American Girl Doll co-op class

[heathertup]

I am going to be teaching a co-op class next year entitled: American Girls in History.  I will be using the eras of history as reflected by a handful of the American Girl dolls.  I am quite certain a similar class has already been taught by some of you!  I am currently gathering ideas of how I want to format my class, but it is a little overwhelming as there are so many different resources and ideas out there.

 

If you have taught a similar class, would any of you be able to provide me some guidance on what worked (or didn't work) with your kids?  My class will have about 14 kids.  Also, I have a budget, but it is relatively modest.

 

TIA!

[EKT]

I have not taught this as a formal class, but I have been doing this with my girls for American history at home. (They love it!) Our plan has been to study each girl and her time period chronologically. So, we started with Kaya. We read all six of her books ("Meet Kaya," etc.) and then we read her non-fiction book Welcome To Kaya's World. (This is out of print, but our library has tons of copies. Note: They do not have a Welcome To book for each and every historical girl, but most of the girls have one.) So, we read this book and did narrations from it. Then, we checked out additional non-fiction children's books from the library to deepen our study. I also tried to incorporate a hands-on craft to make the study somewhat interdisciplinary.

 

So, for instance, we just finished Felicity, and this is everything we did:

 

• Read all six of Felicity's books. (Actually, we listened to them on audio CD from the library. We listened to them during meals for about a week.)
• Read aloud Welcome to Felicity's World -1774: Growing Up In Colonial America and did narrations after each chapter. (My younger one mostly drew pictures and I jotted down her captions.) 
• Read aloud A Picture Book of George Washington by David A. Adler
• Read aloud The Journey of the One and Only Declaration of Independence by Judith St. George
• Read aloud George Washington's Teeth by Deborah Chandra and Madeleine Comora
• We visited the National Archives and saw the Charters of Freedom (Declaration of Independence, etc.) in person and we also visited George Washington's home, Mount Vernon. (We are lucky ducks who live right outside DC, so this was easy for us to do.) 
• We wrote with real quills and ink at the Archives.
• We did basic embroidery samplers for fun (like Felicity does in her stories). 
• My girls also watched the Liberty's Kids series on DVD. 

But, thinking as I write, I'm not sure how you might be able to do this as a class without requiring people to read each doll's historical novels on their own, outside of class. I think I would suggest maybe skipping the actual historical novels and just using the Welcome To... books. (You could elect to study only the characters that have one.) So, for each girl, you could read aloud her Welcome To book and maybe do a craft or hands-on activity. (For Kaya, we did weaving, for Felicity, we did embroidery, etc.) The Welcome To books are really rich and well-done, so each would easily give you enough material for copywork or narrations, etc. I hope this helps! The American Girl historical characters have been so effective for my kids. Now any time we are talking about something in American history, I can say, "Oh, this event happened after Kaya's time, but before Felicity's time" and they have a frame of reference to understand. Good luck!

[athomeontheprairie]

Following, as I'm planning on doing the same 😀

[heathertup]

EKT...thank you for your suggestions.  Yes, with a class it's a little different as it is hard to give each student the story collection book of each girl we study.  I do have single copies for Kirsten and Molly (which could be passed around throughout the year), but I do have all of the Welcome to _____'s World books.  I love those books.  I read the Samantha one to my daughter last fall and it was so interesting, though the pictures would be small for the class to see, even if I were to read parts of it.  Regardless, it is such a fun way to learn history and culture within that particular timeframe.  Thanks for your ideas.

 

[shinyhappypeople]

I have not taught this as a formal class, but I have been doing this with my girls for American history at home. (They love it!) Our plan has been to study each girl and her time period chronologically. So, we started with Kaya. We read all six of her books ("Meet Kaya," etc.) and then we read her non-fiction book Welcome To Kaya's World. (This is out of print, but our library has tons of copies. Note: They do not have a Welcome To book for each and every historical girl, but most of the girls have one.) So, we read this book and did narrations from it. Then, we checked out additional non-fiction children's books from the library to deepen our study. I also tried to incorporate a hands-on craft to make the study somewhat interdisciplinary.

 

So, for instance, we just finished Felicity, and this is everything we did:

 

• Read all six of Felicity's books. (Actually, we listened to them on audio CD from the library. We listened to them during meals for about a week.)
• Read aloud Welcome to Felicity's World -1774: Growing Up In Colonial America and did narrations after each chapter. (My younger one mostly drew pictures and I jotted down her captions.) 
• Read aloud A Picture Book of George Washington by David A. Adler
• Read aloud The Journey of the One and Only Declaration of Independence by Judith St. George
• Read aloud George Washington's Teeth by Deborah Chandra and Madeleine Comora
• We visited the National Archives and saw the Charters of Freedom (Declaration of Independence, etc.) in person and we also visited George Washington's home, Mount Vernon. (We are lucky ducks who live right outside DC, so this was easy for us to do.) 
• We wrote with real quills and ink at the Archives.
• We did basic embroidery samplers for fun (like Felicity does in her stories). 
• My girls also watched the Liberty's Kids series on DVD. 

