THE ROARING TWENTIES

Ten day unit for your fifth grade classroom

By Claudine Randolph

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.

Activities Outline1. Decoration tips2. Basic Timeline3. Center Ideas4. Cultural: Jazz Age and silent movies5. Social: Sports and Sports fashions6. Cultural: Advertisements7. Political: famous faces

Timeline of Events

1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 192418th Amendment: bans manufacture, sale and transport of intoxicating liquors

Black Sox Scandal

Chicago White Sox are paid by gamblers to lose the World Series

Babe Ruth: sold to Yankees from Red Sox

Prohibition goes in effect

National Football League is founded

KDKA in Pittsburgh

First successful on air radio station

Warren Harding elected as president

Black Sox consequence

Players banned from baseball

Radio-baseball

First baseball broadcast

Sacco-Vanzetti: Italian immigrants convicted of a holdup murder in an unjust trial

Louis Armstrong

Joins King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band

Rudolph Valentino/ Charlie Chaplin

Silent movies become popular

Yankee Stadium opens

President Harding dies; succeeded by Calvin Coolidge

Ku Klux Klan

Peaks at 3 million members

Teapot Dome Scandal

Congress investigates

Immigration: restricted by Congress

Wealthy Rule:

Leopolds murder Bobby Franks

Coolidge becomes president

TimeLine of Events1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930Scopes Monkey Trial

John T. Scopes is tried for teaching evolution

Dion O’Banion; infamous Chicago mobster is murdered

National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is formed

Gertrude Ederle swims the English Channel

Rudolph Valentino dies

Charles Lindberg flies from New York to Paris

Sacco/ Vanzetti executed

Babe Ruth hits his 60th home run

Columbia Broadcasting System(CBS) is formed

Cotton Club opens in Harlem

Herbert Hoover defeats Al Smith for presidency

Franklin Roosevelt is elected governor of NY

St. Valentine’s Day Massacre

Five of Al Capone’s rivals are killed

Stock Market crashes (October 29)

Unemployment reaches 4 to 5 million

Great Depression begins

DECORATE THE ROOM-- Create a bulletin

board from the Jazz Age art activity.

-- Place 1920s timeline around the room

-- Set up center tables

EASY TO USE IDEAS

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.

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

Center TablesLabel 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, Welch’s grape jelly, Wrigley’s chewing gum and Eskimo pies.

The lessonsThe 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

Information

Al Capone

St Valentine's Day Massacre

Jazz Music and Musicians Transporation

Fashion and Fads Sports

Gang Wars

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.

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 Armstrong’s music

While they listen, the students can draw abstract pictures using the elements of art.

Elements of Art Lines Shape Color Texture Space

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

Silent Movie to Talkies Students will be introduced to the

transition of the silent movie to talkies

Students will view Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s production of Singing in the Rain

Students will research 4 silent movie actors from the 1920s and the films they were in.

Charlie Chaplin

SportsWhile 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.

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

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.

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.

Gangsters Willy Doody:What is he saying?

Joseph “Diamond Joe” Esposito:

What is he doing with the baskets?

Gangsters Tony Lombardo:Where is this photo

hanging, and why?

Julian Kaufman:What is he waiting for?

Gangsters Joe Saltis:What is he looking at?

Al Capone:What problem is he

having?

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.

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.

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

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

Wrap up 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.

Chicago

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.