50s Day at School
This year is flying by! My class just reached the 50th day of school, and we celebrated with some 50s fun to mark the half-way point to the 100th day. My students loved the opportunity to roll up pant-legs, throw on poodle skirts, slick back the hair, and pop some bubble gum!
Because the 1950s were 60 years ago, the first thing that I wanted to do was to make connections for the students. We started the day by talking about when their own grandparents were little kids, (or maybe even their parents grandparents) — and then connecting those familiar relatives to today’s gadgets and activities. I showed them videos on Youtube of children in the 1950s at school and asked the to tell me what they noticed. Then, I showed them my cell phone and asked Do you know what this is? Did you know that when your grandparents were little kids they didn’t have cell phones? Then I showed them an old rotary phone that I found on Ebay and showed them how it worked. Then I showed them a record player, typewriter, and books from the 50s. I also showed them some pictures from the 50s, including a computer. The children were amazed to see that computers used to take up a whole room!
All of the students were fascinated to see technology from long ago, and they loved turning the rotary phone and typing on the typewriter. I plan on displaying these objects for a few days to let the kids play with them.
I also taught the children games from the 1950s, using a personal connection. “When I was a little girl, I loved to play games with my grandma.” “One of her favorite games she played as a child in the 1950s was Hide the Thimble.”
Remember, connections are important when teaching an abstract concept such as time. When students can experience, connect, and relate to things from the past, they are more compassionate, and given ability to more easily understand the present and the concept of the future. Making these connections will not only make for a great social studies, science, and technology experience for your students, but will also make celebrating the 50s during the 50th day of school more fun!
After we played old children’s games, we learned some 1950s dances like the jive and the swing and talked about Elvis, the king of rock and roll. Then we had popcorn and watched cartoons in our drive in movie theater.
If asking your students to dress for the 50s like I did, you can ask them to discuss family members who lived during that decade…… then connect with that person as they prepare their 50 day costume.! You might even ask your students to bring a photo of that person and make a “My relatives in the 1950s display for students to share and enjoy.”
Of course, I had to make sure to integrate academics into our 50s fun, so we practiced our alphabet letter sounds (you could also do words) in a game called “Soda Shop Alphabet Sounds” And practiced counting to 50 and then writing to 50. We stacked 50 plastic cups, counted out 50 Ruffles potato chips to eat (Ruffles were introduced in 1958), colored 50 pictures, and did 50 exercises!
So get out the rock and roll, pass out the bubble gum, and do a little swing dancing as you celebrate the number 50 in your classroom!
Enjoy the day with all sorts of 50s fun as you celebrate the 50th day of school with some great academic activities that will enhance the learning in your classroom.