But, thinking as I write, I'm not sure how you might be able to do this as a class without requiring people to read each doll's historical novels on their own, outside of class. I think I would suggest maybe skipping the actual historical novels and just using the Welcome To... books. (You could elect to study only the characters that have one.) So, for each girl, you could read aloud her Welcome To book and maybe do a craft or hands-on activity. (For Kaya, we did weaving, for Felicity, we did embroidery, etc.) The Welcome To books are really rich and well-done, so each would easily give you enough material for copywork or narrations, etc. I hope this helps! The American Girl historical characters have been so effective for my kids. Now any time we are talking about something in American history, I can say, "Oh, this event happened after Kaya's time, but before Felicity's time" and they have a frame of reference to understand. Good luck!

 

That's what they did for the class my daughter took.  She read the books at home and then did discussion, and related projects at the class.  She loved it. :)

[SilverMoon]

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Edited August 31, 2023 by SilverMoon

[heathertup]

Have you seen Portraits of American Girlhood? It covers the original 6 girls and Kit. It wasn't nearly as thorough as say a Cadron Creek guide would be, but it did have some good ideas. I wouldn't pay full price for it though; look on used book sites.

 

My little girls did this for history this past school year. We pulled lots of unit study type activities out of it. There are LOTS of options for handiwork in most of them, and if nothing else sewing period clothes for their dolls would work.

 

If you stick to the original girls you'll have more pre-made options. Watch used book stores and thrift shops for the OOP craft books, play scripts, cookbooks, and paper dolls. There are 13 historical girls altogether now, so you'll probably want to cherry pick which girls you cover. We aimed for all but the newest one (1950s MaryEllen), but we're still reading them through the summer. I took them to an opening day of a store last year that was crazy and insanely crowded, but they swooned over the whole experience and had a blast.

 

The plays would be more fun in a group that size! We've dabbled in playing with them, and they pay their brother with food to act the boy parts for them.  One of my girls particularly adores paper dolls and likes to make extra clothes, scenery, and props. They love experimenting in the kitchen.

I have not, though I will check them out!  I do have craft books and teachers guides to three of the dolls, a couple of actual plays with their corresponding scripts (so cute!), as well as a couple of the story collections and many of the "world" books.  I have lot of resources, but don't see how realistic it is for all students to have their own copies of all the books.

[Junie]

The American Girl website also has study guides for most (all?) of the girls.

 

 

[EKT]

The American Girl website also has study guides for most (all?) of the girls.

 

I did not know this!! Thanks for sharing this!

[SilverMoon]

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Edited August 31, 2023 by SilverMoon

[desertflower]

heathertup,

 

This is such a good idea.  I haven't thought of this before.  How often will your coop meet?  My friends and I are trying to figure something to do, perhaps once a quarter though. 

 

Are you meeting once a week or once a month?

 

Thanks.

[heathertup]

heathertup,

 

This is such a good idea.  I haven't thought of this before.  How often will your coop meet?  My friends and I are trying to figure something to do, perhaps once a quarter though. 

 

Are you meeting once a week or once a month?

 

Thanks.

We will be meeting once a week and taking a break between Thanksgiving and Christmas as well as a couple weeks for Spring break.  For your situation, once a quarter might be enough time to have the group read a story collection each quarter on their own and then come together to during the meeting to either discuss the book or do a related craft/cooking project.

Edited June 22, 2016 by heathertup

[desertflower]

Thanks!

[Hilltopmom]

We met twice a month when we did ours. I think we picked 5 of the girls?

Everyone read the books at home (or at least the first book of each girl).

 

During class, we looked at the "welcome to" books, did a craft or two, maybe listened to a music piece, talked about the time period briefly, & filled in some lapbook ing items. At the end, the girls each had a folder of lapbooks for each time period.

It was a lot of fun!

Some of the big hits as far as craft/ cooking things we did were that I can remember were: candle dipping, butter & cornbread making, making Mardi gras masks (& a friend sent me a ton of Mardi gras swag from her trip that I gave to the kids)... Um, that's all I can remember, it's been a few years.

Oh- having a historical re enactor come in to bring clothes for the kids to try on & items to see in person (lantern, cloak, etc) would be cool too (& most of us love to show off our stuff to kids), or visit a historical site near you if you have a living history type place nearby.

[luna]

I have Portraits of American Girlhood in like new condition with the unused CD for printables. I'll sell it for $15.00, ppd. Let me know if you'd like it-I'll be posting on the classified pages this weekend. I've been holding onto it with hopes of teaching a co op class like you described. With one daughter in college and another a junior in high school, I don't think I'm ever going to use it! :sad:

[heathertup]

I have Portraits of American Girlhood in like new condition with the unused CD for printables. I'll sell it for $15.00, ppd. Let me know if you'd like it-I'll be posting on the classified pages this weekend. I've been holding onto it with hopes of teaching a co op class like you described. With one daughter in college and another a junior in high school, I don't think I'm ever going to use it! :sad:

Thank you for the offer of the resource!  I actually have bought some of the teachers guide and craft/cooking books so the rest of the budget is most likely going toward the craft supplies.

