Hitler Cartoons, for High School Students

This may be the dumbest project idea ever. It comes from a British website (via this blogger):

The following activity is a great way of rounding off or revising the Rise of Hitler with IGCSE students. They produce a ‘Mr. Men’ book about the topic and then read these to primary school / Year 7 students in a team challenge.

A. Prior to the Activity

Pre-activity preparation for Year 11

Prior to this activity, Year 11 students should have finished studying the Rise of Hitler. They should then spend classroom time discussing in pairs and groups how they could transform the narrative into a ‘Mr. Men’ story that younger students would be able to understand.

The following steps are a useful framework:

Brainstorm the key people involved (Hitler, Hindenburg, Goering, Van der Lubbe, Rohm…). Discuss their personalities / actions in relation to the topic. Bring up a picture of the Mr. Men characters on the board. Discuss which characters are the best match.
Brainstorm the key events that took place (Backstairs Intrigue, Reichstag Fire, Night of the Long Knives, Army’s oath of loyalty…). Discuss how these could be turned into analogies that would fit into a Mr. Man format. At this point it is a good idea to watch one of the original Mr. Men cartoons (easily located on YouTube or purchasable online as a DVD) to get them thinking along the right lines.

There’s more at the link.

If you’re not familiar with the “Mr. Man” cartoons, here’s an example:

Unbelievable.