Teaching Notes

Working together or in pairs, write as many questions about this photo as you can in 5 minutes. Ready, set, go!

Circle your three favorite questions. 

Think about or discuss why you chose these three questions.  

Only now may you peak at the information about the photo!

  Pre K - 2   3 - 5   Bell Ringer   STEM   Measurement   Scientific Instruments   Weather   Snow  

Teaching Notes

Right before the end of the year the country lost its longest living President, Jimmy Carter. In honor of his 100 years of life and his home state of Georgia - here is the front page with The Atlanta Tri-Weekly Journal from the year he was born, 1924. 

Potential activities - 

1. The quickest activity is Think, Puzzle, Explore from Project Zero at Harvard.
   1. Choose any article and use the protocol to think more deeply about the meaning, connections, questions
      1. What do you think you know about this topic?
      2. What questions or puzzles do you have about this topic?
      3. How might you explore your puzzles about this topic?
2. Analyze the cartoon on the front page using  Primary Source Analysis Tool
   1. How does this cartoon fit in with the modern commentary around the US government? 
3. ELA focus - Read for new words. Identify 5 new words, look up meaning and use them in a modern context.
4. Government focus - Read the article "Coolidge Forces After 'Whip Hand' in New Congress"
   1. Identify similarities and differences to the current challenges in Congress.
   2. What happens to the potential Coolidge nomination in the 1924 Presidential election?
   3. What is unique about the 1924 election?
5. Geography focus - How many articles are about Georgia, another US state/city, international locations? What does that say about the focus of American journalism? Compare that ratio to today's front page in a paper from a major city near you? What observations do you have?
6. Math focus - Using the advertisement for the paper subscription, convert the cost to a modern costs. Resources from the Library of Congress - HERE. Is that a good deal compared to what a subscription to the Atlanta Journal World is today?

bell ringer  

Teaching Notes

Happy New Year!  Bell Ring your classes with an meme-making activity based on newly enacted 2025 local laws using inspiration from Library of Congress primary sources. The goal is to make learning about new legislation more interactive

As students enter the classroom, display Library of Congress memes from this search string.  For background, reference this blog post from Teaching with The Library Primary Sources & Ideas for Educators Informational Text: Know Your Meme

Hand out or have students research a list of either new school, local or state wide laws that go into effect in 2025 or beyond. 

In groups or individually, students select a law and select a Library of Congress primary source to alter or mimic providing a message about the new law. The WPA Poster Collection is a good place to discover ideas. Students can create their “new 2025 law” meme on a slide program or on paper.

Students share and explain the purpose behind their primary source selection and the meme they create.

Original primary source: https://www.loc.gov/item/98507722/

Newly enacted Bill Text AB 1825 California Freedom to Read Act 

  Bell Ringer   9 - 12  

Teaching Notes

This is a Picture Prompt: 

Write a paragraph for a story real or imagined.

  NY Times Learning Network   Picture Prompt  

Teaching Notes

On December 31, 1913, Puck magazine offered a playful yet profound image of Uncle Sam faced with two drinks from the New Year: ‘Hope’ or ‘Fear.’ 

Go back in a time machine and tell him some of the events and developments that will come in 1914 and shortly afterwards.

Build an argument for Hope, Fear or a response of your choosing. 

Teaching Notes

What I like to do when I am subbing is to have the kids look at a primary source(s) that I hand out to them and they do a "See, Think and Wonder" sheet on that primary source(s). 

Some of the questions that I ask the students are " How long ago do you think these items were used"? " How can you tell that these items were used during this time"?  and "What context clues give you that information"?  

I encourage the kids to have their own ideas about what they think the primary source(s) are.  After I get all of the students wonderful and well thought out ideas, then I tell them what the primary source is.

