20th+century

//Latest Update: 4/4/11 (dead links updated)// = = =Decades: The 20th Century for Young and Middle Students=

This year was devoted to 20th century American history, decade by decade. We did it shortly after the turn of the century (2000) and I had the idea based on the stamps issued by the Post Office, decade by decade. I planned the year as an exploration of popular culture and everyday life of the 20th century, decade by decade. We did touch on politics some, and how the various wars affected life in the US. But this was not meant to be the usual political, geographical type history class. The kids were still relatively young and I knew we’d cover this time period again, in the future, with a world focus.

My main goals were to get the kids involved in history by showing that history includes lots of interesting stuff that they can recognize from their own daily lives, not just dates of big events and battles. Plus there is so much in our culture that references back to popular culture. Older people know exactly what to picture in their minds when you say “Burma Shave advertising” but the kids have no references to work from. I wanted to give them some of those references for the 20th century, things that would pop up in their lives and that they could now understand. For each decade I did a lot of research to come up with an overview under the broad topics of Technology & Science; Literature; Art and Music: Politics and Ideas; Major Events; Entertainment and Media; Clothing Styles; Food Styles and Economics. ([|overview.doc]) You’re welcome to use this one or create one of your own.

For each decade I made each family a set of “playing cards” that provided a picture of “stuff” from the decade. I used pictures I could find anywhere, trying to keep to copyright free pix. I probably slipped up a few times, though. However, the PDF versions of these cards are offered here in case you want to look them over (see each decade below). The cards were color-coded with borders that would say which category a certain item fit under: Technology & Science (red); Literature (blue); Art and Music(green): Politics and Ideas (yellow); Major Events (black); Entertainment and Media (purple); Clothing Styles (pink); Food Styles (orange) and Economics (brown).

This was a very fun year. We had lots of parties, games, etc. We used media extensively—lots of videos from cable channels like Nick at Nite and Hallmark Channel, Public Television, and the library. All the moms pitched in to find and tape relevant stuff (some of which the kids watched at home because we had so much we couldn’t fit it all in). We used movies and tv shows often because I think fiction is a great springboard for talking about history, and pictures are often truly worth a thousand words. We had access to a great Instructional TV series, “//Focus on History//,” that used news footage of various events, decade by decade. You can probably find a lot of this footage on YouTube these days. We also had a list of kid’s books that were set in the various decades so that they could read these if they wanted. One of the moms found a series called “Century Kids” by Dorothy and Tom Hoobler that traced a family through the whole of the 1900s and they liked that a lot. The kids read these on their own—they passed them around from family to family. I had an extensive collection of music to use as well. A list of extra movies (ones we did not watch together in class) and a list of books: ([|movies-and-tv-1900s.doc] and books lists)

But it was also a year I wanted them to learn to take notes. I used several different strategies to help them learn how to take notes, especially “fill in the blank” notesheets. True, we did focus a lot on “factoids” but the idea was to give them a solid basis for connecting to popular culture (also “headline” news items) so they could understand how they were affected by events, things, people and media. Although this is not how I think history should be taught regularly (I’m more of a big ideas, constructivist person), it was fun for a year, and for this purpose.

Because I wanted the kids to learn some technology skills, too, we jointly created a web page for each decade, with each student in charge of one decade after the first one (which I created in order to set the style and tone). Most of the text for the web pages included the overviews which I had already pulled together (which we covered in class). The kids picked which pictures they wanted to use and how they would display the information, as well as what extra they want to add (i.e., if they wanted to write a short story about someone living in that decade, or if they wanted to do an in-depth report on something that happened in that decade, etc.). It wasn’t an extensive web site, but gave them a taste of this particular technology.

Because the 90s decade was when they were all born, I wanted to make sure they knew they were part of history too—the things they experienced on a daily basis would connect with things in previous decades we had studied. At the end of the unit on 20th century we did a little mini-unit on oral history. We picked a specific topic of study, so that they could interview relatives with a focus rather than just general questions. That way they participated as historiographers/oral historians.

Web sites: Got to []; sort tags: ‘decades’ includes many resources that span more than one decade and usually the whole century; ‘00s’ (up to ‘90s’) are decade-specific sites.

