Let's Go Shopping 1948! Elementary Webquest
Supplementary Activities
The original mail-order catalogues in this activity are rich graphic
and
text resources that can support many activities related to this Webquest
and
its specific curriculum links as well as other aspects of Social Studies,
History,
Geography, English, Language Arts, Core French, English as a Second
Language, Math, and Art. By doing these extension activities, your
students will
gain valuable experience and skills in performing primary source research
and
internet-based research, as well as in analysing and synthesising
information.
Most of the activities that follow require the web-based catalogue
pages only,
while some require a recent Sears catalogue and other contemporary
catalogues
that your students bring in.
We hope that you will perform some of these activities with your
students
and then think of other ways to make use of the valuable resources on this
site.
1. Shopping Through Time
Subjects
Social Studies, History, Technology and Information Studies
Themes
Change, Technological Change
Resources
On-line Catalogues
Description
Take a look at other catalogues that are
available
on this site.
- Assign a different catalogue to each group of students, and challenge
them
to make an order equivalent to their 1948 order from this catalogue. If
they
can't find an exact item, they must find the closest match (for
example,
a record player could replace a phonograph).
- Beginning with the group that consulted the oldest catalogue, ask the
groups
to make presentations about what they would order from their catalogue.
- Each group should explain how items changed, which items were no
longer available,
and which were replaced with new items.
- As a class, discuss reasons for the changing availability of
items.
Suggested catalogues are:
2. Catalogues Today and Yesterday
Subjects
Social Studies, Language Arts, Art
Themes
Needs, Wants, Change
Resources
Description
Ask each student to bring in one or more mail-order catalogues
from
home, including at least one current Sears catalogue. Break the class into
small
groups and perform the following two activities:
First Activity
Ask students to compare the design and text of a current Sears catalogue
or other
contemporary catalogue to the 1948 catalogue they used in the Webquest.
After
a reasonable amount of time, lead a class discussion about the changes in
catalogue
design.
Specific features to compare:
- Cover image, design, text, and message
- Index of current Sears catalogue:
- How have categories changed?
- What categories have disappeared?
- What new categories have appeared?
- Index of specialty catalogues:
- What are the categories?
- How does the selection of goods compare to the selection in the
Eaton's
Fall and Winter 1948-49 catalogue?
- Vocabulary:
- What words are no longer used?
- What new words are used?
- Make a list of outdated words and their meanings.
Second Activity
Ask each group to compare the goods available in the 1948-49
catalogue
and contemporary catalogues. Then, lead a class discussion about the
changes
in goods available then and now, reasons for these changes, and how the
changes
affect our health, environment and daily lives.
Suggested areas to compare:
- Items for sale: Look at clothing, appliances, toys, sports equipment
and
audio-visual equipment.
- What has stayed the same?
- What has changed?
- What has disappeared?
- If items have disappeared, has anything replaced them?
- Some items to look at in both old and new catalogues are: gloves,
umbrellas,
handkerchiefs, hats, electric irons, hot plates, radios, phonographs,
bikes,
stoves, barn equipment, cream separators, harnesses, and washing
machines.
Extend this to an art activity by printing out or sketching similar
items
from old and new catalogues, and making a collage that compares the old
and the
new.
3. Costs Today and Yesterday
Subjects
Math, Technology and Information Studie,; Social Studies,
History
Theme
Change
Resources
Price Conversion Table
Use this table to compare catalogue prices to 2003 dollars. To compare
prices
to current dollars, use the full table provided at http://www.bankofcanada.ca/en/inflation_calc.htm.
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In 2003 you would need …
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$12.04
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...to match the purchasing power of $1 in 1918.
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In 2003 you would need...
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$11.16
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...to match the purchasing power of $1 in 1926.
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In 2003 you would need...
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$11.27
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...to match the purchasing power of $1 in 1929.
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In 2003 you would need...
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$13.95
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...to match the purchasing power of $1 in 1936.
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In 2003 you would need...
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$13.49
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...to match the purchasing power of $1 in 1939.
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In 2003 you would need...
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$9.03
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...to match the purchasing power of $1 in 1948.
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In 2003 you would need...
