Toys in the Catalogues

Grades
2-3

Subject
Social Studies, Language Arts (reasoning and critical thinking, listening, and oral communication)

Theme
Change

Resources

• Historic catalogues from this site
• Photographs of artefacts from this site

Description

1. Project onto a screen or print out according to the guidelines in Introduction to the Resources, the toy pages of one or more historic catalogues from this site. (A few links to toy pages are suggested below.)
    
   Links to toy pages:
    
   • Eaton's Fall and Winter 1948-49
     • pages 502, 506, 508, 509, 510, 511, 512, 513, 514
        
   • Eaton's Fall and Winter 1918-19 catalogue
     • pages 516, 517, 518, 519, 520, 521, 522, 523
        
   • Nerlich Fall and Holiday 1939-1940 catalogue
     • pages 96, 96a, 96c, 96d
        
2. As a class, ask students to name each toy they see. If your students are able to read, ask them to read out loud the text accompanying each item.
    
3. For each toy, determine whether or not it is available today. If available today, discuss how the toy has changed.
    
   • Are there any toys that are no longer available today?
      
   • What toys do we have today that were not available in the past?
      
   • If you could order any of the toys from the old catalogue, which ones would you order and why?