Session 1: Introduction
 * Explain about the movie, //Meet Me in St. Louis//: really about a family’s daily life rather than the fair. Ask them to watch for things that will tell them about life during the very beginning of the 1900s.
 * Watch //Meet Me in St. Louis//
 * Question the kids about what things they noticed in the movie, starting with obvious things like how people dressed. Compare how the kids celebrated Halloween with how we do it today. Point out some of the stuff that was new like trolleys and telephones. Don't forget to remind the kids that this movie (and all the others) are made by people who see history a certain way and everything they see on the screen is not necessarily true. It's a great starting point for piquing interests into further investigation however!
 * Tell the story of actual fair in St. Louis and how it had brought people from all over the world to one place to see modern marvels and various cultures on display. Terry’s 1904 World’s Fair Page ([]) is a wonderful resource for background material.

Session 2: Music, Art and Politics
 * Hand out the outline of the 00s (talk about how these years are often called the ‘aughts’). (see above)
 * Give a quick overview about Teddy Roosevelt, who he was and what type of President he was (use Teddy Bear story); explain how he set the whole tone for the decade; his daughter, “Princess Alice”
 * Set up teams and play “Charades” or “Pictionary” with some of the facts from the 1900s-10s. ([|Charades.doc])
 * Show some footage from the ITV video Focus on History on the topics above and, if you can find it (probably on YouTube) the first real movie “The Great Train Robbery” 1903 (it’s only 12 minutes but significant because it actually told a story and was a tremendous hit—the very last scene is a classic).
 * Set up two computer stations (one Internet connected); let the kids explore on their own: Technology at Home ([]); collection of 1900’s music on a CD
 * Hand out the playing cards ([|00scards.pdf]) to take home

Session 3:
 * Talk about the differences in how people lived in the US and how many places didn’t get electricity until the 30s or later. Talk also about how the US was still growing, refer back to our flip book showing growth of the US ([|wholesequence.pdf]) from previous year and where the US was at this point.
 * Watch //Oklahoma////! Be aware that this movie might bring up some interesting questions—the plot has some unsettling issues to it. Girls may not enjoy seeing the way women are portrayed in the movie; “Jud” is a villain but is also bullied and later accidentally killed by the “good guys.” This is a good chance to talk about the way attitudes have changed over the years.//
 * Review some of the things they saw in the movie; compare urban and rural life in the 00s

Session 4:
 * Introduce to several different web sites that cover different time periods, ending with Time Travel Guide for 19th century: [] Explain to the kids that they are going to create a web site like this one, decade by decade. Let them design some of the particulars so that each page is consistent but unique. Assign decades.
 * Show how to create web pages (use whatever software is available to you—Word documents can be saved as web pages if you have nothing else).
 * Go over copyright issues about using pictures downloaded from the Web and how to find copyright-free images (Creative Commons designation; government web sites; develop their own)

Session 5:
 * Go over the outline of highlights of the 10s (see [|overview.doc] above)
 * Play bingo with questions and answers and using Life Savers candy (invented in the 10s) as markers ([|questions for the 10s.doc]—you’ll need to make your own bingo cards)
 * Pass out the family set of cards for the 10s ([|10scards.pdf])

Session 6:
 * We were very lucky and had a Titanic Exhibit in a local museum during this time. It was fascinating and it was a great way to introduce the kids to the early part of the century, to the event itself, and to the current science of underwater archaeology. There are some excellent documentaries out there about this so you may want to take a look at them if you’d like to explore these ideas. I don’t recommend the movie “//Titanic//”—the scenes of the ship going down were too traumatic for me and I don’t think images of kids drowning and dead bodies adrift on the ocean are particularly good ones for kids to have in their memory.

