The second grade team at my school celebrates the 50th day of school each year with a 1950s day! I participate by having all of the second grade classes come to the media center for a 1950s storytime. We begin by discussing how we might expect books from the 1950s to be different from books today. The students usually mention that the older books don't have as much color and that the characters don't use the technology that we have today.
Then I read four books. Each seems pretty simple and not dramatic at all compared to what our kids read today. But they seem to love the books anyways! When I do a storytime, I use my IPEVO document camera to show the pictures while I am reading. This works for me because all of the children are able to see the illustrations and because I can read without pausing to show the pictures. Here are my favorite children's books from the 1950s to share with students.
