Curated OER
Travel Through Time with a Family Member
Students interview a family member. In this interviewing lesson, students choose a family member to interview and write about. Students create a PowerPoint about the person including a timeline, photographs, and a narrative about their...
Curated OER
Discovering Your Community
Students focus on the origins of the families that make up their community by exploring their family's origins through themselves, parents, and grandparents. Students create a map marked with family origins for the class.
Curated OER
Family Pedigrees
Students work as a class to first construct a pedigree of a popular singer, showcasing the singing gene being passed down through the generations. Students then make their own family pedigree and follow two traits through their family...
Curated OER
Why Celebrate Black History Month
Second graders study about the culture, heritage, family, church, and politics of the African-American and why we honor their accomplishments. Then they make class presentations. This is a very meaningful instructional activity on an...
Curated OER
Culture Collage
Students investigate their cultural heritage and make observations on how much influence their past has on their current values and lifestyle. They brainstorm a list of things that represent a certain country or cultural heritage and...
Curated OER
What We Learn From Women and Girls
Role models are all around us! Young learners celebrate Women's History Month by selecting two female role models in their lives, and writing or drawing a short description about why they admire that girl or woman.
Curated OER
Interviewing A Parent
Students conduct an interview with a family member to research their family history. They prepare a list of questions, conduct the interview, and determine which house to visit for an artifact search.
Curated OER
The Importance of the Past
Students, in groups, study why the past is important by sharing personal past experiences. They discuss why all human pasts are important, as well as the importance of their local or family history.
Anti-Defamation League
We Were Strangers Too: Learning About Refugees Through Art
Did you know that "in the largest refugee crisis since World War II, more the 64 million people have been forced from their homes"? The Anti-Defamation League presents an activity that asks class members to examine a series of artworks...
Curated OER
Culture Box
Sixth graders are asked what is culture? They find out their family history and all the nationalities represented in their family. Students discuss their culture with the class. They create culture boxes with a design that integrates...
Curated OER
A Brief History of Fairfax County
Students brainstorm a list of things they already know about the history of Fairfax County, Virginia. After reading a primary source document, they discuss the similarities and differences between their prior knowledge and what they...
Curated OER
Journey
Students complete a variety of enrichment activities that focus on the book, Journey, by Patricia MacLachlan. They create a photo album that shows their own family history.
Curated OER
Cultural Awareness/Sharing Traditions
Students examine and explore cultural traditions that make their own families unique. In groups, they discuss traditions, write about the similarities and differences in the group, and interview other students.
Curated OER
Living History- An Intergenerational Philanthropy
Students gather information from a senior friend to write a biography. In this living history books lesson plan, students organize information to complete a book about their senior friend. Detailed teacher instructions for completing the...
Curated OER
Personal Experience Narratives
Help your middle schoolers identify personal experience narratives in their own lives through telling stories themselves and from family members or other adults. They study personal experience narratives in Swapping Stories and compare...
Curated OER
Naming Traditions
Students get to know each other better and research their family and community history. After students research their own and their parents' names, they notice names in literature, history, and other studies and know more about these names.
Curated OER
Family Traditions and Special Times
Second graders recognize that families have a history through discussions with their own family members, identify traditions and how they vary in different families, and create entries in class book about traditions in their families.
Curated OER
You Gotta Know the Territory
Pupils examine the relationship between Native Americans and those who settled the Iowa territory. In this Iowa history lesson, students investigate the process for settling the territory and how intercultural relationships developed...
Curated OER
Too Large to be a Lunatic Asylum: South Carolina’s Mental Health
Eighth graders examine the history of South Carolina's mental institutions. In this South Carolina history lesson, 8th graders discover details about asylums built in the state in the 1800's. Students analyze primary sources about mental...
PBS
Stories of Painkiller Addiction: Contemplating Nature vs. Nurture
Does having an addict in your family make it more likely to become one yourself? Explore the genetic risk factors, as well as the prominent environmental influences, for substance addiction in a lesson that encourages awareness and open...
Civil War Trust
Genealogy
The Civil War is undoubtedly a part of America's history, but could it be part of your pupils' history as well? Middle schoolers conduct research to discover a connection between their ancestors and the American Civil War. Whether...
Channel Islands Film
The Legendary King
After viewing two documentaries about the history of the Channel islands, individuals craft an essay in which they compare the lives of Juana Maria, the Lone Woman San Nicolar Island, to Lester Holt and his family featured in the...
Curated OER
A Discourse on the History of Language
Analyze and make inferences from the information used by linguists to construct the evolution of languages. They research different dating techniques to explain how scientists infer age with evidence.
Alabama Department of Archives and History
Women of the Movement: Civil Rights Movement in Alabama
Many know of Rosa Parks involvement in the Civil Rights Movement, but who were other female leaders? The lesson focuses on female Civil Rights leaders and their achievements. Scholars complete research, participate in group discussions,...