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Summary and Objective
Students will look at a variety of schoolbooks in the American Centuries Digital Collection and compare them to their own schoolbooks of today. After looking at pages in these early schoolbooks, students will understand what children did for fun. One activity was playing with marbles. Students will make their own marbles out of clay.
Teaching Plan
Step 1.
Have the students look at their own reading books, noticing the size of the print, the amount of print, and the number of pictures. Then have the students look at their arithmetic book, asking them what they have to do on each page. After reviewing what they know about their own reading and arithmetic books, students will view historic schoolbooks used by children of their own age in the American Centuries Digital Collection.
Step 2.
View: "New England Primer" (1800) in the American Centuries Digital Collection. Read the label information to the class. Discuss the meaning of "primer" and the size of the book. Take a closer look (Look Closer) to look at the pictures and read the words. Have students compare this book to their own reading book. How are they the same? How are they different?
Step 3.
View: "The North American Arithmetic. Part First for Young Learners" (1841) in the American Centuries Digital Collection. Discuss the cover and the size of this book. View page 20: Subtraction. Take a closer look. Have the students read and solve the problems. Compare this page to a page in their own arithmetic books. How are they the same? How are they different?
Step 4.
View: "The National First Reader; or Word Builder" (1869) in the American Centuries Digital Collection. Discuss the cover and the size of this book. View pages 79, 81, and 89. Look closer and read the texts. What are some of the things that children did for fun. Which activities do you do? Which activites are different? Did boys and girls do the same things? Do you do the same things? View page 79 again, looking at the picture of the boys playing marbles. Have you ever played marbles? How do you play marbles?
Step 5.
View "Marbles" in the American Centuries Digital Collection. Read the label information with the students. Discuss the size of the marbles (0.5") and what they were made of (clay). Do you have any marbles of your own? Show the students a bag of marbles. Compare these marbles to the marbles in the digital collection. How are they the same? How are they different? Demonstrate how to play a game of marbles.
Step 6.
Post Activity: Have the students make their own marbles using clay. Demonstrate how to use the clay and roll pieces into smooth, round balls, approximately the size of real marbles. Allow the clay to harden (see clay package). Compare the handmade marbles to the bag of marbles. Play a game of marbles first using the handmade marbles and then the bag of marbles. Have fun!
Step 7.
Post Activity: Look for a variety of marbles and begin a collection.
Step 8.
Post Activity: View "The Marble Museum" on the Web Site Link. Read and discuss the origin and history of the game of marbles.
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