GA 5th Grade Toolbox #5

CHAPTER 12
GEORGIA EXPERIENCE | GRADE 5 | UNIT 5
TRYING TO
CONTAIN COMMUNISM
CHAPTER OPENER
Inquiry-Based Learning
1. Ask students: Where did the events of the Cold War we learned about so far take place?
(Correct answers are Europe and Asia)
2. Ask students to describe the overall mood in America up until now.
As they do, write key words on your whiteboard.
(Answers will likely include terms like strong, successful, powerful, determined, winning, etc.)
If needed, remind students:
• The U.S. had recently emerged from World War II as a world power.
• The U.S. was cooperating with most of our Allies, but not Russia.
• The U.S. had successfully helped Berlin with the airlifts.
• The U.S. helped form NATO to unite democratic countries against communism.
• The U.S. had also helped South Korea hold strong to its territory against China and
North Korea, even pushing North Korea far north for a short time.
3. Say: In this next stage of the Cold War, a new feeling crept in the mix. Who can guess
what that feeling or emotion was?
• As students call out guesses, write them down and say “possibly,” “yes,” or “close.”
• When someone calls out “fear” (or afraid/scared), write that word big, circle it, and say,
“Let’s talk more about fear.”
4. Ask students to recall a time when they were afraid or scared of something.
Ask for volunteers to share their fear with the class.
You may need to start the conversation by describing a time you were afraid of something to
make your students comfortable enough to share with their classmates.
As students share their experiences, write descriptive words of their fears on the whiteboard.
You may want to conclude this opening discussion with how everyone has fears and is afraid
of something, no matter how big or small.
SAMPLE
5. Tell students:
• We are going to be learning about the fears Americans developed during the
Cold War.
• We will explore major fears that caused wide-spread panic throughout America.
• We will investigate how Americans dealt with these fears—sometimes in ways
that were productive and sometimes in ways that were harmful.
• We will examine how America’s leaders dealt with Cold War fears, too.
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Permission is granted to use Toolbox only with students for whom a current-year Experience Class Set is purchased.
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