Curated OER
American Colonial Life in the Late 1700s: Distant Cousins
Students research how early colonists lived. They investigate late 17th century colonist's lives from Massachusetts and Delaware. Using their research, students write historical fiction in the form of friendly letters between the two...
Curated OER
Colonial Trades and Apprenticeships
Students examine and analyze culturally significant objects from colonial Boston. They construct a story around the life and work of Nathaniel Hurd from a list of keywords excerpted from a passage about Nathaniel Hurd. In addition, they...
Curated OER
Colonial Currency
Fifth graders develop a common currency. In this colonial currency lesson, 5th graders exchange beads, rice, coins, and paper bills for goods and services. Students explore web tools to research ways colonists used money, even if it was...
Curated OER
Mapping Colonial New England: Looking at the Landscape of New England
High schoolers understand the similarities and differences between English and Native American conceptions of the land and town settlement. They understand how the colony of Massachusetts developed and expanded. Students understand the...
Curated OER
American Colonial Life in the Late 1700s: Distant Cousins
Students explore daily life and its influences in the late 1700s for two families in different colonies- Delaware and Massachusetts by becoming historical detectives. After gathering information from artifacts to make inferences about...
Curated OER
Lesson 11: Printed Materials (Ads and Broadsides) 1780-1820
Young scholars use primary resources (gazettes, broadsides, advertisements) to consider life at the turn of the 18th century in Deerfield, Massachusetts. They infer observations about life in the nascent United States.
Curated OER
Road To Revolution
Students examine events that occurred and explore the differing sentiments between the British and American colonists in the years leading up to the American Revolution. They view and discuss a video on the events then analyze quotes...
Curated OER
Death and Dying in Puritan New England: A Study Based on Early Gravestones, Vital Records, and other Primary Sources Relating to Cape Cod, Massachusetts
Students examine the time in which the Puritans lived in colonial New England. In groups, they research the Puritans view on life and death and discuss as a class. They read gravestones, diaries and other primary sources to discover...
Curated OER
The Emerging American Identity
Students define what it meant to be an American early on in the nation's history. In this American identity lesson plan, students examine the noted quotations and determine what was meant by each of the authors with regards to an...
Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media
The Boston Massacre: You Be the Judge!
The importance of considering multiple perspectives of the same event is the big idea in this exercise that focuses on the Boston Massacre. Class groups examine photos of four depictions of the massacre, an English and an American...
Curated OER
Jamestown Celebrates 400th Anniversary
Students view a world map and identify the locations of England and Virginia and discuss what kinds of things they would take with them on this kind of trip. They read the words in the news box on the student page and fill in the blanks...
Curated OER
Pilgrims: The First Americans
Fifth graders become familar with the pilgrims and first Thanksgiving through essays about important people of the time. In this Thanksgiving lesson, 5th graders choose an important figure from the time of the Pilgrims and write a...
Smithsonian Institution
Lexington and Concord: Historical Interpretation
Learners view and analyze three different images related to the Battle of Lexington and Concord. They also answer a variety of questions in a graphic organizer to help keep the information straight.
US Citizenship and Immigration Services
Thanksgiving 2—The Pilgrim Story and My Immigrant Story
The tradition of the First Thanksgiving is really a story of immigration. Connect the feelings and customs of the early Pilgrims to the experiences of the immigrants in your class with an introduction to the 13 colonies, the Mayflower,...
John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum
Military Advisers in Vietnam: 1963
How did the beginning of the Vietnam War factor into the Cold War with the Soviet Union? As part of a study of American involvement in Vietnam, class members read a letter address to President Kennedy and his response in which...