Page 276 - Powerful Social Studies for Elementary Students 4th Edition

248 Powerful Social Studies for Elementary Students
Possible Activity Selections
ACTIVITY RATING REASONS
1. Bring in five bunches of grapes and five empty tissue boxes without tops. Form five groups of students and have each group select one member to compete in a fruit-picking con- test. Have students pretend that the bunches are fruit trees. The pickers are to neatly fill the boxes without damaging or bruising the fruit.
2. Tell students that people have figured out how much each acre of farmland in the United states produces, on the aver- age. The number is based on the total amounts of all types of farm products. Have students graph the following data on the overall increase in production, labeling the axes “Year” and “Amount”: 1900—146, 1925—143, 1950—213, and 1975—440.
3. Have students work in small groups to investigate different types of farms, such as crop farms; flower farms; beef cattle, hog, and sheep farms; dairy farms; and poultry farms. Allow time for groups to present their findings in class, and encourage the use of visuals.
4. Arrange field trips to local farms of different types to give students first-hand knowledge of their operation.
5. Have each student make a chart of the produce grown in the San Joaquin Valley and indicate with a symbol which products could be harvested by machine and which by hand.
6. Assign groups of students to interview produce managers at local supermarkets. Have students find out where the store’s fruits and vegetables are grown and how they were transported to the store. Ask each group to report its findings to the class.
7. Focus attention on the Benton painting on page 178, explaining that the year is 1930. Ask students what this steel mill would have smelled, sounded, looked, and felt like. Explain that steel workers form huge bars, sheets, and strips of steel from molten steel which they must hammer, press, roll, and shape under very high heat.
8. Conduct a class discussion. Focus questions should include: “How might very fast freight trains be helpful to the farmers in the San Joaquin Valley?” “What do you think would hap- pen to the transportation industry if someone invented a faster and cheaper way of moving goods?”
9. Work with a group. Make a model freight train out of shoeboxes. Draw on a shoebox to make it look like a certain type of train car. Load your train with freight. Decide where it is going and then tell the class.
10. Many tall-tale characters are heroes to certain industries. For example, Joe Magaree is a hero to the steelmakers, John Henry is a hero to railroaders, and Paul Bunyan is a hero to lumberjacks. Make up your own classroom tall-tale hero. Brainstorm the kinds of things your hero would do. Work
in groups to write stories. Put all the stories together to make a classroom book. Vote on a title for your book. Choose someone to draw a cover.
Copyright 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.