Lesson Plan: Warshin: Chores on a Smoky Mountain Homestead

 

Audience

Elementary/Middle School Field Trip Students

​

Location

Great Smoky Mountains Heritage Center

​

Estimated Time

30 minutes

​

Lesson Format

Demonstration + discussion + hands-on activities

​

​

​

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lesson Overview

​

This hands-on living-history activity introduces students to the daily chores children would have performed on a Smoky Mountain homestead. Students will learn about the importance of laundry, explore the tools and materials historically used to wash clothing, and participate in a simulated historic laundering activity using a washboard, wash bin, soap, clothesline, and clothespins. Students will then discover why buttons were often removed from garments before washing and learn how sewing skills were used in other capacities.

​

The activity concludes by connecting historical skills to modern life and showing that practical skills such as sewing remain useful today.

​

Learning Objectives

​

By the end of the activity, students will be able to:

1. Identify several chores that children might have performed on a Smoky Mountain homestead.

2. Explain why laundering was an important household chore.

3. Identify common tools and materials used for historical laundering.

4. Describe the purpose of lye soap in the laundry process.

5. Explain why buttons were removed from some garments before washing.

6. Demonstrate the basic process of washing clothing on a washboard.

7. Practice hanging and wringing laundry.

8. Demonstrate how to sew a button onto fabric.

9. Connect historical skills such as sewing and laundering to skills that can still be useful today.

​

Lesson Sequence

​

1. Introduction: What Chores Did Children Do?

Estimated time: 3–5 minutes

Begin by asking students:

"What chores do you have to do at home?"

Allow students to give examples such as washing dishes, taking out the trash, cleaning, feeding pets, or doing laundry.

Explain that children living on Smoky Mountain homesteads also had chores, but many of their chores were connected directly to the family's ability to survive and provide for itself.

Discuss examples such as:

• Gathering firewood

• Carrying water

• Feeding and caring for animals

• Gardening

• Helping prepare food

• Cleaning

• Gathering materials

• Caring for younger children

• Spinning, sewing, and mending

• Washing and caring for clothing

Explain that laundering clothing was an important household responsibility, and children could participate in different parts of the process depending on their age.

​

Discussion Question

​

1. "What do you think would happen if a family didn't wash their clothes?"

Use their responses to introduce cleanliness, sweat, dirt, wear, and the importance of caring for clothing.

​

2. What Clothes Did We Wash?

Estimated time: 2–4 minutes

Explain that not every garment necessarily needed to be washed every time it was worn.

Tell students that garments worn closest to the body—such as slips, petticoats, and undergarments—needed frequent washing because they absorbed sweat and body oils.

You can explain:

"These garments helped protect the outer clothing from our bodies, so we needed to wash them more frequently."

Introduce aprons as another important type of clothing.

Explain that aprons were worn over outer garments to protect them from:

• Dirt

• Food

• Grease

• Dust

• Other messes associated with household and farm work

Ask:

"If you were working outside all day, would you rather get your nice dress dirty or your apron dirty?"

This gives students a way to understand why aprons were practical as well as why they required frequent washing.

​

3. Meet the Laundry Tools

Estimated time: 3 minutes

Introduce each item and explain its purpose.

Laundry Tools

Wash Bin

• Held the water and clothing being washed.

Washboard

• Provided a rough surface that allowed the washer to agitate and scrub fabric.

Lye Soap

• A strong soap traditionally made using lye and fats or oils.

• Used for cleaning heavily soiled clothing.

Ammonia

• Explain that ammonia compounds could be obtained historically through processes involving urine.

• Ammonia was useful as a cleaning agent because it could help break down certain kinds of dirt and grease.

Clothesline

• Used to air-dry freshly washed clothing.

Clothespins

• Used to secure clothing to the clothesline.

Important Safety Note for Demonstration

For the student activity, use safe modern substitutes for hazardous historical materials where appropriate. Students should not handle actual lye or urine-derived ammonia. You can explain and demonstrate their historical use without exposing students to these substances.

​

4. What Is Lye Soap?

Estimated time: 2 minutes

Explain that lye soap was made using lye and fats or oils.

In simple terms for students:

"Lye is a very strong alkaline substance. Historically, families could make lye from wood ashes and water. They would then combine the lye with animal fats or other fats to make soap."

Explain that the chemical reaction between the lye and fat creates soap.

