Winter Garden Heritage Foundation
Walk through Our Community Field Trip
Classroom Exercise
Classroom Exercise: How Communities Change
Grade levels appropriate: First and Second
Objectives: What will students know and be able to do as a result of this lesson?
Students will use three photographs of the same place taken in 1908, 1932, and 2008 to understand:
- That photographs are primary sources that can tell us about the past;
- That communities change over time.
Sunshine State Standards:
SS.A.1.1.1 The student compares everyday life in different places and times and understands that people, places, and
things change over time.
SS.A.1.1.2 The student understands that history tells the story of people and events of other times and places.
SS.A.1.5.1.4. The student understands changes in community life over time.
SS.B.2.1.2 The student knows how different communities have changed physically and demographically.
SS.B.2.1.2.2.1 The student knows ways in which people have modified the physical environment and the consequences of
these modifications.
Materials needed: How Communities Change photographs
Introductory/background information for teachers and students:
These three Winter Garden photographs were taken from the same location at three different times in history. This
intersection of Plant and Main Streets was once the center of downtown Winter Garden. Before a large fire in 1909
demolished much of downtown, wooden storefronts occupied both sides of the railroad tracks. Barely visible in the
earliest picture is a passenger train at the end of the street, standing at the Tavares and Gulf Railroad Depot. J. L.
Dillard & Benjamin Boyd owned the dry goods store located on the right hand corner. After the fire, they rebuilt the
store, this time in brick. The building still stands. On the left side of the intersection (at 2 East Plant) in the
1932 photo was the Bank of Winter Garden. It closed operation in 1929 and for many years the building was occupied by
a drug store and a department store. After the building was completely destroyed by fire in 1960, Tibbals Drug store
opened in 1962 in the modern building that occupies that corner now. Currently the building is occupied by West Orange
Photo & Digital.
Lesson process:
Students, working alone or in small groups, study the three pictures and answer questions.
How do the pictures look alike and how are they different?
Which photograph do you think is the oldest? Which one comes next? Which one is the most recent?
What clues in the pictures did you use to find the oldest picture? Describe the buildings and streets in the oldest
picture.
What is different between the oldest picture and the picture that is 80 years old? Describe the buildings. What kind
of transportation are people using now?
What is different between the 80 year old picture and new picture?
After giving the small groups time to discuss and answer the questions among themselves, the teacher poses the
questions to the class for discussion. During discussion, the teacher leads the class to observe and draw conclusions
about how the community has changed over time.
Reflection/follow-up activities: Provide key questions that could be used after this experience in
classroom discussion, writing a review, reflective journal entries, or connection to other subjects.
How do you think this place will look in the future?
Additional materials: What other activities or materials would help teachers prepare students for this
experience, and how can they be accessed? (Print, website, library, other.)
Scott Foresman Social Studies, People and Places - 2nd grade textbook, pages 22-23, How a Community Changes
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