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$8.41
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...to match the purchasing power of $1 in 1950.
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In 2003 you would need...
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$7.31
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...to match the purchasing power of $1 in 1956.
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In 2003 you would need...
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$6.57
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...to match the purchasing power of $1 in 1962.
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In 2003 you would need...
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$5.79
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...to match the purchasing power of $1 in 1967.
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In 2003 you would need...
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$3.69
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...to match the purchasing power of $1 in 1975.
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Source: Bank of Canada Inflation Calculator
Description
Ask each group of students to convert their 1948 order into a
contemporary
order. They must find an equivalent item in the Sears catalogue for each
item
on their original order. Calculate the cost of the entire order. Using the
price
conversion table, ask each group to determine the cost of the 1948 order
in current
dollars. How does the overall cost compare? Calculate the percentage
increase
or decrease.
Repeat this activity for each item on the list, comparing the price of
each
item in current dollars. Which items increased the most? The least?
Ask each group to present its findings. Lead a class discussion about
why
prices change.
4. Catalogue Lingo 1948 and Today
Subjects
Social Studies, Language Arts
Themes
Change; Writing for a specific audience
Resources
Description
Ask each student to bring in one or more mail-order catalogues from home.
First, as a class, choose an item from the Eaton's Fall and
Winter 1948-49
catalogue and a similar item from a contemporary catalogue. Suggestions
are a
pair of shoes, a bike or a stove. Write out the text accompanying each
item on
your whiteboard or project it on a screen. As a class, compare the way
both texts
are written.
Next, ask each student to choose an item from a recent catalogue and to
write
text for it that may have appeared in a 1948 catalogue. Ask a few students
to
read out their text.
You could also ask students to choose a 1948 item and write text that
would
accompany it in a contemporary catalogue.
5. Families Then and Now
Subjects
Social Studies, History
Themes
Change, Urbanization, Immigration
Resources
Family descriptions in Webquest
Description
Explain to your students that all of the family descriptions and
family
members in the Webquest are based on actual families living in 1948. These
descriptions
were developed in part by interviewing the grown-up children from these
families.
Lead a class discussion about the differences and similarities between
the
families in the Webquest and families today. Some areas to compare include
family
composition, place of birth, place of residence, roles of each family
member,
occupations, and incomes. Themes to explore include change (related to
lifestyles,
family composition, occupations), urbanization, and immigration. Extend
this
activity by challenging your students to interview their parents or
grandparents
to create similar descriptions of their own families.
6. Make a Quiz
Subjects
Social Studies, English Language Arts
Themes
Any!
Resources
Eaton's
Fall and Winter 1948-49 catalogue, other
catalogues
Description
Students create a quiz using catalogue images and text. Individually or as
a
group, pick out five objects from the Eaton's Fall and Winter
1948-49 catalogue.
Print out the five pages. Cut out the objects and their descriptions, and
separate
them into two piles. On one side of a whiteboard, post all of the objects.
On
the other side, post the descriptions. Challenge classmates to match the
correct
description to the correct object. You can also make this into a
competition
by creating teams that try to match the objects to their descriptions in
the
shortest time.
You can do this activity with other catalogues
linked
to this site. Some of the earliest catalogues have the most unusual
objects.
Look at the:
7. Create a Math Problem
Subject
Math
Resources
Eaton's
Fall and Winter 1948-49 catalogue
Description
Students create math problems for classmates to do. Provide students with
one
or two examples. Students can exchange problems, or do them as a class.
Challenge
your students to convert the imperial measurers into metric.
Examples:
- You need to buy shoes for three children and have $22.50 to spend,
including
tax and shipping.
- You have ten dollars to spend on Christmas gifts. Your family needs to
purchase
items for mother, father, 5-year-old son, and 10-year-old daughter.
- You want to replace the shingles on your roof (page
560). Your roof is 15 yd x 4 yd on each of two
sides.
- How many shingles do you need?
- What will it cost?
- How much will the most expensive shingles cost?
- The least expensive?
- What if you just need to patch a small area of
2 yd x 2 yd?
Similar challenges could focus on fabric (page
322), carpet (page
416), and linoleum flooring (page
414 and 415).
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