TLC : Materials Lab : Culminating Activity

Culminating Activity - Phrase Explanation

Two shakes of a lamb's tail

Cut and dried - Pioneers cut and dried herbs for food flavoring and medicine. When something is "cut and dried" it means that it has been that way for a long time and probably will not change.

Put through the mill - In order to grind grain into flour the grain was poured into a wooden shoot at the mill and then was crushed between two huge heavy stones called millstones. The stones were rough and the movement ground the grain into fine powder. A person who is "put through the mill' has had a difficult time and may feel crushed and beat up.

Nest egg - Eggs were important to farm families. In order to make the hens lay more eggs; the farmer would put fake eggs in the nests. These fake "nest eggs' were saved and used again when they were needed. Today a "nest egg" is money or property put aside and saved for the future.

Small potatoes - Nothing went to waste on the farm. Farmers fed the smallest or damaged crops to their animals. Small potatoes were fed to the animals. Today "small potatoes" are things that are not important or valuable.

Flash in the pan - Pioneers used guns called muskets that were difficult and complicated to fire. The gunpowder was placed in a small pan on the gun. When the trigger was pulled it made a spark and the gunpowder was supposed to explode causing the musketball to fly out of the barrel. Sometimes the spark would cause the gunpowder to flash, but the gun would not fire. Today a "flash in the pan" is something that is popular for a short time but doesn't last long.

With bells on - When pioneers were going to a special event or celebration they would put their best harness on their best team of horses. Sometimes these harnesses included bells. If the guests arrived "with bells on", they arrived happy and excited.

Engineering for this site provided by The office of Christine Lizardi Frazier. Technical questions should be directed to the KCSOS Web Team. Information on low-cost hosting and website design services, featuring Manila, for schools and non-profit organizations is available here. Report problems with this page here.