THE ROARING TWENTIES

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THE ROARING TWENTIES

• Ten day unit for your fifth grade classroom
• By Claudine Randolph

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OBJECTIVE

• Students will better understand specific aspects
  of the social, cultural and political effects
  that the 1920s had on America.
• Students will analyze fads, fashions, inventions,
  sports and politics to determine why the 1920s
  was considered a time of prosperity and change.

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Activities Outline

• Decoration tips
• Basic Timeline
• Center Ideas
• Cultural Jazz Age and silent movies
• Social Sports and Sports fashions
• Cultural Advertisements
• Political famous faces

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Timeline of Events
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TimeLine of Events
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DECORATE THE ROOM

• -- Create a bulletin board from the Jazz Age art
  activity.
• -- Place 1920s timeline around the room
• -- Set up center tables

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EASY TO USE IDEAS

• Leave a desk or table available for your
  easy-to-find, very popular 1920s items

• The 1920s TimeLine
• Distribute it for the students to use and/or
• use it as a model for a larger scale timeline
  around your room which the students can
  illustrate.

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Center Tables

• Label a table or desk Twenties Firsts
• Fill a jar with a mix of popular 1920s candies
  licorice sticks, lollipops, Tootsie Rolls,
  jawbreakers.
• Display some items first invented or popularized
  during the 1920s Kleenex, Band-Aids, zippers,
  frozen foods, Welchs grape jelly, Wrigleys
  chewing gum and Eskimo pies.

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The lessons

• The lessons are easy to use and can be adapted
  to fit your fifth grade classroom. They are
  arranged in this order
• Introduction
• Jazz Age and Project
• Silent movie to talkies
• Sports and Fashions
• Advertising in the 1920s
• Gangsters

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Introduction

• In the 1920s, young people collected things like
  bottle caps and shiny foil gum and candy
  wrappers.

• WHAT YOU DO
• With the class, brainstorm a list of everyday
  things that they can collect
• Let each student choose one thing to collect
  throughout your 1920s studies.
• Students will journal about the significance of
  the items that they have chosen to collect.
• On a specified day, students will share their
  journals and collections.

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Jazz Age

• Jazz is a mix of ragtime, blues and black
  spirituals, and was invented by African Americans
  in the twenties.
• Students will research one jazz or blues musician
  from the 1920s and complete a brief biography of
  this musician.
• Have the students listen to one or more
  recordings of Louis Armstrongs music
• While they listen, the students can draw abstract
  pictures using the elements of art.

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Elements of Art

• Lines
• Shape
• Color
• Texture
• Space

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Jazz Age project

• Research a jazz or blues musician from the 1920s.
  
• Organize your information in 3 paragraphs
• Basic Biography
• Career
• Major contributions in American culture

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Silent Movie to Talkies

• Students will be introduced to the transition of
  the silent movie to talkies
• Students will view Metro-Goldwyn-Mayers
  production of Singing in the Rain
• Students will research 4 silent movie actors from
  the 1920s and the films they were in.

Charlie Chaplin
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Sports

• While learning about sports you can have your
  students conduct a marathon.
• Divide the students into groups and let them plan
  a physical activity like jumping rope or
  calisthenics. See which group can go the longest.
  

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Sports and Sports Fashion

• Use the Library of Congress website to find
  pictures of sports fashions from the 1920s.
• Then research other 1920s fashion influences
  still around today.
• OR Research and write about the Black Sox scandal
  of the 1920s.

Swimwear in the 1920s
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Advertising in the 1920s

• Advertising often made false claims about
  products because there were no laws governing
  these claims.
• Pair students and instruct them to choose an ad
  for any product in a magazine or newspaper.
• Tell them to write the ad with exaggerated
  claims.
• Display the ads.

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Gangsters Project

• Students should be divided into groups of 4-5
  people.
• Each group will receive one of the following
  photographs and the question that accompanies it.
• Students will research the photograph through the
  Library of Congress.

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Gangsters

• Willy Doody
• What is he saying?
• Joseph Diamond Joe Esposito
• What is he doing with the baskets?

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Gangsters

• Tony Lombardo
• Where is this photo hanging, and why?
• Julian Kaufman
• What is he waiting for?

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Gangsters

• Joe Saltis
• What is he looking at?
• Al Capone
• What problem is he having?

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Inspiration Organizers

• Students will take on specific roles within their
  group note-taker, illustrator, tech assistant,
  researcher.
• Students will organize research found on their
  gangster into a graphic organizer using
  Inspiration
• Students will present graphic to classmates.

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Creative Story

• Each student will write a creative story, based
  on fact about the gangster in their photo.
• Each story will answer the question that was
  associated with the photograph.

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Resources

• Students can take a field trip to the nearest
  regional public library where they can research
  all the information they may need for their
  projects.
• Websites
• Library of Congress
• http//www.loc.gov
• Jazz
• http//www.apassion4jazz.net
• Black Sox
• http/www.chicagohs.org/history/blacksox.html
• Chicago Public Library
• http//www.chipublib.org/
• Silent Films
• Questia Online Library - New Search

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Assessment

• Small projects 50 pts
• -- journals/collections
• -- biography of musician
• -- abstract art
• -- silent movie actor
• -- advertisement
• Writing Projects 50 points
• -- Black Sox scandal
• -- Sports Fashion Influences
• Inspiration/Creative Writing 50 points
• -- Graphic Organizers
• -- Writing on gangster
• Final Exam 20 points

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Wrap up
Chicago

• Field Trip to the Chicago Historical Society to
  view photographs on gangsters found from the
  Library of Congress
• Gangsters Tour Bus tour Chicago while learning
  about the Roaring Twenties
• Alfred SmART Museum View and participate in a
  workshop with your students on abstract art and
  art elements.

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Illinois Learning Standards

• Social Science Goal 16.A.2c Ask questions and
  seek answers by collecting and analyzing data
  from historic documents
• Social Science Goal 16A.1b Ask questions and
  seek out answers from historical sources
• Fine Arts Goal 25A.1d Identify the elements of
  line, space, shape, color and texture.
• Language Arts Goal 5 Use language arts to
  communicate, acquire and assess information.