My program was initially open to kids in grades 4-8. When sign-up was sluggish at first (and after we learned that the local 3rd graders had studied the Titanic in school!) we opened the program up to 3rd graders as well. In the end we had a solid turn out.
As kids arrived, we had them make name tags. I also gave each child a card with some information about a real passenger on the Titanic (information was taken from the Encyclopedia Titanica) featuring passenger names, ages, class, ticket cost, etc. I asked the kids to think critically about who their passenger was and try to guess if their passenger was likely to survive the sinking or not (children, women, and higher class were all more likely to survive than their counterparts). This activity was actually borrowed from an exhibit I saw at the Milwaukee Public Museum a few years ago, and proved to be a good way of connecting with the passengers' personal stories.
While waiting for the other kids to arrive they could explore a timeline of major Titanic events. There was also a display of books about the Titanic and its sinking available to browse.
Our first group activity was a discussion about Morse Code and other methods that the Titanic may have had at their disposal for signaling for help. We talked about CQD and SOS and how they are used as distress signals. I also showed them the Morse Code Machine on the Boy's Life website, which is a fun way of learning about Morse Code. You can take quizes here to test your knowledge of the code and type out your own messages.
Next we talked about the cold conditions on the night when the Titanic sank. We talked about how cold it was and how it was difficult to see icebergs on such a calm, clear night. We filled a kiddy pool with cold water and placed a large chunk of ice inside to act as our iceberg. (Credit for this idea goes to Abby the Librarian.) The kids were challenged to stand in the cold water and see how long they could last in the cold water. That was a lot of fun! Most kids only lasted a couple of seconds, but a few lasted a full five minutes before we had to move on to another project.
To prepare for our next activity I had looked up the dimensions of the Titanic's lifeboats and drawn an outline of one of the boats on the floor with masking tape. (Did you know that most of the lifeboats were about 30 feet long x 9 feet wide?). I asked the kids to sit inside our "lifeboat" while we talked about how and why most of the lifeboats weren't filled with as many people as they could hold. With the kids, myself, and a couple of helpers sitting in the "lifeboat" we had 19 people in total - the same number of people that were inside the first lifeboat when it was lowered. This was a great visual aid to demonstrate how the lifeboat situation really affected the fatality rate on the Titanic.
Next we played Titanic Trivia. I borrowed the idea for this game's format from this year's CSLP Teen Summer Library Program Manual (page 52) and adapted it for a Titanic theme. To set up, I had four chairs (one for each team) set up along one wall of the room with point values assigned on pieces of paper above each chair. I divided the kids up into four teams of four. I gave each team a set of cards on colored paper with the answers to all of the questions that I would ask. Each team sat on the floor with the answer cards spread out in front of them. I would ask a trivia question relating to the Titanic and each team would have to try to find the correct answer card. One person from each team would act as a runner and would run from their spot on the floor to a chair with an answer in hand. If they got the correct answer then their team would earn the number of points assigned to the chair they were sitting in. If they had the wrong answer, however, they would loose that many points - so it is more important to be right than it is to be fast! The kids had a great time and I think it was a good idea to have an activity like this with some movement involved. Another big appeal of this format is that the kids didn't necessarily already need to be Titanic experts to have fun with this game since the answers were already provided. Plus, it was a great way to review what we had learned from the previous activities and throw in a few other bits of information that didn't quite fit elsewhere in the program.
To conclude the event I passed out cards that corresponded to the passenger profiles that the kids were given early in the program. These cards described whether the passengers survived the sinking or not. The kids had fun comparing stories and discovering the fates of their passengers.
Overall, this was a very successful program and the kids and I had a great time with these hands-on activities. The program lasted about 75 minutes, and truthfully the trivia game could have been a program all on its own if expanded upon. I was also very glad to have another staff person on hand to help out - setting up or taking down activities, keeping the kids corralled, and taking pictures as needed.
1 comment:
This sounds great! Thanks for sharing.
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