Chocolate Town, USA

Anticipatory Set: How many people like chocolate in this room? Does anyone know who Milton S. Hershey is?

Objective: Students will be able to talk about Hershey, PA and examine the effects Milton S. Hershey made on the economy.

Procedure:

• Ask if anyone has visited Hershey, PA?
• Discuss what the city itself is like.
• Does the city smell like chocolate?
• The street lamps look like what?
• How big is the city?
• What other things are there to do in the city?
• Read the selection about Hershey, PA in Portrait of America, Pennsylvania By Steck-Vaughn.
• What are some of the things Milton S. Hershey did for the community?
• Set up the town including a factory, bank, park, churches, a department store, a zoo, and a school.
• He got people through the Great Depression by keeping them working. During this time he had them build a sports arena, community center, a hotel, and a theater.
• Why do you think he was successful?
• Learn some facts about Hershey’s chocolate.
• The factory is the largest chocolate plant in the world.
• The factory takes up over two million square feet of space.
• Near the factory are 24 silos that hold cocoa beans. They hold enough cocoa beans, which is the most important ingredient in chocolate, to make 5.5 billion chocolate bars.
• Cocoa Beans are grown in the Ivory Coast, Ghana, Nigeria, Brazil, Ecuador, Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Mexico, and Trinidad.
• The Hershey factory can produce 25 million Hershey Kisses a day.

Independent Practice: For homework devise a list of Hershey’s products, how many can you come up with???

Resource Material:

The Great American Chocolate Factory booklet from the Hershey’s plant