America was built on the ingenuity, work ethic, and foresight of our ancestors. Sixth graders learn about the complex Gilded Age in American history, including the prominent inventors and captains of industry, and how they all connect...

The courage of Las Mariposas, the Mirabal sisters, is the focus of a series of activities designed to accompany a reading of In the Time of the Butterflies that ask readers to consider what it means to be courageous. Beautifully crafted...

Imagine being able to travel back and forth in time! H.G. Wells uses that scenario in his novel The Time Machine to comment on what he saw as the flaws in Victorian society and the industrial age. This teacher's guide is one of...

Creating buildings that reach hundreds of feet into the sky is no easy task. The third instructional activity in this series begins with four activities that engage young architects in exploring the major challenges that are faced when...

Upper graders explore the new industrial revolution and how the tech boom in recent years is similar and different to the Industrial Revolution of the past. They watch a video, explore web sites, and discuss what they see. They work...

Candace Fleming's award winning Ben Franklin's Almanac is the anchor text for a classroom guide that provides teachers with a cache of pre, during, and post-reading activities.

Stanley Nelson's acclaimed film, The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution uses interviews, archival footage, and images to document the story of the radical political party established in 1966 by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale. A...

A neat Presidents Day activity, this lesson provides a culminating learning experience for upper elementary aged learners. After analyzing George Washington's, "A Display of the United States of America," your learners will conduct...

As you explore an excerpt from Upton Sinclair's The Jungle with your class, discuss how his descriptions of the meat-packing industry caught the public's attention and helped to promote change in the Progressive Era.

Who are "the most pernicious race of little odious vermin that nature ever suffered to crawl upon the surface of the earth”? Readers of Gulliver’s Travels will learn the answer, as the journey with Lemuel Gulliver to Lilliput,...

The second and third movements of the Eroica, Beethoven's Symphony No. 3, provides listeners with an opportunity to connect to French Revolution and to Napoleon Bonaparte. As they listen to the music, individuals draw what their ears...

The construction of skyscrapers is no simple undertaking, involving the careful coordination and planning of many different people. The third lesson in this series explores this detailed process by first teaching children about the main...

Here's a great resource for your curriculum library. The 240-page packet, organized into units by topics, includes sample lesson plans, links to primary and secondary source documents, worksheets, activities, and sample assessments.

From stagecoach to railroad tracks, your class will discover how advancements in travel in the United States during the nineteenth century played an integral role in the industrialization and development of American society. The main...

Visual literacy can be experienced in many different ways. Learners discuss the times, graphic art, and cultural significance of activism in art as they explore artist and Black Panther, Emory Douglas. This is a discussion-based lesson...