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Fireside

Eight tables are families in an Iowa factory town from 1933 to 1937. They decide whether to trust the bank, take relief work and sign a union card, and the new laws change what each choice costs.
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US History Grades 10-12 8 roles 45 min 1 class period
US History Grades 10-12 8 roles 45 min 1 class period
A factory town like Waterloo, Iowa, from the bank holiday of March 1933 to the spring of 1937.

Eight tables of families in an Iowa factory town live through 1933-37: the bank, the CWA, the union card in 1934 and again in 1937, and the jobs the new laws left out.

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Class Time

45 minutes

Designed For

1 class period

Roles

8 roles

Class Sizes

36-40 students, 24-35 students, 8-23 students

Learning Objectives

4 objectives

Standards

5 standards aligned

Where This Fits in Your Curriculum

Use this in the New Deal unit, after students know the Depression began and before or alongside a reading on the Hundred Days and Social Security. Students need no prior knowledge of unions or labor law; the game introduces the bank holiday, the CWA, Section 7(a), the Wagner Act and Social Security as they arrive. Underneath the theme it teaches what a law DID to a choice, not what a law WAS: the same union card cost a family its job in 1934 and won a contract in 1937, while the day workers and the farm hands played the same game both times because the laws named their jobs and left them out. It covers labor reform and its limits, how work relief was designed, bank confidence, and who the laws skipped. It does not cover the whole New Deal: pair it with a Hundred Days and Social Security reading. Fits US History 10-12 and APUSH Topic 7.10.

What Students Will Learn

Social & Emotional Learning (CASEL)

Aligned to the CASEL framework's core competencies. These are the SEL skills students actively practice while playing.

Flexible Class Sizes

36-40 students
All 8 tables. 38 students: six tables of 5, the grocer and the farm hands 4 each. 39-40: the grocer, then the farm hands, take a 5th.
24-35 students
All 8 tables, 3 to 5 at each. Fill the farm hands, the grocer and both day-work tables first.
8-23 students
All 8 tables, 1 to 3 at each. Fill the farm hands, the grocer and both day-work tables first. A table with nobody plays it safe every round.

Roles Your Students Will Play

Click any role to see their background and what they are trying to accomplish.

Assembly line
Five renting families who build tractors on the line. Thin savings. You work beside the tool room at the tractor works.
Goals
  • Get your families through four rounds: end above 0.
  • Talk to the other tables before you choose: what the bank pays depends on the whole town.
Tool room
Five machinists' families who own their houses and are behind on the mortgage. The most savings at the tractor works.
Goals
  • Get your families through four rounds: end above 0.
  • Talk to the other tables before you choose: what the bank pays depends on the whole town.
Kill floor
Five families on the packinghouse slaughter floor. The least cash of any plant table. When you sign a union card or walk out, your table acts as one: all five families, or none.
Goals
  • Get your families through four rounds: end above 0.
  • Talk to the other tables before you choose: what the bank pays depends on the whole town.
Cutting floor
Five families with two paychecks, so they can save.
Goals
  • Get your families through four rounds: end above 0.
  • Talk to the other tables before you choose: what the bank pays depends on the whole town.
Grocer
The family that runs the corner store. The biggest savings in town, in four quarters. You live on the town's paychecks: grocery orders, the strikers' tab, crates for the fall.
Goals
  • Get your family through four rounds: end above 0.
  • Your store lives on the town's paychecks. Watch what the plants do.
Day work, north side
Five families who clean and cook in other people's homes, paid by the day. Four are headed by a woman. No labor law covers your work in any round.
Goals
  • Get your families through four rounds: end above 0.
  • Talk to the other day-work table: you share the cash days and the day rate.
Day work, south side
Five families who clean and cook in other people's homes, paid by the day. Four are headed by a woman. You share the day rate with the north side. No labor law covers your work.
Goals
  • Get your families through four rounds: end above 0.
  • Talk to the other day-work table: you share the cash days and the day rate.
Farm hands
Four families of hired men on a farm outside town. Two sons of CCC age. No labor law covers your work.
Goals
  • Get your families through four rounds: end above 0.
  • Watch the bank: your owner borrows from it.

Hand Each Student Their Own Sheet

One click on the teacher dashboard prints a dossier for every role - background, goals, key facts, and their confidential briefing - plus the primary-source packet and a vocabulary sheet. Print them, or save as PDF, so each student reads their role on paper instead of huddling around one screen. The app still runs the votes and the action; the paper just carries the reading.

Key Terms Students Will Learn

bank holidayfireside chatdeposit insurancemeans testreliefCWACCCSection 7union cardstrikeseniorityforemanSchechterWagner ActLabor BoardSocial SecurityWPAunion contract

After the Game: Debrief Questions

  1. Same card in 1934 and 1937. What changed, and what did not?
  2. The law changed for the plants in 1935. It did not change for the day workers and the farm hands. Why?
  3. The packinghouse union did not take farm hands. One year, the company hired farm hands at the packinghouse gate, and the packinghouse strikers lost. Who made that happen?

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