NEW AND OLD OBJECTS

Grade 2ND – History (Italian Education system)

history-clip-art-constitution

Materials for the class

Sheets to draw, pencils.

Layout of the classroom

You should create groups of 3-5 children.

The activity will take at least 2 days, but if you want, it can last more days (you could divide it for topics).

Phase 1

The teacher explains that in the past (when children’s grandparents were young, but also before) people were used to use different objects from today: some of them are not existing any more, some others weren’t existing in the past.

The teacher asks the children to draw objects that are used today, in particular electrical appliances (a group will draw electrical appliances), objects used for communication and entertainment (task for another group) and so on.

Phase 2

The teacher asks each group to tell the others which objects it has drawn and what their function is. If they know it, children can also explain how these objects are made and how they work… did the objects exist when their grandparents were young?

Then the teacher asks the children to pose questions to their grandparents: did they use these objects when they were young? Did these objects exist at that time? Did different objects fulfil the same function? If yes, how did they work?

The day after children will explain the class what they have heard from their grandparents. They will try to draw the objects used in the past and to explain their function and how they worked.

Phase 3

Examples of questions that the teacher can use:

– have people always used the washing mashine to wash clothes?

– what did people use for washing, if washing mashines did not exist?

– would it be possibile today to wash clothes how our grandparents did? Why yes/no?

Phase 4

Theacher and children will prepare a billboard with the objects of the previous phases. A time line will be also present to describe the introduction and the evolution of the objects (for example the washing mashine: when did people use it first? How were the first washing mashines? How did people wash clothes before their invention?).