Have your older students assist young children with writing in this community service and literacy lesson. Middle schoolers become partners with a local elementary school. They assist the grade school children in writing a pattern book...

Define the word perseverance to have learners understand why it is important in reaching goals. Young scholars research how Martin Luther King needed perseverance to accomplish his goals. They write acrostic poems using the word...

Working in groups, middle and high schoolers describe and discuss photographs depicting working conditions experienced by child laborers in the 19th century. They then write a persuasive paragraph supporting an amendment to regulate the...

Many educators focus on the civil rights movement as it occurred after Rosa Parks incited the bus boycott. Extend the understanding of the fight for civil rights in the United States with this post-WWII lesson. Learners examine and...

There is no more useful life skill to learn than budgeting and setting financial goals. It's math that is used by every person, everyday. Learners examine the responsibilities and costs involved in family economics. Through a series of...

Visit the Magic Treehouse and take your class on a trip through time with a reading of the children's book Mummies in the Morning. Using the story to spark an investigation into Egyptian culture, this literature unit engages...

Louisa May Alcott's Little Women is a literary masterpiece as well as a timestamp of the formative mid-nineteenth century in America. Using a primary source set of photographs, letters, and portraits, readers discuss the ways...

High schoolers investigate how successful they were in obtaining their goals in the Revolutionary War. The peace feelers of 1775 are examined and the reasons for the British rejection of them explored. the main provisions of the Treaty...

Thomas Jefferson is one of the most recognized names and faces in America—but is there more to the third president of the United States? Upper elementary and middle schoolers conduct research on Jefferson, his famous home at Monticello,...

To broaden their understanding of both the short term and long terms effects of the Civil War, class groups examine primary source materials and then assume the role of a family member and draft a letter to a soldier describing life at...

Explore expository writing and using precise language in this descriptive paragraph writing lesson. Learners brainstorm prior knowledge about the changing seasons in Ohio. They describe seasonal items, view seasonal pictures from...

Music, writing, and activism all tell the story of history! The resource uses these elements and more in a presentation to discuss the Jazz Age and Harlem Renaissance. Your class views biographies, discusses important events, and...

Alliterative adjective nicknames generate stories inspired by Rosemary Wells' book Noisy Nora (also a thematic complement to any class with children who make a ruckus to get attention). Class members explore basic story elements --...

Who wouldn't love to get a letter from a blue bird? Elementary art enthusiasts analyze the social and historical context of Ason Yellowhair's Navajo piece, Bird and Cornstalk Rug. They examine the construction and images on the rug...

Analyze the use of balanced sentences and parallelism in a narrative. Included in this resource is a narrative about serving as a Peace Corps volunteer in Kazakhstan titled, "The Train Ride Home". Middle and high schoolers review...

Imagine you are a soldier in the Civil War. What are you wearing? What do you need to carry with you? Examine the life of a person during the Civil War, from drummer boys to powder monkeys to musket-toting soldiers. Elementary...

Fighting a war over home soil makes a living nightmare even more real. Class members describe the experience of a Civil War soldier during the Battle of Franklin, poised right at a major turning point of the war, after researching the...

Whose responsibility is it to improve schools in developing countries? How does quality education affect my neighborhood? Questions of responsibility, whether global or local, form the heart of this lesson. Using the UN’s Millennium...

Ezell Blair, Jr., David Richmond, Franklin McCain and Joseph McNeil changed history. Their sit-in at the lunch counter of the Woolworths in Greensboro, North Carolina on February 1, 1960 became a model for the nonviolent protests that...

Third graders learn the importance of letter writing for communication. For this letter writing lesson, 3rd graders identify how letter writing was important in the life of Abigail Adams. Students understand what a primary source is...

World War II and the Battle of the Bulge are the focus of a history resource. Exercises include analyzing images, writing letters in the mindset of a soldier, and even immersing oneself in a cold experience to better empathize with the...

To examine the “New English” Chinua Achebe uses in Things Fall Apart, readers complete a series of worksheets that ask them to examine similes, proverbs, and African folktales contained in the novel. Individuals explain the meaning...

Learners examine primary documents regarding Paul Revere's ride and its role in the Revolutionary War. They consider how Revere's role has been written about by Longfellow and others and discuss the discrepancies between accounts.

After listening to a story about Martin Luther King Jr., first graders answer questions about the text. They discuss the importance of the illustrations, identify the beginning, middle, and end of the story, and complete a writing...