[cintinative]

They did a class at our co-op a couple of years ago. I used the wayback machine to find the class description.  FYI the co-op meets 24 weeks/year and the fee was $25/semester for the class. That fee could have changed (to be lower)--this is old info. I know that they had at least one week where the girls dressed up in historical garb because it coincided with a week when we were doing natural dyeing in my class. LOL.

 

Age Range: ages 8-13

 

Curriculum Used: Various

 

Description of course: We will be studying history related to different American Girl dolls. We will be studying the time period they lived in and how they lived. For example, one 4 week session will be on Kaya, the Native American doll. We will learn about the way of living for the Native Americans and do related crafts and activities. 

 

Time (per week) required outside of class for homework: 1-2 hours of reading (each historical doll we study has 6 books and within the 4 weeks we study that doll- we ask that the girls read every book for that historical doll)

 

Length of Course: full year

 

Books to purchase, if any, and approximate cost: all books can be found at library

 

 

Edited June 26, 2016 by cintinative

[2_girls_mommy]

My dd took one at co-op once.  They did one semester on Kit and one semester on Samantha.  The teacher used Portraits of American Girlhood. She didn't provide the books.  The girls were expected to do the reading on their own during the week, getting their own copies of books. They did some reading aloud in class and discussion and activities.

[HS Mom in NC]

The American Girl Co-op I did was fairly simple. It was one afternoon a month. There were at least 30 elementary aged girls who participated in it. At each meeting there was handout and an email for what book needed to be read by the next month and what supplies needed to be purchased and brought.  The first meeting was the planning session that the parents were required to attend so there was just the email that time.

The person hosting it had everyone who wanted to participate come over for THE planning session. 2 parents partnered up to have their monthly meeting covered.  Each set of partners divided up the 4 responsibilities between them. (Listed below.) They were each to arrange their own substitute in case of emergency. Brilliant.  Absolutely brilliant.

 

1. Discussion about book 1 of each American Girl.  Some of us did discussion of book 2 as well because they're so short some girls read more than 1.

I did the Victorian one (Samantha?) and did a lot open ended questions to get discussions going. I asked some comprehension questions, some cause and effect questions, and some what did you think questions.  Almost all of them were open ended questions.  Yes and no and one word answers don't work well in a group discussion setting. 

A mom I was back up for called the morning of to tell me her son had broken his arm and they were in the ER. It was the Depression one and did a mind map kind of introduction to get them to grasp the effects of the Depression.  I asked them what a car was made out of.  (Metal, rubber, plastic, fabric) and then asked what would happen if people lost their jobs and couldn't afford to buy a car.  How could that affect people at the factory that made tires and such. How would it affect the grocer and the clothing store? Diagramming it out on a whiteboard helped. Then I asked some questions about the book related to those kinds of things and some about the characters and plot points. Again, almost every question was open ended.

 

2.  A craft related to the book.

 I did simple cross stitch for the Victorian one. Everyone was instructed to buy a small, simple, beginner kit at Micheal's or Walmart or where ever so the cost was minimal.  We made corn husk dolls for one and the parent in charge just took a few dollars per person to buy corn husks in bulk which made more sense than sending each family out to buy more than they would ever use. Another parent did a dream catcher and it was the lowest attended meeting by at least half.   Our guess (we can't actually know) was that many parents were uncomfortable with their children making something based on a spiritual practice different than their own so they didn't come.  If that's the case, I think it was probably the best way to do it rather than complaining and causing conflict over it.  Bowing out quietly is more tactful and it doesn't deny people OK with that type of craft the opportunity to make it.

 

3. A snack related to the book or era.  

For the Victorian one my partner made gingerbread because that was mentioned in the book if I remember correctly.  I don't remember much of what else was served other than cornbread. (My kids who participated in it are in their late teens and 20s now.)

 

4. A group game related to the book or era.  I think some research had to be done on that one. My partner covered that end of it. I substituted for another mom. Her back up wasn't able to cover it and we had talked about a local Laura Ingalls Wilder event in the recent past and she knew I had made my daughters authentic prairie girl dresses complete with pantaloons, petticoats, growth pleats, draw stringed puffed sleeves and bonnets and would I bring them to show the girls what a kid would've worn back then in place of a game the month we did Kirsten. It worked out.

5. Socializing.

We had a map on the wall of the area and asked people who wanted to to put a mark at their major crossroads and their name and introduced people who didn't already know each other who were from the same area so they could choose to try to meet up with each other later if they liked.  A few people did.

The biggest challenge was siblings.  A few parents weren't supervising the non-participating siblings. Space was tight with such a large group in a house.  A few parents brought their kids and didn't have them do any of the reading.  We were very careful to give every kid a chance to speak during the discussion (a challenge with such a big group) and it was really embarrassing for kids to be called on and they had to admit they hadn't read the book, then mom piped up with a lame "We're just here to socialize."  I don't think people should join groups and activities unless they are going to participate fully. It's understandable to opt out of that one part that conflicts with your religious convictions.  It's not understandable to be too lazy to be bothered the homework.

[heathertup]

Thank you so much for all of your input!  I really appreciate you sharing all of your experiences!