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Celebrate Colonial Maryland
Students research colonial Maryland. In this colonial Maryland activity, students participate in a WebQuest to investigate how families led their lives long ago. Students compare family and city life from long ago and today. Students...
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Finding Meaning in the Badge
Children who are three to five years old study two rank badges from the Qing dynasty to develop an understanding of social rank, language skills, and symbolism. The instructional activity is discussion-based and requires learners to...
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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...
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School Life Today and in the Past at Freyberger School
Students compare and contrast school life today with that of Pennsylvania in the 1900's. In this school life lesson students create a description of a typical one-room schoolhouse. They think critically about attending school in a...
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Activity Name: A Step Back In Time
First graders step back in history. In this history lesson, 1st graders compare life in the past with life today as they create books that compare clothing, homes, schools, chores, and technology of today to those of the past.
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Global Warming: Life in a Greenhouse
Students investigate the evidence and consequences of global warming. They read and discuss an article, conduct a debate, evaluate their community's climate statistics, log their gas consumption for a week, and develop a panel discussion...
Space Awareness
Making A Sundial
Can people really measure time just by using the sun? Scholars venture outside on a nice, sunny day to build sundials and learn how people measured time 600 years ago. The class builds two different sundials while gaining practice with...
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Fun with Fossils
Second graders explore the geologic process of fossil formation. In this geology lesson, 2nd graders discuss the job of a paleontologist and make their own model of a fossil. This lesson includes teacher directed questions.
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Kids in the Colonies
Students compare and contrast family life in colonial America with life today. They describe what communities were like in colonial times and how they varied from life today. A spokesperson from each group will present a verbal report...
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Portrait of a Place, Portrait of a Family
Students act out stories based on lives of famous people from Harlem. In this memoirs lesson, students compare the life of the people in Harlem in 1930 to the people of today. Students explore how "home" is different for different...
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The School: School Culture Across Louisiana
Students identify and research school customs and folk groups through discussion and interviews. Then they identify and learn that traditional culture exists within other cultural contexts, such as the academic world of school, and in...
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Plains Indians Pictographs
Learners explore methods of written communication. For this Plains Indian lesson, students create pictographs representing everyday modern life after observing the pictographs used by the Plains Indians. Pictograph stories are written on...
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Waste, Then and Now
Students discuss and compare the waste disposal habits of today with those of Native Americans of long ago.
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Games Children Play: Then and Now
Second graders examine primary documents to discover similarities and differences in life today and life before. In this toys then and now lesson plan, 2nd graders complete a graphic organizer to show how things have changed or stayed...
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What Were Dinosaurs Like?
Young scholars compare and contrast dinosaurs to animals that are alive today through basic research.
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What Were Dinosaurs Like?
Students view a video clips about Dinosaurs. In this dinosaur lesson, students begin to understand the extinction of the dinosaurs by comparing them to contemporary animals. Students complete a research sheet on one dinosaur by...
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Sending Messages, Then and Now
Students analyze how patriots created ways to communicate during the Revolutionary War. After reading about and discussing ways patriots communicated, students create a chart analyzing the way messages are sent today with the way...
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Habitats Past and Present
Learners explore the changes in animal habitats. In this ecosystem lesson, students use the Internet to explore the changes in the environment since the 1700's. Learners complete a Venn diagram to compare the differences in the animal...
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Dinosaurs 2: What Were Dinosaurs Like?
Learners compare and contrast dinosaurs to animals that are alive today through basic research.
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Time Travel
Fourth graders become familiar with the early explorers of our state. In addition, they conceptualize life during the 1800's in relation to their own personal histories and knowledge of 19th century events.
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We Are Family
Second graders research their family history and how it connects them to the past. They identify their ancestors, graphically organize relatives in a family tree, and chart significant events in their lives on a timeline.
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"Families and Schools of the Past"
First graders listen to and discuss historical fiction and bigraphies from the early American time period. They role-play, draw, write stories and dress up to re-create events from these historical characters.
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Family Animals: Reading Historic Photographs
Students read photographs. For this social studies lesson, students "read" historic photographs and discuss what they learned from looking at the photographs. Students look at the pictures and write a caption.
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Home: The Story of Maine
Learners identify at least 10 foods that are important to Maine's economy and culture. They participate in a scavenger hunt as they find their way around a grocery store.