Learning Stations:
The FDR Presidency
Directions:
 In groups of 5, you are to complete the following stations:
o Video: FDR: Brainpop
o Writing Analysis: FDR’s 100 Days
o Happy Days Are Here Again: Song
o Political Cartoon: FDR in office
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You are going to be given roughly 8 minutes for each station. You may switch when prompted
by the teacher
When answering the questions…..BE SURE TO DISCUSS THE ANSWERS AS A GROUP! IF YOU
ARE QUIET, THEN THERE IS NO SHARING GOING ON!
After we finish the stations, we will bring it back together in a circle for a “Group Discussion”
Station 1: Video: FDR: BrainPop
(http://www.brainpop.com/socialstudies/famoushistoricalfigures/franklindroosevelt/)
1: What were some of the positions that Franklin Delano Roosevelt held before he was President?
2: What party did Franklin Delano Roosevelt represent? When did he become President? How many
terms did he serve
3: What is the New Deal? What did the New Deal Do?
Station 2: Comprehension: The New Deal, In Detail: FDR’s 1st 100 Days (Read the Article 1st, as a
group!!)
Roosevelt's Inaugural Address was a pitch-perfect combination of optimism ("The only thing we
have to fear is fear itself"), consolation (the nation's problems "concern, thank God, only
material things") and resolve ("This nation asks for action, and action now"). The speech won
rave reviews. Even the rock-ribbed Republican Chicago Tribune lauded its "dominant note of
courageous confidence." F.D.R. had buoyed the spirits of the American people — and nearly
500,000 of them wrote to him at the White House in the following week to tell him so.
1: In FDR’s inaugural speech, he stated that the only thing we have to fear, is fear itself. What do you
believe he meant by that statement?
And that team came through brilliantly. In the next 100 days — O.K., 105, but who's counting?
— his Administration shepherded 15 major bills through Congress. It was the most intense
period of lawmaking ever undertaken by Congress — a "presidential barrage of ideas and
programs," historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr. observed, "unlike anything known to American
history."
2: What happened in FDR’s first 100 (105) days in office?
The immediate crisis involved the banks. Thousands had failed, costing families their life
savings. The failures had prompted bank runs: people rushed to take out their money, causing
more banks to become insolvent. By March 4, all 48 states had ordered their banks closed.
Within days, the Roosevelt Administration drafted an Emergency Banking Act. Congress rushed
to pass it, even though there were no finished copies available to read. The new law authorized
the Treasury Department to begin reopening the banks when they could prove they were
healthy. Barely a week after the Inauguration, the banking system was operating again.
Roosevelt's closest aide, Raymond Moley, later said that "capitalism was saved in eight days."
3: Why did FDR believe that saving banks were important?
Roosevelt had not planned to keep Congress in special session for 100 days. But as long as it
kept enacting his agenda, he seized the opportunity. Frances Perkins, his Secretary of Labor and
the first female Cabinet member, pushed for large-scale welfare and public-works programs.
Families that fell behind on rent were being thrown out on the street, children were keeling over
in school from malnutrition, and once upstanding members of the middle class were foraging
for food in garbage dumps. Roosevelt backed a welfare program drawn up by Harry Hopkins, a
social worker who became the first federal welfare administrator. Under Hopkins' energetic
leadership, in his first day on the job, the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA)
began sending out multimillion-dollar checks to the states.
4: FDR’s administration passed a welfare bill. Why was it needed?
Station 3: Song: Happy Days Are Here Again (1930)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqsT4xnKZPg
Happy days are here again
The skies above are clear again
So let's sing a song of cheer again
Happy days are here again
Altogether shout it now
There's no one
Who can doubt it now
So let's tell the world about it now
Happy days are here again
Your cares and troubles are gone
There'll be no more from now on
From now on ...
Happy days are here again
The skies above are clear again
So, Let's sing a song of cheer again
Happy times
Happy nights
Happy days
Are here again!
1: What is the tone of this song? Why do you say that?
2: Why might this song be a good Presidential Theme Song for FDR?
Station 3: Political Cartoon: FDR’s Policy
1: What did Congress and The American People expect after Roosevelt took office?
2: In the background, you see Uncle Sam with his arm around Hoover….what do you believe they are
thinking?
3: Is this cartoon in support or against FDR? Why?