   BellRinger   Pre K - 2   3 - 5   6 - 8   9 - 12  

Teaching Notes

• Use the observe, reflect, and question method to analyze both of the images.  Think about any similarities or differences between 1867 and 1917.  What kind of historic events happened over those fifty years that may have affected/influenced celebrations?
• Draw your own cartoon of what New Year's Eve looks like in 2024.  
• If time allows, draw panels showing what New Year's Eve looked like in 1967 and in 2017. 
• In each of your drawings, pay attention to the fashions of the time, the activities that people would be doing, and products that you might have seen at those times  
• The caption for this image talks about New Year's Eve celebrations starting in the early 1900s.  What do you like to do for New Year's Eve?  Do you have any traditions?
• The New York City ball-dropping began in 1907.  In New Orleans, instead of a ball drop, we have a Fleur de Lis drop.  Does your city/town have something similar? 
•  

Teaching Notes

How we view things can play a crucial role in how we learn about our world. Our learning relies heavily on our viewing skills. Therefore, it is necessary to explicitly teach viewing skills.  This bell ringer will ask students to focus just on their critical viewing skills by: 

• Recognizing bias 
• Recognizing the inferences made in the image 
• Distinguishing between fact and opinion 
• Evaluating sources
• Understanding power dynamics, privilege, and marginalization

Use the following prompts to analyze this political cartoon:

• What bias is present? 
• Why do you think the image is being used?   
• Are the visual statements fact or opinion? How do you know? 
• Who is the main character? Who is the audience? Who is the creator?
• What power dynamics are present? What is left out of the image?

As an extension, review the Levels of Viewing task card and try another analysis using the discriminative, precise, or appreciative levels of viewing. https://drive.google.com/file/d/17GLawC9KEzw907bERYWqhRF7EkCX1Plq/view?usp=sharing

Adapted from the Levels of Viewing analysis strategy by Dr Roland Schendel   - MSU Denver school of Education.

Teaching Notes

You may have seen the stories from the U.K. about the distress resulting when the vicar in Hampshire told a group of ten- and eleven-year-olds, “You’re all year six, now let’s be real, Santa isn’t real.” 

To counter that, this column is an old chestnut, reprinted here one hundred years ago in the Birmingham Age-Herald on December 25, 1924. The author of the response was an editor, Francis Pharcellus Church, who was only acknowledged after his death. His response encapsulates the unseeable but present in our world. This was often reprinted, I am sure not in the least because Christmas tends to be a slow news day.

I remember hearing “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus” rather frequently growing up, but I was having a conversation with friends recently who did not know about that 1897 New York Sun column that was widely reprinted, or the 1991 TV movie.

The other reason I have for including this is the eye-catching image of the teary child (probably younger than the eight-year-old Virginia, or the children in Hampshire). I tried to reverse search that image, but I didn’t retrieve anything similar. My guess is it because of the local use of flong, which Brittanica describes as a “a thin sheet of pasteboard, pliant enough to register an impression and sufficiently heat-resistant to tolerate the molten type metal,” often for illustration or the inclusion of prepared copy. This year, I learned more about the use of paper flong molds in creating art for newspaper stereotype printing, and my guess would be that this one was perhaps use for advertising initially.

Teaching Notes

• Using the Primary Source Analysis Tool, read and analyze the primary source(s).
• Use the findings from the primary source analysis tool as fodder for a Found Poem. 
• Share your found poetry with your group. 

Teaching Notes

  Rebecca Newland , past Teacher in Residence at the Library of Congress, wrote this post with bell ringer ideas for reading poetry as part of the “Teacher’s Corner” series hosted on the former From the Catbird Seat blog.

The link to image source record can be found under the Reference note. 

Teaching Notes

Rebecca Newland , past Teacher in Residence at the Library of Congress, wrote this post with bell ringer ideas for writing poetry as part of the “Teacher’s Corner” series hosted on the former From the Catbird Seat blog.

The image link can be found under the Reference note.

Teaching Notes

Before reading the attached text, answer the following questions:

1. Based on your own knowledge/beliefs, briefly explain why Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white passenger, leading to the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
2. Based on what you have been taught, before taking this class, why did Rosa Parks refuse to give up her seat.

