October & November 2021

We spent quite a bit of time on WWII. Here are some of the activities we did. We talked about how WWII began.

Reports were given about prominent people and battles.

We talked a little about Hawaii, the attack on Pearl Harbor, and a timeline of major battles in the Pacific Theater. 

We prepared for war by making dog tags and garrison caps.

We made scarf maps to help us in case we got shot down and landed behind enemy lines.

We took the opportunity to learn about longitude and latitude by playing a battle ship game using a map of the Pacific Theater of the war.

We talked about the important role radio had, and made reproductions of radio programs, commercials, and fireside chats.

Blue Star Mothers’ flags hung in the windows of people who have a relative in the service.

We spent a whole day making civilian rations books and figuring out what to order for lunch so we could have enough money and rations tickets to buy a big ice cream sundae for dessert.

Canning and Victory Gardens were very important to make sure everyone had enough food.

We also study artists and composers of each era. Here are some of our recreations of Norman Rockwell paintings from the WWII era.

There were many interesting activities we did to learn about WWII airplanes. We created foam models.

We identified and flew cardboard planes.

We went on a fieldtrip to learn more.

Airplane spotting and identification was very important. At our WWII day, we shared about everything we learned with our guests.

We also took some time to explain the holocaust and talk about particular people’s stories. We explored what that must have been like. 

During war, keeping information secret is of the utmost importance. In this center, they had to look for clues and communicate in secret codes so the other team would not find out their plan. They used code ciphers and discussed the role of code talkers in the war.

I was important for Americans to be behind the war effort. There were many posters and buttons to encourage others to join in the fight at home.

We did an activity to talk about nuclear fusion and talked about the atom bomb.

As a culminating activity, we had a WWII day open house to teach all that we learned and have some fun too. We had a booklet for our guests to use to guide them around to all of our activity centers. If they completed all of the activities, they would be qualified to participate in the battle.

Here are some soldiers getting some grub from the mess hall.

We had a USO Show for the troops with entertainment of the WWII era, starring Bob Hope, Danny Kaye, Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland, Shirley temple, Dinah Shore, the Andrew Sisters…

…and Irving Berlin, singing God Bless America

The Battle: Orange Nerf Guns vs. Blue Nerf Guns. Whoever has the fewest bullets on their side at the end of 3 minutes wins.

We ended with a dance in the Mess Hall.