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Topics
Fashion to Furnishings
Capturing Customers
Company Histories
From Order to Delivery
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Timeline
Catalogues (1880-1975)
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Show and Tell

Grades
 4-8

Subjects
 Social Studies, Language (reasoning and critical thinking, listening, and oral communication), History, Information Technology/Technology Studies

Themes
 Change, Technology

Resources

  • Historic catalogues on this site
  • Books and other research materials (optional)

Description

  1. Using the guidelines in Introduction to the Resources, print out one or two pages from each catalogue. Suggested pages are clothing, toys, large or small appliances, sports equipment, or audiovisual equipment.
     
  2. Circle an item on each page.
     
  3. Fold up the pages and place them in a hat.
     
  4. Ask students to select a page from the hat.
     
  5. Students must read their item's description to the class.
     
  6. Then, on their own, students must research their item to find out how a fashion or technology item changed over time. Research sources could include the catalogues on this site, other websites, books, parents, and grandparents.
     
  7. Students make a presentation about how they did their research, what they discovered about how their item (material, use, cost), and how it changed over time.

 
   
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