SAMPLE LESSON - Volume 2 - (download .pdf)

Warm Up/Review Questions Using First Day Cover

Franklin D. Roosevelt & Social Security Act

Show the First Day Cover (Image A) and ask students to identify the facts used to describe the life and presidential administration of President Franklin Roosevelt.

STAMP: photo of President FDR, his name, his life dates and cost of stamp. It is cancelled by the post office acknowledging the first day the stamp was issued.

POST MARK: marking the date of the first issue, and where it was cancelled, Hyde Park, New York, which was FDR’s birthplace and “second white house”. FDR was born on January 30, 1882

KEY SYMBOLS OF HIS PRESIDENTIAL ADMINISTRATION:

Why would the artist choose these symbols to represent FDR’s twelve years in office?

The New Deal:

National Recovery Administration with the Blue Eagle & slogan Works Projects Administration with its tools to build

The WPA was a Relief agency and the NRA was a Recovery agency.

Which agency would the students choose to represent Reform? To stimulate discussion, show the second FDC, “50th Anniversary Social Security Act” (Image B).

Let students visually explore the FDC:

When did Roosevelt sign the Social Security Act?

How does the stamp display those helped by the Act?

Why did the artist sign the Social Security card with “Jane Doe” and not “John Doe”?

Why was the FDC postmarked from Baltimore, Maryland? (Baltimore was home to the first Social Security Administration building)

Why is Social Security Act considered a Reform measure?

Return to (Image A) to discuss the third image describing FDR’s administration.

World War II

Outline of a soldier with a machine gun

Is that image sufficient to depict World War II? Review the major battles of the war.

Conclusion: Ask students to list other events that depict FDR’s administration, such as the Dust Bowl, and draw their own First Day Cover.

National Standards for U.S. History Era 8 Standards 2 & 3

TEKS U.S. History 6B, 13C