the word soap written out in bubbles
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Words & Pictures, Past to Present,

This History of Soap

Long ago, soap didn’t always look and smell clean! 

By Laine Falk
From the September 2022 Issue
Lexiles: 450L
Guided Reading Levels: M
DRA Level: 20-24
Featured Skill: Text Features, Key Details,
Topic: Social Studies,
Common Core Standards
  • RI2.1 Key details RI.2.4 Vocabulary RI.2.5 Nonfiction text features RI.2.10 Read grade-2- appropriate informational text SL.2 Participate in conversa- tions about grade-2 texts L.2.4.a Use sentence-level context as a clue to a word’s meaning
TEKS Standards
  • Social Studies
    (13) Science, technology, and society. The student understands how science and technology have affected life, past and present. The student is expected to: (B) explain how science and technology have affected the ways in which people meet basic needs.
  • Health
    (4) Health information. The student understands the difference between sickness and health in persons of all ages. The student is expected to: (A) explain ways in which germs are transmitted, methods of preventing the spread of germs, and the importance of immunization; (D) apply practices to control spread of germs in daily life such as hand washing and skin care.

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Imagine you were alive 300 years ago. You needed soap. But you couldn’t buy it. It cost a lot of money back then! You needed to make it.

You would need fat to make it. So your family would save up fat from meat they ate.

Then you would mix the fat with ashes from a fire. You would boil them together in a pot. They turned into brown jelly. Later, the jelly got hard. That was soap!

Soap Long Ago

People made soap with fat and ashes for thousands of years.

This kind of soap was smelly. It made the skin itchy. Most people would have used it to clean their homes, not their bodies.

How did people clean their bodies? Many people would have wiped themselves off with a wet rag.

Joseph Smith/Wisconsin Historical Society/Getty images (long ago); shutterstock.com (all other images)

Soap Gets Germs

In the late 1800s, scientists discovered germs. Germs are too small to see. They can make you sick.

Scientists learned that soap could lift germs off the skin. Then water would rinse those germs away. Keeping clean could help keep you healthy! People started to wash their bodies with soap.

Soap Today

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Today there are all kinds of soaps. They are mostly made with chemicals. But they work the same way as the old kind of soap.

And they smell much better!

Slideshows (1)
Activities (4)
Skills Activities
Quizzes (2)
Quizzes (2)
Answer Key (1)
Slideshows (1)
Activities (4) Download All Quizzes and Activities
Skills Activities
Quizzes (2)
Quizzes (2)
Answer Key (1)

About the Article

Social Studies Focus

Long ago and today

Health Focus

Personal hygiene

Step-by-Step Lesson Plan
Download the Lesson Plan

1. BEFORE READING

Preview the Vocabulary (3-5 minutes)
  • Play the online vocabulary slideshow. This article’s featured words are ashes, germs, and chemicals.

Text Preview Bookmarks (5-10 minutes)

  • Our skills page has both fiction and nonfiction options for kids to cut out to help them preview the text. They can use the nonfiction bookmark for this story.

2.  READ THE ARTICLE (10 MINUTES)

  • Now tell students they are going to read an article about how soap was made long ago and how it is made today. Students can read the article individually, in small groups, or as a whole class.

Assessment: Quiz (10 minutes)

  • Pass out the quiz to assess comprehension.
  • We offer this quiz in multiple-choice and written-answer formats.

ELA Focus: Nonfiction Text Features (20 minutes)

  • This piece is packed with nonfiction text features. Kids can do our Nonfiction Text Feature Hunt skills page either online or on a printed copy.

ELA Focus: Writing

  • Using the “Write an Ad!” printable, kids can write their own advertisements for soap using details they learned from the article.

Whole Issue Scavenger Hunt (20 minutes)

We created a scavenger hunt for several stories in this month’s Storyworks 2, including this nonfiction piece. The scavenger hunt can be done by students independently at home or during class time.

This is a self-contained group of slides that guide your students on a scavenger hunt through the whole issue. It’s not only fun, it also helps them make text-to-text connections.

To find it, look in your Resources section. Scroll down to Activities. You will see it there.To find it, look in your Resources section. Scroll down to Activities. You will see it there.

 

Text-to-Speech