Curated OER
Learning from Letters and Other Mail
Students explore the history of our mail system. In this postal lesson plan, students evaluate mail as a means of communication, create a mail system in their classroom where they can send and receive mail. Once the students receive...
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Playing Historical Detective: Great Grandmother's Dress and Other Clues to the Life and Times of Annie Steel
Students draw conclusions about an mystery person based on documents and artifacts provided. In this drawing conclusions instructional activity, students become detectives by reading and analyzing evidence provided. This instructional...
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Rock Art Around the World
Young scholars analyze rock art. In this rock art activity, students research cultures that created rock art, analyze their art pieces, and compose essays regarding their findings.
Curated OER
Diggin' The Past
Students explore the culture of Ancient Egypt. In this ancient civilizations activity, students are divided into groups to research how aspects of culture were influenced by the Nile River. Students create a slide show that describes how...
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Lewis and Clark: The Language of Discovery
Middle schoolers replicate some of the trailblazing methods of Lewis and Clark on a fifteen-minute "writing journey" through the school or neighborhood.
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Animal Encounters
Students use their visualizing and interpreting skills to produce original writings and artwork.
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Stories of the Wrights' Flight
Students examine and compare primary and secondary source accounts of the Wright brothers' first flights on December 17, 1903.
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Money Talks
Students move from fact finding to interpretation as they examine paper money from the time of the American Revolution. In the final exercise, they use the issue dates of the bills to construct a chronology of political changes during...
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Pictures Telling Stories
Students see the importance of primary sources in the study of history, but also the limitations of relying only on primary sources of taking the money, as it were, at face value.
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Letters from the Japanese American Internment
Students make deductions about life in an internment camp by reading and comparing letters written to Clara Breed. Along the way, they consider the advantages of looking at a historical event from the multiple points of view of...
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People of the Past
Young scholars investigate the four groups of people that existed in the U.S. before the European settlers arrived. They predict how the people arrived in the U.S., then investigate their predictions to find out whether or not they are...
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Teaching About Trade in the Ancient Mediterranean
Sixth graders examine the trade routes in the Mediterranean of the Ancient world. In groups, they view slides of artifacts while answering questions on a worksheet. After watching a video, they discuss how each object was found and...