Measuring Historic Miniatures Grade/Age Level Adaptable for grades K- 6 Area of Study: Social Studies and Geometry- Measurement Students will learn about toy shops and general stores of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Through observation, discussion, the use of open-ended questions, and measuring, students learn that miniatures rely on accurate proportion achieved through measuring and the use of scale ratios to create a convincingly portrayal of reality on a small scale. Materials Toy Shops and The General Store handouts worksheet appropriate for your grade level rulers Objectives Students will learn about the past while studying and comparing two miniatures, an antique German Grocery Store, ca. 1880, which ignores relative scale in its design, and a piece titled Country Store, created in 1985, that relies on relative scale and accurate measurement for its design. Students will learn aspects of daily life in 19th century Germany, and 20 th century America. Students will develop an understanding of the importance of using relative scale and proportion in a miniature to create a convincing illusion of reality. Students will use a worksheet to practice comparing and measuring items to reinforce the concepts of scale and proportion. Vocabulary Social Studies general store goods rural Math miniature proportion 1:12 scale Lesson Outline Print out Toy Shops and The General Store handouts or projected them on your white board, and read them with your students. Discuss the questions. Review the vocabulary words. Compare the miniatures and discuss how realistic they appear. Explain scale and proportion. Adjust your discussion to meet your grade level. Have your students complete the appropriate worksheet to reinforce the math lesson.
Alignment with Standards: The lesson addresses the following Arizona Common Core Standards Kindergarten PO 1. Retell personal events to show an understanding of how history is the story of events, people, and places in the past. PO 2. Listen to recounts of historical events and people and discuss how they relate to present day. PO 1. Compare and order objects according to observable and measureable attributes. PO 2. Use the attribute of length to describe and compare objects using non-standard units. Grade 1 PO 2. Retell stories to describe past events, people, and places. PO 1. Compare and order objects according to length. PO 2. Measure and compare the length of objects using the benchmark of one inch. Grade 2 PO 4. Use primary source materials (e.g., photos, artifacts, interviews, documents, maps) and secondary source materials (e.g., encyclopedias, biographies) to study people and events from the past. PO 5. Retell stories to describe past events, people, and places. PO 2. Apply measurement skills to measure the attributes of an object (length, capacity, weight). PO 4. Demonstrate unit conversions: 1 foot = 12 inches Grade 3 PO 3. Use primary source materials (e.g., photos, artifacts, interviews, documents, maps) and secondary source materials (e.g., encyclopedias, biographies) to study people and events from the past. PO 4. Retell stories to describe past events, people, and places. PO 2. Apply measurement skills to measure length, weight, and capacity using US Customary units. PO 3. Convert units of length, weight, and capacity: inches or feet to yards Grade 4 PO 3. Solve problems involving conversions within the same measurement system. Grade 5 Social Studies: Contemporary World
PO 2. Use various resources (e.g., newspapers, magazines, television, Internet, books, maps) to discuss the connections between current events and historical events and issues from content studied in Strand 2. PO 2. State an appropriate measure and degree of accuracy in a given context. Grade 6 PO 4. Formulate questions that can be answered by historical study and research. Contemporary World PO 2. Identify the connection between current and historical events and issues using information from class discussions and various resources (e.g., newspapers, magazines, television, Internet, books, maps). PO 1. Determine the appropriate unit of measure for a given context and the appropriate tool to measure to the needed precision (including length, capacity, angles, time, and mass). PO 3. Estimate the measure of objects using a scale drawing or map. Answer Key for Worksheets Grades K-1 Worksheet Circle: Broom, glasses, mouse, coffee cup X : little chair, piano, cowboy boots and hat, luggage with umbrella, chandelier Grades 2-4 Worksheet 1. Bird cage, coffee cup, wastebasket, wall clock 2. 9 inches 3. 9 feet, In this room 1 inch equals 1 foot 4. 2 ½ tall and 4 wide, 2 ½ ft. tall and 4 ft. wide, In this room 1 inch equals 1 foot 5. 2 inches, 2 feet, Challenge question: The should be approximately ½ long, In a 1:12 scale room 5 inches is approximately the same as ½. Grades 5-6 Worksheet 1. 9 inches 2. 9 feet, In this room 1 inch equals 1 foot. 3. 2 tall by 3 wide, 2 ft. tall by 3 ft. wide 4. ½ tall 5. The answers will depend upon the wastebasket measured by the students. 6. 1 ½ tall, an average coffee cup is approximately 4 tall, the coffee cup in the picture should be approximately 3/8 tall
Toy Shops: Playing and Learning During the 19 th Century This toy grocery store was created in the middle of the 1800s in Germany. Toy shops like this were very popular in Germany in the 1800s. Parents liked toy stores because they taught children important skills. Education was important to parents. shopkeeper. Name some other items that are too big when compared with the shopkeeper. Can you find the scale? Children learned to weigh and measure when they pretended to sell items. The picture at the right shows a coin purse and coins. Children learned how to count money, and make change when they sold goods to their imaginary customers. Children liked to learn by pretending to be shopkeepers. Look at the size of the scale and coins in the shop. Compare them to the size of the shopkeeper. What do you notice? Did you notice they are very big compared to the shopkeeper? Look at the size of the other goods in the shop. Many items in this toy store are not in proportion with the Goods: items that are produced and have an economic value Proportion: adjust in size relative to other things
The General Store: The Heart of a Small Community This Country Store was made by miniature artists Ron and April Gill in 1985. This store is not a toy. It is a miniature work of art. The Gill s Country Store is a type of shop called a general store. In the past, rural communities and small towns in America usually had a general store. General stores carried general goods such as milk and bread, and a variety of household items like soap and paper products. They also sold hardware and electrical supplies. General stores were the main place people in small communities shopped before stores like Walmart and Target opened up in the 1960s. Look at the size of the goods on the store shelves. Do the goods in this shop look like they are in proportion with the people? The Gills wanted their miniature to look very real so they used a 1:12 scale to create their miniature. 1:12 scale means one inch on the miniature object is equal to twelve inches (or one foot) on the full size object. For example, the bag of groceries the customer is holding is 1 ½ inches tall because in the real world a grocery bag is 18 inches, or 1½ feet tall. Miniature: Something much smaller than the usual size; A miniature is a copy of an object on a much smaller scale. Rural: A community outside a city. It may be a small town or farming community. 1:12 Scale: A traditional scale (ratio) for models and miniatures, in which 12 inches or 1 foot on the full size object is represented by 1 inch on the model.