Session 7:
 * Watch //The Unsinkable Molly Brown//, rather a fun movie (even the boys, beginning to grumble a bit about all the musicals we were watching, liked this adventure story).
 * Talk about some of the things from the movie and how this is a very fictionalized account of a real person. You could also visit the web site from Molly Brown’s house, now a museum ([])

Session 8:
 * Briefly cover the causes of WWI—specifically alliances that led to war and US late involvement. Use a map to help give the kids a sense of where everything happened. A good web site for this: [] Remember this class focuses on American History so we did not go into the various Wars except in broad strokes and focused mainly on how the wars affected the people back at home. When the kids were older, we revisited the 20th century in the context of the whole world. We also showed newsreel scenes from the “//History in Focus//” series about the US getting into the war.
 * Play Alliances Game. This is a version of a game that I actually had played when I was in 9th grade history and remembered as being one of the highlights of my own education. I searched a long time on the web, and finally found it: [] I adapted the game a little for our group, so here is that version ([|alliances game.doc]). The kids really enjoyed this game, which is a simulation of creating alliances between countries for both aggressive purposes and defensive purposes. We ended up playing this at least two more times in other years as it is a topic that arises frequently. You do need a fair number of players (we included moms) so if you have a small group you may want to invite some guests over to play.
 * Later in the year, we had the chance to participate in a special WWI re-enactment and exhibit at a local park so the kids had a quick mini-lesson on being “in the trenches.”

Session 8: · Go over the outline of the 20s (see [|overview.doc] above) and watch a few clips from “//History in Focus//” · Watch //Thoroughly Modern Millie// · Discuss some of the silliness of the movie (and the Chinese stereotypes) but also pull out some things that were true (women started working and living on their own; the high joie de vive of the times; the jazz and dances) · Hand out the playing cards for the 20s ([|20scards2.pdf])

Session 9:


 * We held a 20s party with the kids dressing up from the 20s and various foods popular from then. Our reason for the party was to celebrate “Lucky Lindy’s” flight across the Atlantic (we used an old newsreel clip to start off the party)
 * Foods: frozen salad, layer cake, Jello, Caesar salad, pineapple upside down cake, Kool-Aid, Twizzlers, zucchini, Wonder bread, peanut butter, Wise potato chips (see here for more ideas: [])
 * I taught them the Charleston (I happened to know this, but nowadays you could find a video on YouTube easily!) and listened to some jazz.
 * We played with toys that were introduced or were popular at the time: Chinese checkers, pogo sticks, Lincoln logs, marbles

Session 10:
 * Give a little background on the growth of the movie industry, the addition of sound to movies, and how the movies were created almost like a factory product. (Some good background here: [])
 * Watching //Singing in the Rain//

Session 11:


 * Provide an outline of the 30s (see [|overview.doc] above) and review the various areas. I had a few old dress-up dresses that looked like "glamorous" 30s styles and I let the girls dress up for fun. The boys didn’t mind getting left out this time!
 * Watch a few “History in Focus” clips from the time period
 * Have the kids do the Crossword Puzzle and Word Search puzzles (The ‘a’ one is for younger kids, the ‘b’ one is for older) ([|1930s crossword.pdf]and [|1930s word search.pdf])
 * Hand out the playing cards for the 30s ([|30scards.pdf] )

Session 12:
 * We watched //The Journey of Natty Gann,// but this had some pretty rough scenes and language. I would now watch //Kit Kittredge: An American Girl// which covers the same time period and still conveys the harshness of life in the Great Depression.
 * Discuss the times and how families were broken up by economic times. Have the kids think over things they might do in such situations.

Session 13:
 * Provide an overview of the 40s using the playing cards ([|40scards.pdf]) and the outline (see above). This time, I had some “exhibits for some of the items on the list. For instance, when I covered Jacques Cousteau, I pulled out a scuba mask. I had a record album, a Magic 8 Ball, M&Ms, a dime, and various other objects. For some other things, I found pictures on the Internet and printed them out, like a picture of Anne Frank’s diary, an FDR campaign button, an Airstream camper, etc. Also, see [|womensfashions.pdf].
 * Play “Is It True or False?” This is a game where one player gives another player either a true or a false fact (both are printed on a card that they draw from a stack in between them—you can also increase the size of the groups if you’d like). Their partner has to guess if they are telling them a true fact or a false one. If the partner guesses right, they pick the next card. If they don’t, the original player picks again. ([|truefalse40s.doc])
 * Provide some idea of what happened during WWII by watching some clips from History in Focus video. Focus on how people coped on the “homefront.”

Session 14:
 * Watch //White Christmas,// which provides a look at soldiers trying to adapt to civilian life after WWII. For our year, this time coincided with Christmas, so it was perfect.

