[Mrs. G]

Does anyone have any fun lessons that they do to reinforce the idea of Henry Ford's assembly line?

Thanks

[ancientciv]

I remember reading about some kind of drawing activity - the kids sit in rows, each one completes one part of the stick figure (I can't remember the actual drawing but I think a stick figure would work) and passes it to the next in the row. I remember thinking at the time it was a clever idea, but I teach ancient world so I didn't book mark it, sorry!

[girlonafarm]

I have read about an idea where you create something using multiple parts (you could use things like cereal boxes, etc), demonstrate how to make the product and then let students use the assembly line method to make the product.
I think a good modification on this would be to let students put it together by themselves first and then do it as an assembly line. This would help them get some perspective on how effective the assembly line was.

We had the students in groups of 5 draw a product (they came up with a tv, scooter, teddy bear, etc.). Then, the group had to produce as many as possible in 2 minutes by drawing the product and cutting it out neatly, but each person had to work individually. When the two minutes was up, I walked around and told each group how many I would buy based on the craftsmanship (mostly neat cutting and drawing). We recorded the results. We then told the students to split up the work assembly-line style. We timed them again for 2 minutes and recorded the results. This activity gets the kids involved and backs up the concept with concrete data that they created. Have fun!

we basically reproduced an assembly line concept. We used a picture of car that you would color, cut up, fold and tape into a little paper car. Finding that may be the hard part, then we tried to make the cars with everyone doing everything for a certain period of time say 5 minutes and then the assembly line was introduced and we got to try that for 5 minutes. We counted how many cars we could get done.
We had to have them inspected to make sure everything was colored and made right... no skimping to make more cars hehe.
It was a really cool activity and I think the kids would like it.
If you can't find the cars then something similar would definetly work.

[Mrs. G]

Thanks for all of the wonderful ideas!

[Mrs. Sparx]

It sounds like you already have some great ideas. Here's one more. My class makes placemats. I show them the protype which I have made and colored using tagboard, stencils, and crayons. One side of the room makes the placemats individually---they trace the stencils and color all of the different colors themselves. (Guess I should say the stencils are simple shapes---a star, a square, a circle, etc. and are arranged in the corners and the center.) The other side of the room makes the placemats in the assembly line manner. After 10 minutes I call time and do the grand inspection. At the end of the day, after all three of my classes have had a go at it, we take the completed placemats down to our first graders and they use them at lunch the following day. Everyone seems to enjoy the project, first graders included!

[stephanie]

We do the same thing as the placemats, but make donuts instead. The students get 2 circle templates (one a bit smaller than the other), 2 pair of scissors, a pink marker, and another color of marker. The first student traces the large circle. The second student traces the small circle in the middle of the large one. The third student cuts out the center circle. The fourth student cuts out the outer circle. The fifth student colors on the icing (pink marker). And the last student adds sprinkles with the other color of marker. One side of the class makes the donuts this way and the other side makes them individually. It is fun to watch them work and to see which side makes the most donuts!