Cynthia Hirsch Kosut

"How small, of all that human hearts endure,
That part which laws or kings can cause or cure!"
--Oliver Goldsmith, The Traveler.

Overview

Calling upon students' ability to empathize and imagine, this assignment asks students to create an artifact-box symbolizing the internal fears and concerns of a turn-of-the-century child around Halloween.

Objectives

By creating an artifact-box containing a young turn-of-the-century child's fears around Halloween, students will:

• Acknowledge the commonalities of experiences among all children
• Develop additional characteristics and attributes for their child's character
• Engage emotionally with their created character

Time Required

1 hr. plus homework   (Timely for Halloween.)

Recommended Grade Level

Middle School

Curriculum Fit

Interdisciplinary (Art, History, Language Arts)

Resources Used

• "James Whitcomb Riley--Hoosier Poet (DC003)" (scroll down)
  Indiana Historical Society 
  [http://www.indianahistory.org/library/digital_image/digitalpics.html]
  
• Riley, James Whitcomb.   Little Orphant Annie [http://www.poets.org/poems/poems.cfm?prmID=1008]
  
• "Halloween; The Fantasy and Folklore of All Hallows" 
  by Jack SantinoAmerican Folklore Center) <http://www.loc.gov/folklife/halloween.html]
  
• "Day of the Dead" [http://www.nacnet.org/assunta/dead.htm]

Procedure

1. Class activity: Read the children's poem Little Orphant Annie aloud to the class.
2. Homework: Students will create a symbolic representation of his or her child's inner life from a shoe box.  The outside will display the photograph of your turn-of-the-century child.  The inside will be a representation of what a child of four or five feels or dreams, questions or worries about, as Halloween nears.  Think about fears - of death, witches, ghosts or other "gobble-uns" - you might experience as a young child during this time period.
3. Class activity: Share inside-outside boxes reflecting on why your child might respond in certain ways.

Evaluation and Extension

Writing in the persona of their child, students should be able to develop character depth, as a result of invoking their personal connections to these created fictional characters.