Thomas Edison lesson

Does anyone else confuse Thomas Edison and Albert Einstein in their heads?  I know they’re two completely separate people, but I keep confusing their names. I have no clue why, which can make for some very confusing history lessons for the poor kids I’m teaching. And I would be remiss if I didn’t add this was also a science lesson AND part of our New Jersey Unit, so it was a geography lesson.

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Before we get into our Thomas Edison lesson, a few Thomas Edison books

Sadly, as Future Ticia 2022 is updating this, our library is closed to moved into a new building, so I can double check exactly which books we used for the original lesson.

• Time for Kids: Thomas Edison– I like this style of nonfiction book
• Thomas Edison: lighting the way– great if you’re having a kid run the lesson since it’s written in a slightly easier style
• Thomas Edison: inventor with a lot of bright ideas– I like this book series, it’s best for upper elementary
• A picture book of Thomas Alva Edison– This is great for the largest age range, because it’s complex enough for older kids to enjoy it, but not so complex your preschooler will be lost

Thomas Edison videos

Future Ticia 2022, the Thomas Edison lesson I did with my high schoolers last year, included several YouTube videos for our First and Second Industrial Revolution Unit.

And then because Thomas Edison is now a controversial figure, I wanted to cover a bit of that controversy.

Thomas Edison lesson run by middle school student

I did something a little different for this exercise.  I gave complete control to one of the older kids, and she taught the entire lesson on Edison.  She pulled out things I wouldn’t have thought of, and she copied pictures of the different things he invented and then cut out one for each kiddo to have.

Next she said, “Thomas Edison never looked at something without trying to improve it.” Then she split them up into groups and gave them each a common item to improve.

The items were: a jar, a spoon, a teacup, and an eraser.

So, they brainstormed for a while and then presented their improvements.  I was amused by all of them, but for your sake am only going to show you two of the pairings, the one that includes Batman, and the one that includes Princess (mainly because Princess cracks me up as Boy E is trying to talk).

So, all in all it was a very amusing Thomas Edison lesson, and one that I think all of the kids enjoyed and hopefully remember.

More history fun

We have lots of fun history lessons to try out.

• Hinduism lesson
• Design an irrigation system
• Timeline tips
• Jacques Cousteau lesson
• Immigration booklist

“Teen today as Thomas Edison apprentice” by judy_breck is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.