Telegraph and Telephone: History--Hands On for Grades 1-4

It's hard for kids today to understand the importance of good long-distance communication. All their lives they've been able to reach people far away, even in foreign countries, instantly by phone, fax and e-mail. It's almost inconceivable to them that they would have to wait a month or even 10 days for news. But that's the way it was in the middle of the 19th century in America. The United States weren't really united at all. Then along came a man named Samuel Morse who invented the telegraph and a code to go with it. It wasn't long before telegraph lines were strung from the Mississippi River to California and news was being tapped out in dots and dashes faster than anyone could have dreamed. Students will enjoy learning how it all happened, and they'll practice tapping out their own messages in Morse code as well as experimenting with other methods of long-distance communication. Just a few years after Morse's timely invention Alexander Graham Bell, while experimenting on ways to improve the telegraph, invented the telephone. That was just the beginning. Telecommunications today is like a tornado, sweeping everyone up in it and dropping us back to Earth with multifunctional office phones, cell phones, fax machines, radio, TV, e-mail and more. Students will discover through creative activities how it all began. They'll get involved in discussion, drama, creative writing, art, music, a fun rap, skits and more. After this study, your students will appreciate their modern tools of communication as they never have before!