Comparing Long Ago and Today is always a fun lesson with my students. They are fascinated at the differences between their life today and kids long ago!
We started our lesson with a non fiction powerpoint story that compares life long ago to today. This is a great story because it gives lots of examples, with real photos, of how kids lives have changed over the years.
We worked together to make this T Chart comparing life Long Ago to Today.
Next, we worked together to write our opinion of which was better ~ Long Ago or Today? I showed the students the OREO model and explained that when writing your opinion you should have 4 things included: Opinion, Reason, Examples and Opinion. I modeled for the students how to do this in our writing.
Now it was time for the students to write their own comparisons and opinions. Since it was the first time they had tried this type of writing, it was tricky. We used a writing template that gave them sentence starters and that helped a lot.
Finally we finished up with a really simple craft….but for some reason they LOVE it! They think it's cool to write with chalk on the “slate” and the mini paper computer was a big hit!
Are you planning on studying Long Ago and Today? It's perfect to use around your 100th Day of School celebration (comparing life 100 years ago to today!) or any time of the year. It's a great way to combine your Social Studies with your writing. This unit includes pre & post assessments, differentiated writing templates, graphic organizers, a non fiction powerpoint story, two crafts and worksheets. You can grab this unit on Long Ago and Today here.
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