You can emphasize:

"The lye was very dangerous before it was turned into soap. Once the soap-making process was complete, however, the finished soap could be used for cleaning."

If appropriate for the age group, introduce the word saponification as the chemical process that turns fats and oils into soap.

​

5. Demonstrating the Washboard

Estimated time: 5 minutes

Tell students:

"Now we're going to try one of the hardest parts of doing laundry before washing machines."

Demonstrate:

1. Place the garment into the wash water.

2. Apply the soap.

3. Position the garment against the washboard.

4. Hold the fabric securely.

5. Move the fabric back and forth across the washboard.

6. Agitate and scrub the fabric in the soapy water.

Explain that this process required physical effort and could take a considerable amount of time.

Ask students:

"How long do you think it would take to wash all the clothes for your family this way?"

This allows them to begin thinking about the amount of labor involved in historical household work.

​

6. Student Laundry Activity

Estimated time: 8-10 minutes

Now bring students into the activity.

Volunteer Group 1: Washing

Ask for two volunteers.

Have the students work together to wash the first garment on the washboard.

Explain that they should:

• Apply soap

• Agitate the garment

• Scrub it against the washboard

• Work together

Volunteer Group 2: Wringing & Hanging

Select two additional volunteers.

Have them:

1. Wring out the garment.

2. Carry it to the clothesline.

3. Hang it using clothespins.

Repeat the activity with a second garment, allowing another group of students to participate.

This gives more students an opportunity to participate while reinforcing the sequence of:

Wash → Wring → Hang → Dry

​

7. Where Are the Buttons?

Estimated time: 2 minutes

Once the garments are hanging, ask the students:

"Did you notice anything about the clothes you just washed?"

Then ask:

"Did any of them have buttons?"

The students should notice that there are no buttons.

Explain:

"That's because washing clothing on a washboard could be very rough on the fabric. Buttons could rub against the washboard and damage the clothing. So when people washed some garments, they could remove the buttons first."

Then introduce the problem:

"But if you take all the buttons off your clothes every time you wash them, what do you have to do when you're finished?"

Sew them back on!

​

8. Why Did People Need to Sew?

Estimated time: 2–4 minutes

Explain that sewing was an important practical skill.

People needed to know how to:

• Repair holes

• Replace worn-out fabric

• Mend tears

• Sew on buttons

• Alter clothing

• Maintain clothing so it can continue to be worn

Connect this to the students' lives:

"People living in the Smoky Mountains needed these skills because clothing took time and resources to make. Today we can often buy a new shirt when something breaks, but knowing how to repair clothing can still save you money and keep your favorite clothes from ending up in the trash."

 

10. Conclusion & Reflection

Estimated time: 3 minutes

Bring the students together and review what they learned.

Ask:

Recall Questions

"What were some chores children might have done on a Smoky Mountain homestead?"

"Why did people wash undergarments and other clothing worn close to the body frequently?"

"What tool did we use to scrub the clothing?"

"Why might buttons be removed before washing?"

"What did we have to do after washing the clothes?"

Connection Question

End with:

"What is one skill you learned today that you could still use at home?"

Students might answer:

• Sewing

• Washing clothes

• Repairing clothing

• Caring for clothing

• Hanging laundry

• Using resources carefully

Finish by reinforcing the larger lesson:

"The chores people did on a Smoky Mountain homestead weren't just chores—they were skills people needed to take care of themselves, their families, and the things they owned."

 

Student Learning Flow

​

You could also present the activity as a simple sequence for your field-trip planning materials:

1. Explore → What chores did children do?

2. Discover → How did families wash their clothing?

3. Observe → What tools were used?

4. Participate → Wash, wring, and hang clothing.

5. Investigate → Why are there no buttons?

6. Connect → How can we use these skills today?

Materials Checklist

Demonstration Materials

• Wash bin

• Washboard

• Historical/reproduction clothing to wash

• Lye soap

• Safe soap for demonstration

• Clothesline

• Clothespins

Safety

• Do not allow students to handle actual lye.

• Do not have students handle urine-derived ammonia or other hazardous historical cleaning materials.

• Use safe, non-toxic substitutes for the hands-on laundry activity.

Suggested Educational Theme

"Skills for Everyday Life"

The strongest educational thread through the lesson is that laundering and sewing were essential life skills, not simply household chores. Students get to experience the physical labor involved while also seeing how people maintained valuable clothing rather than simply replacing it.