My Heart Will Go On!!!!!

We ended our study of the Titanic yesterday with an awesome celebration.  As you know, each student was given an actual passenger that was aboard Titanic.  I had 6 kids in each of the three classes.  Our grade level put all the kids together for our Day Aboard Titanic celebration.  Our kiddos were told they could dress according to their class for the day.  Boy did they take that to heart!  We had some fancy, fancy dresses and sharp suits!

Lady Duff Gordon and Ida Straus 

First Class Passengers

Second Class Passengers

Third Class Passengers

John Jacob Astor IV and Wife, Madeline
Are you surprised I was married to the richest guy on the ship??

Lady Duff Gordon and Margaret Brown
Single Ladies having fun!

Isador and Ida Straus -Co-owners of Macy's Department Store
Ida was played by my principal!  Isn't she great?????

The fun started with lunch.  We decided to have 3 tables set, one for each class.  The first class table had a nice dark blue sheet of bulletin board paper  tablecloth, candles, and they each had their fork and napkin placed for them.  Of course my table was the first class table!!!  The talk during lunch consisted of some of the following, "Oh, I am so rich." "I tried one bite of this dish, and I want something else.  Waiter, take it away!" "I love being rich" "I really want to try out the Turkish Bath" "Let's go for a swim in OUR swimming pool"  It was so much fun!

John Jacob Astor IV, the richest man on the Titanic

The second class table was covered with a white sheet of bulletin board paper tablecloth and they had a folded napkin with their fork.  Their table conversation was more light and less about themselves! Hot topics of conversation included, "Look at those snotty first class people!" "I'm glad we don't just talk about money." There was lots of laughing at first class talking about themselves.

Passengers Eva Hart and Ruth Becker

The third class table didn't have anything set on it.  Several students commented that it wasn't fair they couldn't sit at a fancy table.  We explained that the third class passengers wouldn't have had as nice of things.  Their table conversation consisted of some of the following, "I really don't like those first class people!" "Our food is great!" "First class think they are better than everyone else." "We have the most fun of all the people!"

Third Class didn't mind their modest accommodations

We gave our kids some sorbet  ice cream to cleanse their palette.  Then it was up to prepare to board for the Titanic's maiden voyage.  We began our trip by having our classes rotate through 3 stations.  We had a Kidblog activity where they created a fact card for their person predicting whether they lived or died.

Checking out their passengers info for the blog post

The second station was creating a newspaper article for the South Hampton Gazette that would have run the day after Titanic sank.  My kids got really creative when coming up with headlines and articles to fill up their papers.

The third station idea was courtesy of Beth Newingham.  She had listed in her Titanic unit that she had used a Palm Pilot program to figure out how prices would have inflated and had a worksheet to go with it.  I found an app for my iPods that I was able to use and the kids LOVED it!  Here was my favorite from the list: 2nd class room cost in 1912: $60 2012: $1,200!!!!  I thought that the price of the first class suite would be sky high, but to go from $60, which doesn't seem much to me, to $1,200, WOW!

We couldn't have a day on Titanic without dancing.  First we introduced the kids to the waltz and told them that was how first class passengers would have danced.  At first we had very few boy/girl pairs, but as the music continued we had more join in.  Third class dancing was much more fun for all included!  The kids commented that they were free to dance however they wanted to and didn't have to dance with a boy/girl!

Third Class Dance Time

Finally it was time for the passengers to find out their fate.  I had posted their passengers pic on the SMART Board with either survived or perished.  I had the kids predict the fate of each passenger.  It was so fun to watch each group of students to find out if they made it off the Titanic or not.  Some students crossed their fingers and said things like, "Please live, Please live!"  Others cheered when they lived or let out sighs when they went down with the ship.

The Unsinkable Molly Brown learned she had survived!

The last thing we did before docking was to show kids some clips of the Titanic today.  They really got into how the Titanic was a real event and over 1,500 people lost their lives.  Before, I think that most who had heard of the Titanic simply thought it was a fictional event.  Showing them those clips, made it real for them.   We had some great conversations during our class debate.  I told each of my kids I wanted them to convince others to join their class.  Remarkably, one group of 6 all reverted to 3rd class!  They stated they wanted to be free to do what they wanted and not wear tight, stuffy clothes.

Everyone had a great time and learned a lot about the Titanic (which is most important, right?) The funniest thing that happened during this whole unit was when my teammate and I were looking for clips on Youtube we came across a preview of Titanic 2, which we HAD to watch!  Didn't you know, Jack is Back?  See for yourself!

Even though the Titanic is gone, my heart will go on and keep beating for her!  I hope to finish up my Titanic pack this weekend to have it up in my store. Hope everyone has a great weekend.