Please check back soon for ideas on how to use Sam Bennett's New Shoes in the classroom!
When I Was Built - Teacher's Guide
Conversation Starters
- How long do you think it took the Fairchilds to reach their neighbors or the nearest town? Longer or shorter than it does today?
- Where did the Fairchilds find materials to build their house?
- What did they do to prepare for the winter? Where did they get food, and how did they make sure they would stay warm?
- Where did they get their water? How did they bathe and wash clothing?
- We know the Fairchilds had to make their own clothes. Do you think they owned a lot of clothing?
- What would the Fairchilds have thought of television or computers? What did they do for fun?
- Since there were no such thing as cars or airplanes how did the Fairchilds travel?
- What do you think Elizabeth and Peter Gray and Maggie and Andrew Fairchild would have in common if they were to meet? What would they ask each other?
Related Activities
- Ask students to write a letter to Maggie and Andrew Fairchild about their own experiences in the present– how they live, what their likes and dislikes are, etc. Then write a response letter from the Fairchild children imagining what their reactions might be.
- Have the entire class create a book with one page for each child. The content could include predictions for the future (events, inventions) or what the children know about the past, or something that has changed and doesn't exist anymore. Bind the book and display at school or make a copy for each child to bring home.
Old things have interesting stories to tell.
- Ask students to find an old object– a toy, a button, a photograph– and write a story from the objects' point of view. What was it used for? Who used it? What else was going on in the world during the time it was used?
- Interview a grandparent or an older relative or friend. What was life like for that person when he or she was young? Where did they shop for food and clothes? What did they do for entertainment? What did they study in school? Write the answers and draw pictures to illustrate.
People in colonial times recycled cloth, ashes, metal and many materials in innovative ways.
A "make-do" was an object made from one thing into another.
- Have students make something out of items they would normally throw away. For example, a puppet with paper bags or a building from cardboard boxes. They can decorate their objects with paint, beads– wherever their imagination leads– as long as they can explain what their project was made from and what it is now.
There are many ways to compare the past to the present.
- Pick a time period in the past. Have the students list everything they know about that period. What things are the same or different as now? What was going on in the rest of the world during that time? What do people from all time periods share in common ? Would the students rather live in the past or the present time and why?
- Have children write a letter to themselves or children in the future about the changes they predict might happen.
- Save a few newspapers or magazines in the beginning of the school year and compare them to papers at the end of the year. Ask the students for examples of how the world has changed.
