Curated OER
Culture in Art
Learners explore how cultural aspects of their lives are depicted in society. They view a video on Frida Kahlo and identify the cultural elements that she referenced in her work.
Curated OER
Painting With Rocks
Third graders discover that the only inorganic resource available to early cultures for cosmetics was rock and soil. They watch a demonstration showing that rubbing rock on your hand gently doesn't mark the skin very well, but rubbing...
Curated OER
Social Studies: How Did Native Americans Live?
Fifth graders examine Edward Curtis' photographs and Robert Griffing's paintings to analyze Native American culture. They present research information on specific tribes, using the photos and paintings to uncover information about the...
Curated OER
Urbanization As Seen Through Late 19c - Early 20c Architecture
Incorporating the cultures, architecture, and ethnic populations of several American cities (namely Chicago and New York), this presentation displays vivid photographs of buildings and people in 19th - 20th century urban America. The...
Curated OER
America Moves Out!
First graders analyze the events of early American exploration. This is a unit resource for teachers in which there are six lessons about the American Western exploration and expansion. Within each instructional activity there are...
Curated OER
Get Your Mojo Workin': Part 1 Writing Your Very Own Blues Tune!
Upper graders listen to the blues. They discuss blues scale, read a description of the blues, and work together to write an original piece. A lesson like this ties into American history and African-American musical contributions very...
Curated OER
The South, the North and the Great Migration: Blues and Literature
Here is a complex lesson plan that interweaves the history of the Jim Crow South and the Great Migration with the study of poetry, art, and blues music from the Harlem Renaissance. The plan helps young historians develop a deep...
Curated OER
Jacksonian America and the Indian Removal Act of 1830
Students utilize primary sources to explore the national climate concerning Native American Indians during the Andrew Jackson administration. They are presented with opinions for and against the Indian Removial Act of 1830 as they...
Curated OER
William Apess and the Mashpee "Revolt" of 1833
Prompt your class with the following question: What was the status of American Indians in Massachusetts during Jackson's presidency? To answer this question, class members will read a series of primary source documents (attached),...
Smithsonian Institution
Black Diamond
Score a home run with this packet of information on the very first player of the Negro League to be elected into the National Baseball Hall of Fame — cultural groundbreaker and sports legend Satchel Paige. These worksheets include a...
Curated OER
Intellectual/Social/Cultural Movements: 1870s - 1914 (5)
In this online interactive American history activity, students answer 12 matching questions regarding late 1870's-1914 America. Students may submit their answers to be scored.
Curated OER
Philanthropic Beliefs of Native Americans
Students examine the tradition of giving and sharing in early Native American communities. In this philanthropy lesson, students define the term philanthropy, list 3 traditions of Native American giving and sharing, and identify 3...
Curated OER
Native Lands: Indians in Georgia-Shifting Ground Political Cartoon-Introduction
Students explore the relationship between the Creek, Cherokee, and European/American cultures prior to the American Revolution. Students do Internet research to identify and explain changes in these cultures, then ...
Louisiana Department of Education
The Scarlet Letter
Use Nathanial Hawthorne's immortal text on the influence of religion on the early American settlements, as well as its continued impact on American culture, with a unit that focuses on The Scarlet Letter. In addition to Hawthorne's...
Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media
European Explorers
To compare how the Spanish, French, and English approached the exploration of North America, class groups examine primary source documents and become experts on one of four explorers: Francisco Coronado, Robert LaSalle, Samuel de...
Ocean Explorer
Looking for Clues
Upper graders become "shipwreck detectives" by studying the debris field from a shipwreck in the Aegean Sea which took place in the 700s. A website is accessed that gives specific information about the debris field, and pairs of...
Curated OER
"Their Eyes Were Watching God": Folk Speech and Figurative Language
Using or considering using Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God? Then this packet is a must for your curriculum library. The examination of how Hurston combines folklore and folk language to create the voice of her...
Curated OER
Colonial Identity
Young scholars research and discuss the origins of the American colonies and explore how colonists were still influenced by English culture. As a follow-up project, students produce a portrait of an individual.
Curated OER
Say It Loud!: A Celebration Of Black Music in America - Louis Armstrong
Students listen to selections of New Orleans street band music. They explore the culture of New Orleans in the 1920's, and perform a closer examination of Armstrong's music.
Curated OER
Crossroads of the Continent: Early Trade in Kansas
Young scholars study early Native American-European trade. They play bartering games to discover trade as an economic funtion, as well as other implications of trading one good for another.
Curated OER
ARTIFACT to ART to GLYPHS
Pupils study the development of early Latin American civilizations in unit one. The second part of the unit is based on early image-making attempts from the Cro-Magnon to the Peruvian Incas. Students create their own weavings using a...
Curated OER
Baseball, Race and Ethnicity: Rounding the Bases
Students consider Race and Ethnicity in baseball. In this American history lesson, students examine primary source images of American baseball. They then develop an original argument, pose historical questions and conduct Internet research.
Curated OER
Native Harvest
Students read Native Plants and Early Peoples and explore the plants in Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park and find how the Native Americans used them. In this Native American plant and people lesson, students...
Historical Thinking Matters
Social Security: 3 Day Lesson
What does social security reveal about the political and social culture of the 1930s? After beginning with a brief introductory video on the impact of the Great Depression and how various Americans, such as Huey Long and Francis...