I did a little measuring in my classroom and discovered that I could fit 2 tenement apartments into the room. I thought this would be a great visual for my students and after discussing it with my student teacher we developed an activity where they would have to furnish their apartment. Each apartment had 8-11 students in it and they each had to have a place to sit and sleep. They also had to have a work space for either garment workers or cigar makers. My classroom has 2 windows on one wall and it was perfect for the apartment setup. I turned off the lights to simulate the amount of light in the turn-of-the-century apartments. I also rounded up a few teachers, students, and a custodian to be extra renters in the apartments after we read about a family of 8 that had to take in 6 renters to pay the rent. Overall, we had some great discussions about living and working in 325 sq feet.
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