Requirements

5.5 The student understands important issues, events, and individuals in the United States during the 20th and 21st centuries. The student is expected to (B) analyze various issues and events.

Objective: For students to research various aspects of American culture and politics during their chosen decade. This is also an opportunity for students to work on research, communication and presentation skills.

Directions:

Fifth graders will create a Decades Museum. You have chosen a decade (1910-1990) to become the expert on. This project will allow you to learn in depth about the decade you chose while presenting to others in a creative and engaging way.

  1. Students will work independently to create at least 4 products/artifacts.

  2. Each project should cover at least 4 of the topics below:

    1. Fashion/Clothing/Hairstyles (men and women)

    2. Culture-games, fads, slang

    3. Sports

    4. Entertainment-movies, tv, music, popular activities

    5. Politics

    6. Economy

    7. Inventions, technology

  3. This project should provide the audience with an overall idea of what happened during that decade and what it would be like to live during that time period. Be creative!

Project requirements:

  1. Thorough information provided about the assigned decade (suggested topics are listed in the Ideas to Research Chart for each decade).

  2. Final project must include requirements from the lists below.




4 Requirements of this project are:

  1. Biography (will be created during ELA) –

Prompt: Who was a major American contributor in your decade and what were their accomplishments?

You must use 2 different types of sources (textbook, book, website, database)

This will be a two part assignment:

  1. Essay biography of your major American contributor during your chosen decade

  2. An adaptation/visual representation of your American contributor.

Some examples of this might include but are not limited to:

  • Wax Museum Style Dress Up and Presentation (with artifact card)

  • Tri-fold Poster

  • Newspaper of your contributors life

  • Scrapbook of your contributors life

  • Model of a famous invention or symbol of the contributor (with artifact card)

  • Diary representation of the contributor

  • Water bottle contributor (with artifact card)

  • Getting into "character" poster board

  • Demonstration (with artifact card)

  • Artwork depicting your American contributor:

    • Painting (with artifact card)

    • Sketch (with artifact card)

Be creative! If you have other ideas please ask your teacher.


2. Timeline or Back in the Day Economy

In Person students will create a physical artifact to hang in the museum.

Remote Students may choose to create physical or digital artifacts.

  • include 10 events or products for pricing (use planning slides in Classroom)

  • Event description

  • be student made

  • Colorful and clear

  • Thematic timelines encouraged

  • Minimum of 5 images/photos/drawings

3 and 4. 2 Free Choice Products (You must choose 2 of the following items):

Be creative! If you have other ideas please ask your teacher.

  • map (with artifact card)

  • display board-poster or tri-fold

  • create a model (with artifact card)

  • create an artifact with artifact card explaining its importance to the decade (inventions, technology, etc.)

  • model the fashion of men or women from this decade (If you choose to dress for your important American (biography), you cannot choose this as a Free Choice.)

  • newspaper

  • food model-This will NOT be real food. It is a model of food artistically created by you. (with artifact card)

  • scrapbook

  • games/toys from that decade-This can either be the actual game/toy or a model created by you. (with artifact card)

  • demonstrations

  • multimedia (examples: PowerPoint, Google Slides, iMovie, Prezi, brainpop, Powtoons, kahoot, etc.)

Artifact Card is required for most pieces to be displayed on Decades Museum tables. Your artifact card should include:

  • Decade

  • Your Name

  • Title of Free Choice Piece

  • Description (in detail)

  • Why is this important to my decade?

  • This was influential beyond my decade./This was a fad and only stayed in my decade. Why? (Choose one and support)


Project should cover these 4 of the following topics (these should be included in the content of the biography, timeline/back in the day economy piece, or the free choice pieces):


Fashion

  • What type of clothing was popular during that time period?

  • Popular accessories?

  • Popular hairstyles?

  • Make sure to illustrate the differences between Men’s and Women’s fashion.

Culture

  • What was the American diet like? Popular restaurants and/or meals? Usually cook at home or dine out?

  • Were there any popular sayings, slang, or new vocabulary coined during this decade?

  • What games were popular in this decade?

  • Fads or crazes during this decade? (current example: TikTok, Pokemon trading cards, YouTubers, Among Us)

Sports

  • Were there any important sports players or major sporting events (Olympics, World Series, Super Bowls, etc.) in the decade? Explain a little about them.

Entertainment

  • What were popular activities?

  • What were popular movies?

  • What were popular tv shows?

  • What type of music was popular during that time period?


Politics

  • Who were the presidents during the decade?

  • Any political scandals?

  • Any wars / conflicts?

  • Major pieces of legislation

Economy

  • How was the economy at the time?

  • What was the cost of living? What did common items like gas, bread, homes, cars, etc. cost?

  • What was the unemployment rate?

  • Were there any shortages?

Inventions/Technology

  • Were there any important/influential inventions that came out of your decade?

  • How did the inventions impact the American people?