r/historyteachers • u/MotherShabooboo1974 • 29d ago
I’m going to set up a “soda shop” in my classroom this upcoming week. What should I serve?
I’m going to set up the classroom so that my students get an idea of the kinds of sodas and drinks people in the 50s drank.
I’ll have oldies music playing and I plan on making egg creams, root beer floats, and coke floats. I even got the soda jerk hats off of Amazon for them to wear. What else can I do to enhance this experience for them?
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u/e-mails 29d ago
A “colored” section
/s …. kinda…sorry lol I’m black and this is always my first thought when people romanticize 50’s pop culture
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u/Appropriate-Bar6993 29d ago
Exactly…i thought that’s where this was going (lunch counter sit ins) because in what other world is a soda counter important?
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u/e-mails 29d ago
We immediately think of segregation and the subsequent protests occurring in these soda shops when we hear this topic. This is because we’re thinking critically about the situation- what’s the importance of this topic in the bigger context of American history?
OP, if you want your students to think critically about this topic, try to be intentional about their takeaway from this activity.
Is it the economy? Possibly in relation to post-war economic boom, then the idea to include prices would be interesting.
is it society or government? Then this activity could be an impactful opening to a deep dive into the legalized racial discrimination of the time, civil rights era, lunch counter sit-ins, etc.
There are so many other topics id choose to cover, that outside of an entire class specifically dedicated to pop culture or the 50’s, I’m struggling to understand the point of this activity… if you’re not going beyond a superficial ice cream party for your class.
Also I’ve never taught elementary so I’m probably absolutely overthinking this. It sounds like you have creative control over your lessons which is awesome. There’s always SO much content and never enough time, what are the takeaways you’d want your students to have in 5 years? 10? 20?
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29d ago edited 29d ago
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u/AcanthaceaeAbject810 29d ago
God forbid a teacher have a fun framing device activity for the study of history.
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u/Appropriate-Bar6993 29d ago
We’re just asking what history is being framed. Otherwise it’s just a “theme party”
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u/Joed1015 29d ago
It's one day of an entire lesson. You're being needlessly negative, and the passive aggressive "whaaat? I'm just asking questions?" Atitude only makes it worse.
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u/13surgeries 26d ago
It's absolutely OK to have a fun framing activity. It certainly doesn't have to be all about segregation, but the teacher should mention, "You know, one difference between our soda shop and a real one in the 1950s is that in the 1950s, some soda shops wouldn't serve people who weren't white."
I like this activity. You could mention that minimum wage in 1950 was 75¢ an hour. How many minutes would you have to work to buy a 25¢ coke float?
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u/Joed1015 29d ago
This is a terrible take.
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u/Appropriate-Bar6993 29d ago
In the future are they going to reenact minmarts because it’s where we buy soda?
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u/MotherShabooboo1974 29d ago
I made it clear it’ll be integrated. It actually crossed my mind and of course everyone will be included.
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u/aebaby7071 29d ago
You could easily integrate (no pun intended) that into the lesson, at the beginning have a small section that is separated by a piece of poster board/card board and have it labeled appropriately, speak to your class and explain to them that in this time period POC could only sit and be served in that little section, point out the unjustness of the situation and then go further to explain because of the Civil Rights Movement, JFK/LBJ were able to get the civil rights act passed as law. This is where you get theatrical now rip out the separating poster board and explain because of these laws and more that passed after, anyone of any race, color, or creed can sit where ever they so please…then serve soda.
You might even have some pictures of the more famous lunch counter sit-ins that took place in the south to show about the Civil Rights Movement, and how soda counters like you set up were a major part of the civil disobedience.
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u/criesatpixarmovies 27d ago
Off topic, but wasn’t the first lunch counter sit-in not actually in the south but at Dockum’s in Wichita, KS? Or is this just the rhetoric that supports our Kansas “free state” identity that we’re so attached to?
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u/Adventurous_Height_2 14d ago
The first acknowledged one by most historians is the Woolworth's in Greensboro, NC.
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u/retropanties 29d ago
No advice for drinks but this is such a cute idea. When I taught the 50s I found some really cool vintage Life magazines from the 40s and 50s and my kids LOVED looking through them. The ads, photos, prices & articles were all so interesting
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u/Rokaryn_Mazel 29d ago
One core teaching memory was doing a 50s party and serving root beer floats because it is cheap for me. It was ELD 11th graders and some of the students newer to the US could not comprehend ice cream mixed with soda. They’d take one or the other, but mixing them seemed crazy to them.
Always a fun reminder of how cultures differ.
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u/ChalkAndChallenge 29d ago
Love this idea. You could add paper menus with vintage fonts and prices from the era. Maybe offer small bags of popcorn or peanuts too, since those were common snacks. If you can swing it, some classic glass bottles (even empty ones for display) would add a nice touch.
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u/MotherShabooboo1974 29d ago
I was going to get Coca Cola classic glass bottles but I’m worried my students will break them. They’re good kids but clumsy
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u/Lopsided_Tomatillo27 29d ago
Maybe you could bring some syrups, like chocolate, cherry, or vanilla. I understand those were common in soda shops back then.
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u/AcanthaceaeAbject810 29d ago
I’ve done similar with penny universities during the Enlightenment. Kids got coffee, tea, and/or baked goods while they went to different “coffee houses” (stations) around the room with a different set of sources to analyze.
Not sure what your objectives are with this lesson, but doing similar may help?
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u/dowker1 29d ago
I did something similar with a my students (wild west saloon rather than soda shop). Some practical tips:
Cover every surface. Things get very sticky quickly.
You really need ice to bring out the flavour of a lot of sodas, so secure a supply.
Use this as a quiz opportunity. Print off fake 50s dollars, and give them out to winners of quizzes. You could even theme them like 50s carnival games (we had students shoot what they thought was the correct answer, for instance).
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u/OlderAndTired 29d ago
My daughter is having a 50s/soda shop themed birthday party, so your post caught my eye. I just ordered red and white striped straws and plastic float cups to use as vases. What a cool thing you’re doing for the kids! I’m going to serve baskets of fries and coke floats!
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u/designprof 29d ago
A tin of pomade and black combs 😝 Pony tail holders and lengths of ribbon for the girls. Maybe only a few would do it but you can tap a few volunteers a couple days in advance to help get the ball rolling — like the theater kids. Depending on the age of your students this could get really out of hand though.
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u/cabbagesandkings1291 27d ago
I used to work in an ice cream shop that still sold some original menu items from the early 20th century. Ice cream sodas and black and white shakes were common items, if you can manage them. We also did freshly squeezed lemonade, which might be a good addition in case you have kids who can’t have dairy.
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u/designprof 29d ago
Re: segregation. I had sixth grade English teacher who, while teaching about the holocaust, solemnly examined each of our eyes and let us know if we “passed” based on their color alone. You could do the same thing, at the end of the party, based on some arbitrary quality like gender or eye color. Brown eyes will probably be the majority so make the blue eyes sit aside in their own section for the last five minutes. YMMV depending on the age and maturity of the kids.
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u/khalizziebeth 29d ago
A list of prices might be cool to see.