of the one-room school. In summer, there were games like softball, pom-pom-pullaway, kick the can, ante-ante-I-over, hide-and-seek, red-light, and prisoner's base. In the winter there was ice for sliding, skating or shinny, and hills for sleighing. On cold or stormy days there were indoor games such as checkers, snakes-and-ladders, and charades. Special occasions were observed in the one-room schools. On Hallowe'en night there was usually a party for children, involving costumes and contests. For weeks before Christmas the teacher and students practised plays, poems and songs in preparation for an elaborate concert that was performed for the whole community; at the end of the concert, Santa Claus appeared with bags of treats for all the school and pre-school children. On February 14 there was a St. Valentine's box. Arbor Day was a day for clean-up and planting trees. The school was also used for anniversary celebrations, political meetings, Friday night dances, and various community functions. Following World War II , the demise of the one-room school coincided with automation, improvements in transportation, changes in education philosophy, and the gradual disappearance of small farms. The fate of the school buildings was varied: some were bought by local farmers to be used as outbuildings, some were abandoned to the weather, and a very few became museums, immortalizing their central role in the communities they served. As centres of learning and of community development, one-room schools in Saskatchewan were as significant to the development of this province as the thousands of wooden Grain