Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Quick History Lesson

I have tried to incorporate more historical fiction into my reading to help give students context of when things have happened.  Let's face it, seven and eight year olds don't always have the most up-to-date knowledge of history and even current events.

Case and point today.

One of my girls was so excited that she had found some author information in the back about Molly (one of the American girl dolls).  Molly's life takes place in the 1940s...era of WWII.  We were looking at the photographs together when she inferred, "I think that's Molly's dad."

Quickly looking at the photo, I interjected, "Um, no, that's Adolf Hitler."  And thus entered a VERY brief synopsis on who he was and what he stood for.

"Oh."

Whew...

5 comments:

Lennye said...

I'm teaching WWII right now and my kids want to know how a Hitler was allowed to exist.

Anonymous said...

HA!!! SO funny!!! I love the insight of kids! You should be proud that she was able to infer, too bad it was incorrect. Thanks for sharing this funny story with us. :)

T. Blauvelt said...

Oh my. I can just imagine that conversation. I don't think I could stop myself from laughing.

elsie said...

Should we worry when kids relate history to American Girl books? I know they are historical but let's talk reality. Molly's dad - Hitler? Funny!

Anonymous said...

I spend a lot of time talking about Hitler as my students read non-fiction pieces of the WW II era. Not sure I will still be around when she enters 8th grade, though....

Glad you were able to set her straight! Loved your ending lines!