A Day At The Fair

 

Title:  1904 World’s Fair—Children and their daily lives. 

Type of teaching unit:  Lesson Plan

Grade Levels:  Middle School (6-8)

Time Frame: 5 days

Subject Matter:  Language Arts

 

Teacher Information:

Travis Klein, Carla Lasley, Stacy Winfield

Grant Middle School

AAM affiliation: Southern Illinois University Edwardsville

winfis@stclair.k12.il.us, laslec@stclair.k12.il.us, kleint@stclair.k12.il.us

 

Lesson plan description and Rationale: 

 

Students will make a connection with the children who lived during the time of the 1904 World’s Fair through pictures and readings.  This will give them an understanding of how special The Fair would have been to a child in 1904.

 

State Standards:

 

1. 1.B.3a  Preview reading materials, make predictions and relate reading to information from other sources.   
2. 4.B.3d  Use verbal and nonverbal communication strategies to maintain communications and to resolve conflict. 
3. Take notes, conduct interviews, organize and report information in oral, visual, and electronic formats.
4. 3.C.3a  Compose narrative, informative, and persuasive writings for a specified audience.
5. 2.B.3a  Respond to literary material from personal, creative, and critical points of view.
6. 5.C.3b  Prepare and orally present original work supported by research. 

 

Objectives: 

 

1. Students will create a quick write activity to activate prior knowledge about emotions connected to attending a fair.
2. Through discussion, students will share their beliefs and pre conceptions about children’s lives in 1904.
3. Students will conduct research to gather information on children’s’ lives through pictures and written material from 1904.
4. Students will create a diary in the voice of a child from 1904 describing a week at The Fair.

  

Resources:

 