Assignment Task:

1. Read the attached primary source document and compare and contrast your responses to questions 1 and 2, to the explanation in the primary source document.
2. Briefly state why relying on primary sources are important when studying history.

Teaching Notes

Have students change the text to suit the current new year.

Alternatively, have students find the front-page of a newspaper from the day they were born and change the text based on the content of the page.

Teaching Notes

What are the weird lights on top of the trading post? 

In New Mexico's Hispano culture, they are known from Santa Fe north as farolitos (fah roh lee to) and from Albuquerque south as luminarias (loo men ah ree ah). https://www.newmexico.org/holidays/luminaria-vs-farolito/

In Northern New Mexico, a luminaria is a small bonfire.  This is a reference that dates back to December 3, 1590, when one of the Spanish colonizers made reference to them as a way to light routes.  Once flat bottomed paper bags became available, then these were used outdoors. According to legend, Mary and Joseph follow the farolitos/luminarias to the barn on Christmas Eve.  

Today, they are ubiquitous holiday decorations on buildings and pathways throughout the southwest. 

Teaching Strategy:

• Read one of the books with your students. Carlos, Light the Farolito (Grades K-2) by Jean Ciavonne and The Farolitos of Christmas (Grades 3-5) by Rudolfo Anaya are wonderful books to introduce your students to this Hisapnic tradition. 
• Have them color New Mexico on a map and research one fun fact about the State. 
• Decorate farolitos with your students and place them along the walkway into the school for the winter choir program. 
  • flat bottom paper lunch bags (brown or white work best)
  • markers (designs like stars are popular) or scissors (older kids can cut designs on the bags)
  • battery operated tea lights
  • sand

  Pre K - 2   3 - 5   6 - 8   9 - 12   Social Studies/History   Hispanic History   Art/Music   bell ringer  

Teaching Notes

• Working with a partner, please jot down what you observe in the photograph and what questions come to mind.
• Next take a look at background information about the photograph and note two supplemental fascinating facts related to the photograph.
• Our class will now come together to share observations, questions and fascinating facts.
• Students are encouraged to reflect on what traditions in your own community bring people together during the holiday season.
• Wishing everyone a happy & healthy New Year 2025!

  Bell Ringer   6 - 8   9 - 12   13+   Rockefeller Center   Christmas Holidays   Christmas Trees   Winter   Skating Rinks  

Teaching Notes

A literal interpretation of the album title! (and a potential incidental classroom discussion.)

I always associate bell ringers with those who ring the bells while tending the Salvation Army donation buckets during the Holiday Season.  Recently I noticed teenagers in this role at a grocery store; maybe they were fulfilling a community service project.     

Questions:

• What is the basic history of the salvation army? 
• How does the Salvation army provide assistance to those in need following natural disasters?
• How and why was the Salvation army been important in times of war?
• What, if any, is the connection between the Salvation Army and the Musical Guys and Dolls?
• How has the Salvation Army provided assistance recent years such as the COVID pandemic?   An  example to get you started:  Volunteer food distributors at Salvation Army. East Chicago, Indiana, June 8, 2020

Retired teachers can be bell ringers, too!  I visited with this friendly group on a return visit to the same store.

Teaching Notes

1. “What can these requests tell us about the lives of children in 1898?”

2. “Compare these with what children today might ask for. What does this say about how society and technology have changed?”

Encourage students to identify any historical or social trends (e.g., toys reflecting gender roles, socioeconomic status, or the influence of industrialization).

  Bell Ringer   3 - 5   6 - 8   9 - 12  

Teaching Notes

Teaching Notes:

1) With a partner, make a list of everything you see in the mural. 

2) Trade your list with another group's list. Next to each item on the list, write what you think each thing might symbolize or mean.

3) Trade back so that each group has their original list. Discuss the notations made by the other group and add any additional ideas.

4) Share your analysis in a brief class discussion.