Furnish a Mail-order House
Social Studies, Art
Change, Technological change
- Mail-order Houses by Les Henry
- Historical catalogues (links below)
- House plans (links below);
- Current Sears catalogue (optional) to be brought in
- Assign a different catalogue to each group of students.
Suggested catalogues are the:
- Using one of two floor plans of a 1929 Eaton's house (House
1) or (House
2), or a student's own house for the group that uses the current
catalogue, each group must build a model of a house and then furnish it
items from one catalogue.
- Students must decide on the composition and economic status of their
and furnish the house accordingly.
- They must then calculate the cost of all items. Rooms to include as a
are kitchen, bathroom, living room or parlour, and one bedroom. Other
be added it groups wish.
- The houses can be two-dimensional or three-dimensional, as students
and as time and resources permit. Furnishings can be printed from
and glued onto stiff paper or drawn using the illustration as reference.
can glue small stands behind the pictures to make them stand up.
- When groups are finished, students present their houses to the class
discuss the furnishings they selected and why.
- As a class, students compare the changes in technologies,