For the past 7 years at the Mini Hippos school the parents have put together a Cultural Fair for our K-6 students. This year our theme was "Our Journey to Freedom". We transformed the gym into 5 sections each providing information on the era that changed the country.
My team worked on The Great Depression.
At the beginning of our section I dressed up as a Newsie and explained to the kids how the stock market crashed in 1929. I gave them information about the problems that arose from the crash and how their lives would have been affected.
The first place they stopped was our Hooverville house where they could see what living conditions would have been like.
Then we moved into the Dust Bowl to talk about the migration of people into California and the "Tent Cities"
Next we talked about the food of the Great Depression and how creative you would have to be in order to feed your family.
Now once they were fully "depressed" we sent them along the Yellow Brick Road to meet Dorothy and the entertainment section of the Great Depression.
Dorothy taught the kids about how Movies helped people to escape from their problems during the Great Depression.
She also explained the symbolism of the characters, tornado and the yellow brick road and how it applied to the Depression.
Next she moved them into our baseball and toy section and explained how kids had to "play" with their imaginations because .. gasp.. there were NO video games, i pods or televisions!
She even showed them how to play marbles. I can't tell you how much they enjoyed this part!
Next they moved into 1932 to learn about FDR and the New Deal.
Our News reporter gave them lots of information on FDR and made some Alphabet soup to help them see what the New Deal helped to create.
It was fun to see how many kids didn't know what a typewriter was and how amazed they were at the size of the news camera!
Last they met our good friend Eleanor Roosevelt who explained her important role as the First Lady and how she made herself accessible to the American people by writing her own news column, corresponding with the Nations children and helping FDR.
Some of the younger kids thought she really was Eleanor Roosevelt!
It took many long hours and late nights of painting, research and hard work.. but it was soo much fun. I love my dedicated group of friends who always make such magic happen for the kids.
It's always so amazing to see it all come together and the wonder in the eyes of the kids. It is learning at its very best as they feel like they are really apart of history!
More tomorrow from the Cultural Fair!
Love,
Amie @ Pinkapotamus