	Newsboys.  Chicago Daily News, Inc., http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/i?ammem/cdn:@field(NUMBER+@band(ichicdn+n001777)))): displayType=1:m856sd=ichicdn:m856sf=n001777 --> (Feb 2004)
	[Louise Berliner, full-length portrait, as a child] Emile Berliner and the Birth of the Recording Industry http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/i?ammem/berl:@field(NUMBER+@band(berlp+12020311)):displayType=1:m856sd=berlp:m856sf=1202031)) (Feb 2004)
	Horydczak, Theodor, Children. Children in their bathing suits Washington as It Was: Photographs by Theodor Horydczak, 1923-1959 http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/i?ammem/horyd:@field(NUMBER+@band(thc+5a39455)):displayType=1:m856sd=thc:m856sf=5a39455)) (Feb 2004)
	[Children playing a game on a grassy slope with two children linking hands and raising their arms in an arch below which other children who have formed a ring by holding hands appear to be moving]. http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/i?ammem/cdn:@field(NUMBER+@band(ichicdn+n000144)):displayType=1:m856sd=ichicdn:m)) 856sf=n000144 (Feb 2004)
	[Children playing in sand pits in a fenced area as two woman watch]. Photographs from the Chicago Daily News, 1902-1933 http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/i?ammem/cdn:@field(NUMBER+@band(ichicdn+n000711)):displayType=1:m856sd=ichicdn:m856sf=n000711)) (Feb 2004)
	[Children kneeling around a sand pit in a fenced area as a woman watches]. Photographs from the Chicago Daily News, 1902-1933  http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/i?ammem/cdn:@field(NUMBER+@band(ichicdn+n000713)):displayType=1:m856sd=ichicdn:m856sf=n000713)) (Feb 2004)
	[Dog walking in the street in front of a group of children assembled for a fresh air outing]. Photographs from the Chicago Daily News, 1902-1933  http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/i?ammem/cdn:@field(NUMBER+@band(ichicdn+n000077)):displayType=1:m856sd=ichicdn:m856sf=n000077)) (Feb 2004)
	[Girl wearing a ruffled hat in a group of children assembled for a fresh air outing]. Photographs from the Chicago Daily News, 1902-1933 http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/qhttp://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/i?ammem/cdn:@field(NUMBER+@band(ichicdn+n000076)):displayType=1:m856sd=ichicdn:m856sf=n000076uery/i?ammem/cdn:@field(NUMBER+@band(ichicdn+n000076)):displayType=1:m856sd=ichicdn:m856sf=n000076   (Feb 2004)
	[Children gathered on a curb, holding packages, as part of a fresh air outing]. Photographs from the Chicago Daily News, 1902-1933 http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/i?ammem/cdn:@field(NUMBER+@band(ichicdn+n000231)):displayType=1:m856sd=ichicdn:m856sf=n000231)) (Feb 2004)
	[Fresh air outing, children assembled next to and in a cable car with many children standing on the running boards and others leaning out the windows]. Photographs from the Chicago Daily News, 1902-1933 http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/i?ammem/cdn:@field(NUMBER+@band(ichicdn+n000090)):displayType=1:m856sd=ichicdn:m856sf=n000090)) (Feb 2004)
	[Women and children, some reclining in the grass, on a Chicago Daily News Fresh-air outing]. Chicago Daily News, Inc., http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/cdn:@field(NUMBER+@band(ichicdn+n001271)) (Feb 2004)
	[Children, holding hands and walking in two lines through a grassy area]. Photographs from the Chicago Daily News, 1902-1933 http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/i?ammem/cdn:@field(NUMBER+@band(ichicdn+n000805)):displayType=1:m856sd=ichicdn:m856sf=n000805)) (Feb 2004)
	[Four black children in yard]. Touring Turn-of-the-Century America: Photographs from the Detroit Publishing Company, 1880-1920 http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/i?ammem/detr:@field(NUMBER+@band(det+4a27440)):displayType=1:m856sd=det:m856sf=4a27440)) (Feb 2004)
	[Children playing a game in a yard with a girl and boy running around a group of children who have formed a ring by holding hands]. Photographs from the Chicago Daily News, 1902-1933 http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/i?ammem/cdn:@field(NUMBER+@band(ichicdn+n000124)):displayType=1:m856sd=ichicdn:m856sf=n000124)) (Feb 2004)
	Briggs, Vernon.  California and the West, 1881 and later. California As I Saw It: First-Person Narratives of California's Early Years, 1849-1900 http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/calbk:@field(DOCID+@lit(calbk030div9))   California and the West: 1881 and later. Vernon Briggs
	Ana’s Diary page http://www.washingtonmo.com/1904/midi/stuartg.htm

 

  Methods:

 

1. Display pictures around the room from a recent Fair St. Louis.  Talk with students about different fairs they have attended.  Have students do a quick write where they can write words, draw pictures, or express emotions that they think of when they remember being at these fairs. 
2. Have students share some of these ideas, and write some on the board.  (This creates connections among students.)
3. Next, ask students how they think the 1904 Fair would have been different than the fairs they have visited.  How might people have reacted to it?
4. At this time, display a slide show with some photos of children from this time period.  After the slide show, leave the pictures running and read students some excerpts from fiction and nonfiction at this time. 
5. Have students talk about what a child’s life may have been like during this time period, and have them take notes.
6. Introduce the idea of the project to them by reading an example of a diary entry.  Let them know they will be pretending to be attending the 1904 Fair with their family for a week, and they need to keep a diary of their time there.  They will be required to have seven entries with details of things they saw, felt, and experienced while at The Fair. 
7. At this time, allow students time to clarify through questioning, and then write the first page as if they were just told they would be leaving tomorrow.

 

 

Evaluation: 

 

Students’ will be graded by:

            10 points for diary entries                      10 points for spelling

            10 points for creativity              10 points for details

            10 points for neatness                           10 points for completeness/ on time

            20 points for connecting to events and places at The Fair

            20 points for accuracy

 

Keywords for this lesson:  1904, St Louis Fair, World’s Fair, Children at the Fair