Students, seniors take a trip through time

Students from the Forest Road School took a trip back in time — more than a century, in fact. Fifth-graders created podcasts about the decades, from the 1900s to the 2000s. They then shared some of their work last week with members of the nearby Green Acres Senior Center.

This is the third year students have made podcasts. They created five-minute broadcasts, accompanied by pictures. The students, who worked in pairs, researched their decade, wrote their scripts and recorded themselves, under the direction of music teacher Emilia Kister in the school’s music technology lab.

Kister said she wanted each podcast to be unique, but also have some common features to show changes throughout the decades. Each pair had to cite the average price of a stamp, milk and a new car during their decade, talk about government and sports, and play at least one popular song.

At the Green Acres Senior Center on June 6, the students came down and played five of the podcasts, representing the 1900s, 1920s, 1950s, 1960s and 2000s. “I thought it was very good,” said Solon Chalmers, a member of the senior center. “Certainly a lot of work went into it.”

Margaret Gross, president of the senior center, said she enjoyed the history lesson, and a few facts even jogged her memory. But not all of it. “In the 20s, I wasn’t here yet,” she said.

Gross added that the students should be proud of themselves for the work they did. “It was marvelous,” she said. “It took a lot of effort.”

Vivian Cafiso, who taught first grade at Forest Road School for 35 years and is now retired, enjoyed seeing the work produced by students at her former school. Seeing the podcasts brought back a lot of memories.

The students said they learned a lot about history from their work. Joseph Iccari, who did a podcast on the 1920s, said it was interesting how cheaper items were back then. He noted that a new car was about $4,000.

Isabel Planes researched the 2000s, a decade she was mostly around for, but still learned a lot. She admits she doesn’t really follow sports so she had to brush up on the last 10 years of history there. The best part of the project, Planes said, was actually getting to record the podcast. “It was pretty cool to use all the microphones,” she said.

Kister said the students began working on their projects back in September, with fifth-grade teachers Laura Argento and Joanna Rashkin helping them do research. She thought it would be a great idea to present the completed projects to the seniors at Green Acres because it would allow the students to make connections with their work and hear some personal stories. “Overall,” Kister said, “I thought the children learned a lot.”