Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media
What Brought Settlers to the Midwest?
Drawn by promises of fertile land, thousands of settlers poured West because of the Homestead Act of 1862. By examining images of the ads that drew them westward, learners consider the motivations for movement. They also consider how the...
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What Should I Purchase?
Discuss commercials, advertisements and junk mail and how each can influence their audience. Through these materials, kids examine persuasive writing. Which key words indicate that it's an advertisement? Young learners include these...
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What is Suffrage? Understanding the Right to Vote
Students discover one of the restrictions forced on women of the early 1900s. In this civil rights lesson, students investigate suffrage and why women were not allowed to vote in the early twentieth century. Students create a mock...
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Limericks
Introduce your class to the limerick with a focus on the form and its history. Resource is short on procedure, but contains useful suggestions about where to look for school-appropriate limericks for young readers. Examine the...
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The Words that Surround Us
Students investigate writing that we read daily by analyzing advertisements and articles. In this language arts instructional activity, students discuss the images and writing they see daily, where it comes from, and what it represents....
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Stained Glass for Your Class
Students investigate the history of stained glass and the creator of the art form. In this art project lesson plan, students utilize drawing paper to create their own style of stained glass using transparent paint. Students tape their...
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Life Sentence
Students investigate a vocabulary word by holding a fake auction. In this word visualization lesson, students are assigned a vocabulary word through a class auction and must illustrate its meaning and find its definition. Students...
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How To Teach How - To Writing
Students practice their writing skills by creating "How To" articles. In this journalism instructional activity, students grab tasks from a hat and are asked to explain orally how to complete these activities. Students complete flow...
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A Piece of the Puzzle
Discover the process of writing a story by comparing it to a puzzle. Begin by examining a diagram shaped like a puzzle which contains important elements of a story. Learners mix and match the pieces with elements of a story they are...
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The Art of Simple Machines
Students investigate the inventions of simple machines in our past and how they affect us today. In this engineering lesson, students discover who Rube Goldberg was and his ideas about complicated machines performing very simple tasks....
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Words into Pictures
Students discover the history of writing through images, and the universal themes that are still relevant. In this communications lesson, students analyze a group of symbols on the black board and must translate them into a complete...
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Fractal Fraction Fun
Students discover the interesting patterns and shapes referred to as "fractals." In this geometry lesson, students utilize pieces of colored construction paper to create the branches of a fractal tree. Students discuss the rules and...
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In the Loop
Students practice comparing items by using a Venn diagram. In this diagram instructional activity, students divide a group of similar buttons by the small details that separate them using a Venn Diagram. Students compare and contrast...
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Money Matters
Students practice working with real money by keeping records of purchases. In this economics lesson, students gather money either from home or a school fund raiser and purchase items at a grocery store for people who need help....
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Sandpainting
Students investigate different forms of art native to Navajo Indians. In this art history lesson, students observe authentic sand paintings created by Native Americans hundred of years ago. Students create their own sand paintings...
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The Magic Words
Students investigate the truth behind several magic tricks by conducting the illusions in class. In this slight of hand lesson, students create an illusion using a coffee can and shoe box. Students perform their trick for friends and...
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Art and Writing
Students examine the writing process by describing a piece of art. In this art analysis instructional activity, students examine a painting in a museum and write a story describing the painting to someone who has never seen it before....
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Preparing to Write
Students practice writing techniques by creating a draft of a story. In this creative writing lesson, students discuss organizational techniques writers use to plan out a story they wish to write. Students have the option to write...