This project is designed to be a template as well as providing resource material for a project on local history.
It is important to get parents' permission before asking the children to do
interviews as there may be family or neighbourly "issues" of which
you are not aware. Click here
to see a sample letter to parents. (Word Document)
If some children do not take part in the interviews they can still play a big
part in the project. They can be involved in writing, artwork, researching books,
researching internet resources, etc.
Give the children some practise in note taking and impress on them that they
need not write down everything the interviewee tells them. (Whole Class
Activity)
Start with the School Questionnaire.
It doesn't matter if some of the people interviewed didn't attend your school
as children. This adds variety to the results. Compare findings. (Individual
and Group Activities)
The children can now be divided into groups, using the
other questionnaires, depending on the background of the people they are
interviewing. Report findings to class. (Whole Class, Group and Individual
Activities)
The project should not last longer than 4-6 weeks. It can be re-visited next
year using different topics.
(New material will be added to the website during this school year.)
Go
to Resources page for a list of useful material.
Below are links to some sample questionnaires you can use. They are all Microsoft Word documents.
School
Home
Farm
Customs and Cures
Games and Pastimes
Weather Lore
Eileen Walsh tells Jenny and Evelyn about the Good Old Days in Rathgarogue School on her 88th birthday.
(Click on image to see a larger version and then click Back to come back here)
There is a lot of scope for creative writing in this project. Here are some suggestions:
Write
a letter of thanks to someone who answered the questions.
Write a ghost story to tell in a "rambling house".
Write a dialogue between the farmer and the cattle dealer at the fair.
Suggestions:
Make
a collection of old items for a school museum.
Demonstrate how an old utensil (e.g. carbide lamp) worked.
Draw pictures to illustrate your project.
Play skittles.
Play some of the old card games.
Make a model of an old steam engine.