Through character trait graphic organizers, a vocabulary sorting activity, class discussion, and a civil rights movement slide show, your young historians will be introduced to the amazing story of Ruby Bridges and her experiences as the...

Class members investigate the Jim Crow Laws, Executive Order 9066, the Chinese Exclusion Act, and the Indian Removal Act to gather information about not only the challenges encountered by diverse groups of Americans, but their...

Did Western settlers receiving free land from the Homestead Act realize it wasn't really free at all? Scholars investigate the impact Western expansion had on Native American culture in the mid-1800s. They use documents, timelines, and...

Go West, young man! Scholars investigate the impact of African American settlers moving to the Nebraska territory, following the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act in the mid 1800s. Using primary sources, timelines, maps, and...

Three scripted lessons comprise a unit designed to inform special needs students about their rights and responsibilities in high school. In the first lesson class members examine the Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA), Child Find,...

Racial Profiling. Class members chart what they know and what they want to know about this hot-button topic. 

The first of a three-part series on bullying, this plan has class members present skits about bullying, write and sign an anti-bullying pledge, and complete a service project. For the skit, learners use information from previous lessons...

Introduce a study of the presidency of Andrew Jackson with a lesson that uses video clips, primary source documents, group activities, and debates to examine Jackson's early life and career. The lesson focuses on the 1828 election and...

Introduce middle schoolers to playwriting and the elements of drama with a six-session storytelling unit that encourages kids to expand their acting and writing skills. The 12-page packet includes overviews of the lessons,...

Just how long was the Long Drive? Learners investigate the movement of cattle in the Great Plains during the mid-1800s. They incorporate photographic, newspaper, video, and primary source evidence into their posters, artwork, and written...

General music students learn about the history of popular American music by creating and performing a one-act musical. After researching and creating an American Musical timeline, class members write a song with lyrics using Jam Studio,...

Who has the power? The founding fathers asked the same question when the United States was formed. Learners explore issues that arose during Madison’s presidency that raised constitutional questions. Through discovery, discussion, and...

To better understand the Indian Removal Act of 1830, class members examine primary source documents including letters written by Alabama governors and the Cherokee chiefs. The lesson is part of a unit on the expansion of the United...

How can a teeter-totter balance when the two people are different sizes? Show classes how this works through a simulation. Scholars play with a teeter-totter to show how different masses and their placement affect balance. Once they have...

Get to know the meaning behind the song "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" from the legendary 1939 film The Wizard of Oz. Groups of two take the roles of performer and questioner. Performers sing lines of the song while questioners...

While less well known than the event in Boston, the Yorktown Tea Party was equally decisive in turning community sentiment against Great Britain. To gain an understanding of why the colonists objected to the Tea Act, young historians...

Save the Lofty Trees, by Leslie Mills, provides the text for a study of the roles of animals and humans in the forest. Richly detailed, the plan offers two approaches to the play: as a scenario for children to imagine what actions would...

Lights, Camera, Action! Pupils read Little Women and create, act, and direct a melodrama that Jo March and her sisters would enjoy. The lesson plan comes complete with resources for the educator on melodrama as well as examples...

Young scholars recognize and honor kind acts of Holocaust liberators and rescuers, and realize importance of kind acts towards others.

Students examine the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. They work together to discover how their local community handles waste disposal. They complete a worksheet to end the lesson.

Write about economic and banking issues of concern to the public. Investigate lending discrimination and the impact of the 1977 Community Reinvestment Act. Use a guide to do research and write an essay.

Students focus on the First and Ninth Amendments of the Bill of Rights. Before visiting a museum, they examine the Americans with Disabilities Act. During the visit, they work together with a museum member to watch a video and get...

In this addition worksheet, 1st graders cut out 5 pictures of ants at the bottom of the worksheet, use them to act out 4 stories and then write the sum to each one.

In this acting it out with models to problem solve instructional activity, students use counters to solve one-digit subtraction problems and draw or write explanations of their answers. Students solve three problems.