Guidefor Teachers
By Diann Kueny Rose, Educational Technologist
This guide overview recommends
student activities for supplemental projects that support the curriculum
for social studies, language arts/English, and visual and performing arts
for grades 3-12 (to be adapted appropriately for each grade level).Please choose an area of study:
Students can review the entire Web site individually or in groups. Discuss
what they found on the site as a group activity. Create a time line or
diagram of the events in Disney’s life. Arrange students in groups or
teams. Activities can be adapted for age-appropriate curriculum.
Social Studies
Objective: Students gather information on the assigned time period or
other related topics and present their research collaboratively in an oral
and written report to the whole class. Activities call on research as well
as written and oral communication skills.
Activities:
Create groups of three to six students. After the groups read all
episodes together, assign each group a different episode. Students
then can research their site, as well as other Web sites, library
resources, and core textbooks, to gather information about the
particular period depicted in the episode. Each group presents their
research findings orally to the class. Elementary and middle school
students can use ClarisWorks Slide Show and/or HyperStudio multimedia
authoring software to present their report. Microsoft PowerPoint is
recommended for high school students’ multimedia projects.
Discuss what life was like for Americans in each period. Incorporate
economic conditions of the times in the discussion.
Have students research their own family experiences during each time
period.
Trace the development of the Walt Disney Company from its beginning
to the present.
Language Arts/English
Objective: To improve reading comprehension, literary response and
analysis, listening and speaking strategies, and written and oral English
language conventions.
Activities:
Have students write stories using each time period as settings.
Discuss and write about common careers in each time period.
Write an interview with Walt Disney in each time period.
Create a panel discussion on what influenced Walt Disney during each
time period.
Write a newspaper article about Walt Disney in one of the time
periods.
Write a narrative from Disney’s children’s point of view during the
early years of Disney productions.
Write a story using 10 to 15 of the words listed in the Dictionary
Section.
Create a poem about Disney and/or his characters.
Write an essay on the themes of Disney’s movies and present orally
with illustrations.
Study and discuss the first movies Disney made, and write different
endings to each story.
Discuss Disney’s vision of entertainment.
Do a man-on-the-street interview with Disney at the premiere of one
of his new movies.
Create a crossword puzzle of Disney movie titles, characters, and
dictionary words from the site.
Read and discuss the section called Walt’s Thoughts. Write questions
to Walt as if he were alive today. As a group, brainstorm how Walt
would have answered these questions.
Have Fun!
Visual and Performing Arts
Objective: Students explore the characters and unique creativity of the
Walt Disney Studios from the 1920s through the 1960s, and how they relate
to today’s motion pictures, animated features, and music.
Activities:
Draw and animate pictures from Disney movies.
High school students, report on changes in music composition and
development over the years as a reflection of each time period.
Research the development of animation in movies.
Elementary students, draw pictures of Disney characters and build
mobiles to hang in the classroom.
Perform a play based on scenes from Disney movies.
Make one of Disney’s cartoon characters a 21st-century character.
Create a story about this character.
Write a song that is related to some aspect of the life, times, and
contributions of Walt Disney.
Make an art collage of Disney movies from hand-drawn illustrations
or electronic sources.
Working in groups, find recipes from each era and create a pot-luck
Disney party.
Dress up as favorite characters and create an impromptu play.
Upper-grade students, develop a Web page about their favorite Disney
movies, including information on the time period of the movie,
production techniques, and other interesting facts related to the
movie.
Trace the development of movie production from Disney’s first movie
to the present.
Please choose an area of study:
