Ben Franklin was a man with a plan. Learners investigate his plan for self-improvement using excerpts from Franklin's autobiography. Then, pupils develop their own plans and discuss how to sell them to others using the two-session lesson...

Benjamin Franklin may have been a Founding Father of the United States, but he also founded a number of civic associations. Learners explore his legacy using a biographical essay and collaborative activity. After their exploration,...

Build class community with an art project. Learners first examine and discuss works of art. They then contribute to a class mural by tracing their hands and decorating them in relation to their own cultures. The final mural...

How did Native Californians and Franciscans influence one another in early California? Learners analyze a few cultural pieces to examine the impact that integration had on Franciscan and Native Californian culture.

Your historical sleuths will work to research the in-depth history of chosen artifacts and will use their research to design a fictional advertisement for an early 20th century item.

After reading Harriet Jacobs' Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, one of the most famous slave narratives of all time, learners imagine what it would have been like to experience the small dimensions of her hiding space. They then...

Combine the study of art, music, and history with an activity that asks kids to craft rattles out of slabs of clay.

How did those faces get on that mountain, and why did they choose those particular presidents? Learn about Mount Rushmore's construction and the history behind the men represented on the mountainside with a short reading passage and set...

Five sessions make up a instructional activity on the Jewish celebration of Hanukkah. After reading and teaching young historians the history of the Jewish holiday, learners explore the celebration through hands-on activities and...

Challenge writers to compose an essay detailing their stance on, and the history of, voting. Three assignments, each broken down into three parts, requires fifth graders to take notes, read and complete charts, write paragraphs, compare...

How has Gorongosa National Park changed over time? Discover the park's rich history, dating back to primitive human times, through an interactive timeline and scientific reading. The second installment in an eight-part series explores...

Scholars analyze the role of bystanders during the Holocaust. The investigation explores the roles of the bystanders, upstanders, and rescuers with primary and secondary resources to determine actions taken—or not—and their implications...

Introduce young learners to the read-aloud process with a short biographical passage about Ray Charles. After listening to the passage, class members respond to factual, inferential, and evaluative questions, and then create a timeline...

What was it like to pass through Ellis Island? Learners move through the immigration process of the early 1900s in a simulation activity. A comprehensive activity includes role-playing profiles and other manipulative items such as...

Race played a key role in the war in the Pacific during World War II. Using images from both American and Japanese sources, learners consider racial propaganda and how leaders used it to rally popular support during the conflict. After...

It looks like a cracker, but hardtack was anything but. The staple of the Civil War soldier's diet is one of many aspects of military life that scholars consider using letters from soldiers back home and images from slavery. A PowerPoint...

If it were possible to step back in time, what would learners want to know about the Civil War? With the aid of discussion prompts, they now have that chance. Invite a Civil War re-enactor to your classroom and have all their questions...

Take a deep dive into oceanography. The online interactive allows for learners to board a submersible to dive to the bottom of the ocean to investigate sea vents. On the way down, individuals see different marine life at different...

Introduce class members to Presidential Medal of Freedom winner, activist, writer, and lecturer Gloria Steinem with a PBS resource that not only investigates Steinem's ancestry but also encourages learners to trace their own.

An online interactive activity asks learners to analyze a group of documents related to the women's suffrage movement and then place the documents on a timeline. The results assess users understanding of the progression of the women's...

The 1964 Selma to Montgomery, Alabama voting rights marches are the focus of a lesson designed to introduce learners to people who took part in the Civil Rights Movement. Class members set into the role of one of the participants,...

A lesson looks at the Pilgrims and Wampanoag tribe during the first Thanksgiving. Scholars compare and contrast information presented by an online activity then discuss their findings. Learners examine the two group's daily routines and...

African Americans fought in the Civil War, and they were recruited by both the Union and the Confederacy! By comparing the wording of posters—one directed at freedmen and another to the owners of enslaved people—young historians discover...

The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ended the Mexican-American War, but it did not end tensions between the two nations. The activity provides learners with an opportunity to practical historical analysis with text experts from the Treaty of...