October 2021

This day was about the Roaring Twenties through the Great Depression. We listened to and looked at pictures of key artists when studying about the history of Jazz, starting with African music brought over by the slaves early in American history. We learned how that impacted gospel music and progressed all the way through modern times.

We learned about the stock market, how it works, and why it crashed. We played an M&M game to learn about risks vs. rewards, as well as a game called “Pit,” which taught them the excitement of bidding and trading.

We learned about Prohibition, and the 18th and 21st Amendments.

We had a rally to explain the suffrage movement. The boys got to vote if the girls or the boys should do all of the work that day and the others get to eat all of the candy. The girls were up in arms that they didn’t get to vote on this issue and were ready to fight for their rights and the passage of the 19th Amendment.

Many famous landmarks were engineered around this time in history, like the Panama Canal in 1914, the Statue of Liberty dedicated in 1886 and made a national monument in 1924, Mt. Rushmore completed between 1927-1941, the Empire State Building constructed in 1931, and the Golden Gate Bridge completed in 1933.

We had a center on baseball and Babe Ruth (1914-1935).

A popular way to use up scraps in that era was to make yo-yo quilts.

The day was complete with a contrast of very wealthy “Roarin’ Twenties” lunch items and depression era selections.