Mercury News. Since 1983, Wish Book has been producing series of stories during the holiday season that highlight the wishes of those in need and invite readers to help fulfill them.<\/p>\n

WISH
Donations to History San Jose<\/a> will provide field trips for 500 local students and help the nonprofit update hands-on materials used in its school programs. Goal: $7,800.<\/p>\n

HOW TO GIVE
Donate at wishbook.mercurynews.com\/donate <\/a>or mail in this form.<\/a><\/p>\n

ONLINE EXTRA
Read other Wish Book stories, view photos and video at wishbook.mercurynews.com.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Today\u2019s elementary school students in Silicon Valley are much more familiar with harvesting crops in Minecraft than they…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":92406,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[42335,184,7,8,2333,15,418,4730,181,23,100,5466,2944,182,385,88,90,89,198,200,42336,42337],"class_list":["post-92405","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-all-readers","tag-bay-area","tag-california","tag-california-news","tag-editors-picks","tag-education","tag-history","tag-k-12-education","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-nonprofits","tag-photos-and-videos","tag-pm-report","tag-regional","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news","tag-santa-clara-county","tag-south-bay","tag-wish-book","tag-wish-book-2025"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92405","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92405"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92405\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/92406"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}