When I was teaching first grade, I mentioned to the students that I enjoyed listening to the stories my grandparents told about growing up. The students looked at me like I was crazy. I asked, "Don't your grandparents tell you about when they were growing up?" They all shook their heads. I was appalled. These children were growing up believing their grandparents' childhood was the same as their own. That was unacceptable to me. Our history is important and every child should know what happened. NOT memorize dates. They should be able to tell you what life was like during a specific time period.
I decided that I had to rectify this situation. Now how do you teach first grade students about history? I decided to bring in 'grandparents' and let them tell their own stories. This took a lot of preparation, but it was worth it. Every first grade teacher asked four senior citizens to visit their class on 'Living History Day'. We sat each 'grandparent' in a corner with four or five first graders around them. Some of the 'grandparents' brought pictures of themselves as a child and their report card. We rotated the children about every 15 minutes or so. This allowed them to hear from four 'grandparents'. The teachers of other grade levels--many of them with children in first grade--brought lunch for our guests. After lunch we returned to the classroom for a few more minutes of questions. By 1:00 the 'grandparents' went home and we continued our day. The next day we asked the students to write a thank you note to the 'grandparents'. Now first graders don't write very well, but I had each student read their note to me and I translated it at the bottom of the page. Notes went out similar to this:
Thank you for coming to my skool. I'm sory you din't have lectrisity.
Thank you for coming to my school. I'm sorry you didn't have electricity.
I'm not sure who enjoyed the day more, the students or the 'grandparents'. Either way it was extremely successful.
Next week I'll tell you how I taught it in fifth grade.
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