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Check out our complete list of US History Lessons.
The School House Rocks videos (most if not all the clips can be found on schooltube) are a useful and different way to review some major events and themes covered during a U.S. History course. (It also might be useful to show these just before a final exam or state assessment.) The clips are short and can be covered in a relatively short amount of class time.
Prior to watching, the students complete a viewing sheet to see how many students already know they answers. At the end of each segment, the class discusses the themes associated with each cartoon. The cartoons also can be show individually during the point of the year that you cover a particular topic.
The goal for each video is to share:
- Pre-veiwing questions.
- The video.
- The lyrics.
- The themes.
Below is the worksheet I give to the students along with a few “teacher” notes. Hopefully both are useful.
Mother Necessity
Pre-Viewing Questions (to test prior knowledge)
1. What are the biggest inventions in the last 3 years? How do these inventions improve our lives?
Mother Necessity
Mother Necessity
Mother Necessity
With her good intentions
Where would this country be
Without her inventions?
Oh, things were rotten in the land of cotton
Until Whitney made the cotton gin
Now old times there will soon be forgotten
For it did the work of a hundred men
Mother Necessity, where would we be?
Mother Edison worked late each night
It went well until the fading light
Little Thomas Alva Edison said, “I’ll grow up to be
A great inventor and I’ll make a lamp to help my mommy see,
Wowee! What an excellent application of electricity!”
He worked hard and pulled the switch
He was smart and very rich
Mother Necessity, help us to see
Now, the mother of Samuel Morse
Always sent the lad out on a horse
“Take a message to Ms. Peavy on the far side of the pike
Spread the word about the quilting bee next Saturday night!”
Little Samuel started thinking of a way to send a message
Though he never met a horse he didn’t like, uh!
Mother Necessity!
Elias, can you help me with my sewing?
Mother dear, I’ll fulfill your fondest wishes
Elias, how?
This machine I’ve made will keep your sewing really flowing
In fact, we’ll keep the whole nation in stitches, ah!
Mother Necessity, where would we be?
Ring me on the Alexander Graham Bell
Thank you Alexander for the phone
I’d never get a date, I’d never get a job
Unless I had a telephone
Mother Necessity!
“Orville, Wilbur, go outside this minute
And there continue with your silly playing!
Take these plans and take those blueprints
Take that funny looking thing
Take that wheel, take that wing
I can’t hear a thing that Mrs. Johnson’s saying
Orville! Wilbur! Come back, boys! Orville! Wilbur!”
Mother Necessity, where would we be?
When Robert Fulton made the steamboat go
When Marconi gave us wireless radio
When Henry Ford cranked up his first automobile
When Samuel Slater showed us how factories go
And all the iron and oil and coal and steel and Yankee don’t you know
They made this country really grow, grow, grow, grow
With Mother Necessity and where would we be
Without the inventions of your progeny?
Themes:
Eli Whitney
Thomas Alva Edison
Samuel Morse
Alexander Graham Bell
Orville & Wilbur Wright
Robert Fulton
Marconi
Henry Ford
Samuel Slater
Mother Necessity