The Great Depression: 1925-1940
The Great Depression: 1925-1940 was a time of struggle and sacrifice, dust and devastation. This unit helps students understand this economically depressed time in American history. It draws connections between young students’ lives and the highs and lows of life between the years 1925 and 1940.
The trade books for the Primary section of this unit are Ticket to the Twenties: A Time Traveler’s Guide; Vanished! The Mysterious Disappearance of Amelia Earhart; Potato: A Tale from the Great Depression; and Angels in the Dust. The trade books for the Upper Elementary portion of the unit are A Letter to Mrs. Roosevelt; Out of the Dust; The Great Depression; and Sky Pioneer: A Photobiography of Amelia Earhart. The unit does not include the actual children's literature books.
About the Series:
Social Studies curriculum units contain complete lesson plans with preliminary and follow-up work, teacher notes with background and rationale, ready-to-use worksheets, and suggested answers for student questions. These materials encourage the development of thinking, reading, speaking, research, and writing skills as well as critical thinking skills such as analysis, synthesis, and evaluation.
Price: $29.95
Student Activities
Classroom activities include baking chocolate chip cookies, analyzing Dorothea Lange photographs and Shirley Temple films, studying the stock market, and examining maps of the Dust Bowl and of Amelia Earhart’s round-the-world flight attempt. Students also research family tales, compare prices of the 1930s to prices of today, and write poems, stories, and journal entries. Although activities are organized into primary and upper elementary sections, many assignments can be adapted to suit either age group.