School was in session at the Weber-Blaess one-room schoolhouse in Saline recently when 23 students from Katie Larzelere’s Harvest Elementary third-grade class spent the day at the building.

“We, in the third grade, learn Michigan history through statehood and this fits right in,” said Larzalere. “The kids love it and they love to see how different it was.”

The Weber-Blaess school was built in 1867 on Ellsworth Road in Lodi Township before being moved to Saline on June 19, 2002, on its current 1-acre site. It’s run and maintained by the Saline Area Schools Historic Preservation Foundation and is owned and operated by Saline Community Education.

Schoolmasters Jim and Cheryl Hoeft explained to the third-graders what it was like for farm kids who attended the one-room schools in the area and re-enacted a typical school day, which included penmanship practiced on a slate, McGuffy Readers, and arithmetic problems.

“We want this to be a living history museum from the early 1900s,” Cheryl Hoeft said, adding that both she and Jim went to one-room school houses.

Larzelere said her students read a book titled "One Room Schoolhouse" before they arrived at the 520 Woodland Drive school dressed in period clothing.

With their feet firmly planted on the floor and their hands folded, the students raised their hands, then stood when they answered a question.

When asked about the unique experience, Adair Jost, 9, said she liked the memorization part best but wasn’t so sure about wearing a bonnet all day.

“It might get uncomfortable,” she said.

Cheryl Hoeft said female students wore head protection from the sun. Boys who wore caps took them off before they walked into the classroom, out of respect.

Larrisa Hardesty, 9, she enjoyed seeing “Mrs. Hoeft the best but the books and stuff, writing on a slate, was pretty fun, too.”

About 1,500 children visit the one-room school house each year. Second-graders visit in the fall, and third- and fourth-graders arrive in the spring, Cheryl Hoeft said.

Sarandia Papanastasopoulos, 8, said she enjoyed learning what a one-room school is like and pretending to be a fourth-grader for a little while.

The students were divided by grade according to the row they were sitting in so there were third- through sixth-graders in the school at the same time, just like in the past.

Reagan Recchia, 9, said she was all about the clothing and liked being dressed up but she also liked reading the McGuffey Readers.

“It was really fun,” said Jake Walper, 8, who recited his “live times tables” to the class after writing them on a slate.

He said writing on the table was fun, too, and his penmanship was better than usual.

“This is a lot like our school, but we have paper,” he said.

Jim Hoeft said the one-room school house is “such an important part of the history of Saline and all the kids love coming and playing games.”

The popularity of the Weber-Blaess School is increasing among home-schooled children and other school districts as well, Hoeft said, adding that children from private schools as well as from Ann Arbor Public Schools had visited the school recently.

And, as interest increases, Cheryl Hoeft said, there are now 10 docents and four schoolmasters to assist with the experience.

If you'd like to see the school and experience a re-enactment of an old-time school day, an ice cream social fundraiser for the school is planned from 1 to 4 p.m. Aug. 21.

Among the planned activities are traditional recess games, a bucket brigade by the Saline Area Fire Department, ice cream and antique cars.

Lisa Allmendinger is a regional reporter for AnnArbor.com. She can be reached at lisaallmendinger@annarbor.com. For more Saline stories, visit our Saline page.