Session 15:
 * Time for a review: play a match up “card” game with the cards from the 00s to the 40s–the kids try to put 3 cards together that happened in the same decade (they get dealt 12 cards to start and then take turns drawing a card from a center pile or they can take a card from another player and give them two of their own—first one to get rid of all their cards, wins). The younger kids put their set of cards (some of which had dates) on a timeline.

Session 16:
 * For the 50s, the tables were turned so that the kids had to do research in teams of two on some particular subtopic of life (use the overview, above, to give them a start), assigned by me based on their interests. They used books, cds, video, and artifacts to do their research (culled from all the archives of the various families involved).
 * Have the teams present the information to the rest of the class.
 * Hand out cards ([|50scards.pdf])

Session 17:
 * For the second half of the decade we used television shows to give the kids a sense of life of the decades. It is helpful to put TV in the context. Our kids have never been without it (and without the zillions of channels they have now.) When TV first began, it wasn't on 24/7, it wasn't color, and it wasn't in every home. Certain genres were popular (just as they are now): westerns, family sitcoms, live kids shows (see the Fifties Web for a good list, but be careful because they also list shows from the Sixties: []). It was fairly easy to find these old TV shows by searching on the Internet on various cable channel web pages (nowadays on YouTube). TV shows we picked from for the 50s were //Donna Reed, Bonanza, Perry Mason, Leave It To Beaver, Father Knows Best, Superman, Andy Griffith, Burns & Allen, Rifleman, I Love Lucy,// and //Dick Van Dyke Show.//
 * There are two topics that I think are tremendously underrated in historical studies: plumbing and transportation. Yet, these things affect the way our society functions and changes very much. During the 50s, major changes happened to the roads in America. I found a wonderful work by a student at Kenyon College, Jessica Sloman. It is no longer posted at the Kenyon College website, but thanks to the Wayback Machine you can read it at [] It gives you a great background to talk about the development of roads and how our culture changed because of that development. Obviously, you don't want to read the paper to them. But you can pick out choice fun facts to share. They really enjoyed the Burma Shave ads that were rampant during that time period (you can get some of the slogans from the Fifties Web site: []).

Session 18:


 * We continued with a few more of the taped shows from the 50s. We also made t-shirts using our logo we’d picked for our time travelers web site. Everyone had been working hard on their own decade and we were making progress!

Session 19:
 * We started our coverage of the 60s with a (mostly) web-based scavenger hunt. I set up 6 different stations for the kids, five of them on computers and one with books (use this Word document, [|Questions for the 60s.doc], with the links tot he pertinent websites). Then I gave each of the kids a sheet ([|60s worksheet.pdf]) to fill out (they could work in teams of two or three but they each needed to fill out the sheet). This gave them the chance to learn to navigate web pages and scan for information.
 * (By the way, this is different from the one the kids used the year we did this--too many of the sites have disappeared and I couldn't find replacements so I had to change the questions).
 * While we were working, I played a lot of music from the 60s just for fun!

Session 20:
 * Many many TV shows from the 60s are available now. I focused on sitcoms because 1) at this age, kids like silly and 60s sitcoms ARE silly and 2) they are short so we could watch several of them.
 * A few of the ones we watched: //Get Smart, Bewitched, Batman, Gilligan’s Island, I Dream of Jeannie, Star Trek, Big Valley. //You can use the Fifties Web site listed above to find more titles if you all have a special interest (like cop or lawyer shows, westerns, spies, etc.
 * The kids got their cards for the 60s ([|60scards.pdf])

Session 21:
 * The last session for the 60s focused on something I thought was extremely important about this decade. Just as the 20s was a decade where life changed drastically, so was the 60s. One of the most major changes was the sense of empowerment of the "people." Citizens began to question their government officials and not always believe that the authorities (otherwise know as "the man") were always right. Music was one of the most powerful movers for the protest movements of the 60s, and these protest songs had a long history dating from the 30s depression era. So this session was devoted to protest songs, understanding "hippies" and why they were "dropping out" of society as it stood at that time. It was a more serious session and most of it was a lecture from me (see [|My lecture notes from the Music of the 60s.doc]) punctuated by excerpts from songs (I had some on CD and others we got from the Internet). I made a booklet for the students so they could understand context, see the lyrics and sing-along (see these three--the cover and insides of the songbook (made to be printed front and back) and my notes on the specific songs: [|Notes for playing songs from songbook.doc], [|coversongbook.pdf], [|protestsongbook.doc]).
 * The students dressed as hippies or mods, whichever they chose. This was our 60s party and we made food from the 60s as well.



