FARMINGTON – In Julie Hennessey’s third-grade classroom Tuesday, a group of five boys in suspenders and wide-brimmed hats stepped up to the front of the room to read.

“Now guys, toes right on the line,” Julie Hennessey said. “This is the way you would have stood.”

It was 1850s day for the third grade at Mallett School, and everyone was trying to play the part. Rotating from room to room all morning, the 8- and 9-year-olds learned to bake old-time cakes, shoot marbles and play 1850s games, and braid rag rugs.

In Hennessey’s room, kids from Kevin Martin’s class were experimenting with being students in a one-room classroom.

In the front, they stood straight in a line reading a moral tale out loud. In their desks, they copied out the phrase “do unto others as you would have them do unto you,” onto sheets of paper or small chalkboards.

In the back, they sat around a small table learning to write with ink and quill pens.

“I think it’s incredible,” parent Sara Dean said. Dressed in an old-fashioned looking skirt and apron, she was there to help out. “As adults, we take so much historical understanding for granted,” she explained. “And we forget our children don’t have that.”

Brianna Ellis and Miriam Cohen, both 8, sat at the back room focusing on perfecting their cursive using a quill and ink. They both grinned wide when talking about the day. “We learned how to play some very fun games,” Ellis said. “I like to be able to learn about the past and be able to do some of the things they did.”

Living back then would be fun, but hard too, they said.

The boys had a slightly different perspective. Sitting apart from the girls, as was required in mid-19th-century classrooms, they were asked to wait to line up after the girls, and to push their chairs in for them.

“It was the worst day ever,” Tyrel Howard, 9, said jokingly, but also a little serious.

“The boys were pretty much slaves.”

Howard enjoyed making the rag rugs, he said. “And I liked making the cake,” Matthew Hargreaves, 9, added.

Teachers look forward to the day, Hennessey said after Martin’s class went back to their regular room. “It’s really a lot of fun. I think after months of talking about it, this is where the kids really do understand.”