Communities Change Over Time | Past and Present | Then and Now History Lessons

In this unit students will focus on the changes that communities go through over time by learning about changes in environment, business, education, communication, and transportation. The study of local history comes alive through the use of artifacts and documents.

This is the PRINTABLE VERSION, the DIGITAL VERSION is available here.

In this unit you will find:

•Unit Overview: A unit overview with eight days of  lessons, including read-aloud and video suggestions.

• Then and Now Interview Assignment: Students will interview an adult about the past and answer questions about their own life.

• Artifact Posters: Real photographs of artifacts from the past that can be used in place of actual artifacts for the “Guess the Artifact” activities.

• Guess the Artifact Worksheets: Students will view pictures of artifacts (or real artifacts if you’re lucky enough to have them) from the past and be asked to identify the item and decide what it might have been used for in the past.

• Guess the Artifact Matching Game: A matching game for students to identify artifacts from the past and their uses.

• Primary or Secondary: This worksheet gives examples of both primary and secondary sources and asks students to identify which are primary and which are secondary. It also allows students the chance to create their own examples of sources.

• Changes in Environment: After reading Window by Jeannie Baker, students imagine what their community might have looked like 100 years ago if they looked out their window. Then they draw a picture and write a sentence of what they pictured of the past and what that same location looks like in the present.

• Changes in Business: For this activity students will begin by brainstorming businesses/occupations found in their local community. They will compare the list they come up with to the occupations found on the “Occupations From the Past” posters and answer the rest of the questions as they think about the impact businesses can make in their community.

• Changes in Education: Students will read the included article, “Schools in the Past”. Then they will use the information to compare schools in the past and the present on the Venn diagram worksheet and on the cut and paste picture sort worksheet.

• Changes in Communication: After students have learned about past forms of communication through a cut and paste activity, they will need to come up with a form of communication they think might exist in the future. They will draw a picture and write a description. Extension: Have your students pretend that they work for a newspaper in the past and write all about a day in the life of a student on the “Read All About It” handout.

• Changes in Transportation: Students will show transportation over time by creating a flipbook. After they fold and cut they will draw a picture of a form of transportation from the past, the present, and possibly the future and describe them inside.

• Communities Change Quiz: Questions covering information the students learned throughout the unit.

•*Bonus: Communities Change Review Game: Review the information from the unit with this Jeopardy-style game.

SEE WHAT OTHER EDUCATORS ARE SAYING ABOUT THIS PRODUCT:

❤️"This was so helpful for a unit that lacks resources. I always have a hard time finding things for local history and change over time. Thanks so much!"

❤️ "I struggle every year to find quality resources to help teach the standards. This went above and beyond. I used almost every page!!"

❤️"Used this in conjunction with a field trip to our local historical park. They got so much more out of the trip as a result! Fun, engaged, learning!"

❤️"This resource is so well put together! We are studying our city and have brought in speakers as well as planned a walking field trip. This pack fits perfectly with what we are doing! The boys and girls have loved the large picture card artifacts."

❤️"This resource helped my students better understand changes over time. The activities were excellent. The images of antique items were amazing. My students had never seen some of the items. The resource brought the lesson to life."

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