Session 22:


 * To introduce the 70s, I gave the kids an outline (I also wanted them to practice taking notes and seeing how they could listen to a lecture and write notes in a coherent outline--this was a chance to give them an example) fo what happened during the decade ([|70sworksheet.pdf]).
 * Then I wrote a list on a whiteboard (you can just give them a printed sheet if you want to) of all the answers (see [|1970s Fill in the Outline answers.doc]), scrambled out of order. I let them spend some time trying to figure out which answers went in which blanks.
 * Then, using the [|overview.doc] as background and the outline as my guide, I gave a lecture about what happened in the 70s. When a got to a part tin the outline that had a blank, I had them shout out what they thought was supposed to be in the blank. I elaborated, of course, as well, so they could see that a lecture may include much more information than you might write down as notes.

Session 23:


 * For our second session on the 70s, we looked at a few "artifacts" I had, like a POW bracelet and some campaign buttons. Then we watched a few of the most popular TV shows (//Little House on the Prairie, The Waltons, Brady Bunch, Barney Miller, All in the Family, CHiPs//) and then they got their playing cards for the 70s ([|70scards.pdf]).

Session 24:


 * For the 80s, I used the [|overview.doc] to give a very brief lecture, and then let the kids do several activities. The could use their copy of the overview to help answer the questions.
 * For Science and Technology, they had a game to try to identify new developments in this area--they had to say nonsense syllables written out very fast in order to understand the term being said ([|80s Science and Technology game.doc], [|Science and Technology game answers.doc]).
 * For the Arts and Entertainment, I had several information cards printed (on cardstock) and then cut them in half (unevenly but so that the picture was cut away from the description). I passed out the cards randomly and the students then had to find others who had the matches to the cards they had in their hands ([|80spuzzlematch.pdf]).
 * For Politics and Major Events, we had a multiple choice quiz (I don't use these often, but figured the kids needed SOME experience with them) ([|80s Politics and Major Events quiz answers.doc], [|80s Politics and Major Events quiz.doc]).
 * For both Clothing and Food, I had matching sheets, with pictures of a certain objects, and catch-phrases or descriptions with which they needed to match the pictures ([|80sfashionmatch.pdf], [|80sfoodmatch.pdf]).
 * For Economics, we did a "Wheel of Fortune" type game (using a whiteboard) with key phrases like: Shop Til You Drop, Yuppies, The Decade of Greed, Trickle Down Economics and Black Monday

Session 25:


 * For our second 80s session, we watched some fun TV shows (//McGyver, Who's the Boss?, Family Ties, Alf, The Cosby Show//) and they go their playing cards for the 80s ([|80scards.pdf]).
 * I also dug out some of my fashions left over from the 80s (why did I save them? I don't really know!). This time the boys decided to join in and get creative. My prized Pappagallo purse covers became hats and my little silk ties became flamboyant scarves! They all had a lot of fun.



Session 26:


 * We started off with a quick over of the 90s, then watched a few minutes of several cartoon shows. Why cartoon shows? Well, most shows of the 90s really weren't very easy to screen for kid-appropriate language, plus I figured the kids would get great fun recognizing the cartoons they had watched (we were still back in the days of Saturday morning cartoons, not 24-hour cartoon channels). I found examples of things like the Care Bears, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Doug, Spongebob Squarepants, Tailspin, and other favs as passed along to me by their moms. They also got their 90s cards ([|90scards.pdf])
 * The 90s was the decade that all of the kids had been born into, so we used a timeline of their life (correlated to events that happened in the wider world) to introduce the facts of the 90s. They created a timeline of their birthdays each year and then filled in with items from the overview that took their fancy. This personalization of history, and the idea that PEOPLE lived history led into a mini-unit on Oral History that we used to end up the year.

Session 27:


 * As a review, we again used our cards from all the decades. I used my set and handed them out to the kids. This time the kids had a certain time to get all their cards put in what they thought was the right decade. Those who got rid of all their cards and who got them in the right decade won! Then we had another 20th century party, just because it was fun!