Civil War Trust
Civil War Personalities Lesson Plan
Caring, trustworthiness, and responsibility—these are only a few character traits in focus of a lesson based on stories from the Civil War era. Class members explore several influential lives while reading biographies that highlight...
Curated OER
Family's Tree House
Students research their family history and graph it in a family tree format. They appreciate similarities and differences in various cultures and customs by comparing and contrasting their family trees. They then create an original...
Curated OER
Quilting Our Diverse Classroom
Students explore diversity and race by creating art. For this ethnic background lesson, students discuss their family history, where their relatives lived and how it affects their life today. Students create pieces of a quilt...
Museum of Tolerance
Artifact Research Activity
Artifacts give us the privilege of learning about the past, may it be family, culture, or traditions. Here, class members learn about their family's past with the help of an artifact, or family heirloom. Once an artifact is...
Curated OER
Origins and Identity
Students examine how to research their family backgrounds. They conduct interviews with various family members, create a family tree, and present their family tree to the class.
Curated OER
Family Trees
Pupils trace their family history back to their great-grandparents and examine where their family is from and what types of jobs their ancestors had. They also define different terms used to describe family relations such as...
Curated OER
Grandparents' Day: Family History
Students explore Grandparents' Day. They interview their grandparents and select an activity to highlight their interview. They select a project including writing an essay, composing a song, creating a poem or scrapbook, or writing a...
Curated OER
Lesson: All in the Family
Who was the Radcliffe family? Young learners find out about the life and times of a family from long ago. They analyze the family portrait, write a story about the family, and then use their story to create thought or word bubbles which...
Curated OER
Family Fables, Facts, and Other True Stories
Learners conduct an interview about their family with their parents and/or grandparents. They write a story based on interview facts and create a presentation for the class.
Curated OER
Paint's Family Tree
Students sort and classify the genetic traits of horses. In this heredity and genetics lesson, students read dialogue in a skit in which specific physical traits of several horses are described and a horse family tree is created....
National Endowment for the Humanities
History in Quilts
Learners investigate the use of cloth-based art forms intended to pass down traditions and history. They research types of quilts, quilt characteristics and then identify how Freedom Quilts were historically used in the US.
Curated OER
Family Life in the 1830s
Students compare and contrast family life today with family life in the 1830s. They conduct research on Old Sturbridge Village, read primary source documents, and develop a list of generalizations comparing/contrasting families of the...
Curated OER
A Digital Family Tree Trip Through Time
Young scholars research their family history by creating a family tree and using online tools. In this family tree lesson, students use bubbl.us to research their biographical information and web the data. Young scholars create timelines...
Curated OER
Creating Identity Posters
Students discover the identities of their classmates. In this tolerance lesson, students create individual posters showcasing their identity, history, and family background. Students examine the posters to get a better...
Curated OER
What is Your Story?
Students conduct an interview with a member of their family in preparation for writing their own family histories. They listen to their teacher's family story, and listen to the book "Picnic in October." Students then conduct their...
Curated OER
Discovering My Family History
Pupils research their family trees. They research Internet sites, conduct interviews and, when possible, access primary sources to compile information about their family's history. Students present their findings in a family tree.
Museum of Tolerance
Cultural Research Activity
Class members explore cultural diversity through a variety of texts that showcase the importance of traditions. Then, they interview their family members to research their own cultural background and write their findings on quilt...
Curated OER
Intergenerational Interviews
Learners develop questions to ask their famiy members to discover their family history. Individually, they conduct the interview and videotape if possible. To end the lesson, they draw a picture of the person they interviewed to...
Curated OER
How to Make Homework Meaningful
Enrich classroom experiences and engage young learners by assigning purposeful, student-centered homework activities.
Curated OER
Out of the Dust: Visions of Dust Bowl History Lesson Overview
Students complete activities with the book Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse. In this literature lesson plan, students read this story and view the Dust Bowl history from the eyes of a child. They discover the Great Depression and life...
Curated OER
You Mean I Am Part of History?
Fourth graders open the lines of communication between family members and to gain a historical understanding about family history. They research and interview their grandparents and parents and create a research paper.
Curated OER
My Family Tradition
Students examine different family traditions to further explain social patterns. They complete a graphic organizer using educational software.
National Park Service
The Young Naturalist
Beginning with a brief history of our 26th president, Theodore Roosevelt, then followed by a discussion of his interest in nature, young scientists take to the outdoors to locate and observe local plants and insects....
Curated OER
Music from Across America
Students complete a unit of lessons on a variety of types of American music. They record their impressions of music samples on a worksheet, identify types of instruments, and choose a musical selection for their family to respond to.