A Guide for Teachers

General Assignments
Social Studies
Language Arts/English
Visual and Performing Arts

General Assignments

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.

Source
Walt Disney Family Museum