San Francisco Symphony
Adding Music to Oklahoma History
To better understand Oklahoma state history, learners will use a website to find a song that supports or represents aspects of Oklahoma's history. They'll write three sentences defending their choice, and then they will create...
Curated OER
Presidential Election Year: Major Issues
Whether or not it's a presidential election year, this debate activity will spark research on current political issues. Split your government scholars into 4 groups and assign each a political party. One person will be the "candidate"...
Curated OER
Identifying, Mapping, and Personifying Countries Involved in WWII
Get artsy with this WWII group activity, starting with a whole-class assignment. Create a map of Europe, Northern Africa, and the Pacific using geometric shapes cut from construction paper and placed on the floor. Consider splitting the...
Curated OER
Asia Country: Tic Tac Toe
Enhance your geography class's knowledge of the countries on the Asian continent with this research lesson. Individuals or groups use books, the library, and the Internet to research one Asian country of their choice. Handouts and...
Northeastern Educational Television of Ohio, Inc.
Roman World vs. Feudal World
Young historians compare the major features of the Roman and feudal worlds, such as religion, social hierarchy, and political tenets, using online resources and group discussion.
Northeastern Educational Television of Ohio, Inc.
Feudalism Play
Using research notes on feudal roles in medieval Europe, learners work cooperatively to write a play about one day in the life of a boy or girl in the Middle Ages.
Core Knowledge Foundation
Thanksgiving with the Pilgrims
Teach kindergartners about the First Thanksgiving with a series of lessons about the Pilgrims' journey to the New World. As they practice handwriting, CVC words, reading comprehension, and fun Thanksgiving songs, they learn about what...
Curated OER
What Portraits Reveal
High schoolers examine how portraits can tell us more about people of the past than just what they looked like. They compare three portraits of U.S. Presidents, analyze portraits of Americans from the Revolutionary War, and write a...
Curated OER
A World of Special Celebrations
Brainstorm lists of celebrations with which your class are familiar. This lesson can be adapted to many different grade levels as they research ethnic and religious occasions/events celebrated by people around the world, and present...
Civil War Trust
Gettysburg Address
The Gettysburg Address may have been four score and seven years ago, but its message is still as relevant today. Young historians explore the context of the famous speech, as well as its central theme and argument, before discussing the...
Civil War Trust
Transcribing Civil War History
Primary sources are valuable for understanding the context of historical events, but the diction and dialect in these documents can be difficult to understand. Middle and high schoolers participation in a transcription process in which...
Curated OER
Faux Cloisonne Enameling
Middle and high school students engage in enameling and apply design elements. They study the history and tradition of Cloisonne. The history of traditional Chinese Cloisonne dates back over 700 years, with the most beautiful, artistic...
Curated OER
The World of Work: The Portfolio
Students compile information to include in their career portfolio. In this portfolio lesson, students view example portfolios using the given website and identify the portfolio components. Students gather and compile artifacts for their...
Civil War Trust
The Common Civil War Soldier
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...
Civil War Trust
Civil War Soldier: Experiencing the Battle of Franklin
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...
Education.com
St. Patrick's Day Writing: If I Found a Pot of Gold...
This St. Patrick's Day, young writers imagine they found a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow. After a class discussion and brainstorming, scholars compose a narrative essay making sure they incorporate transitions and at least three...
US House of Representatives
“‘The Negroes’ Temporary Farewell,” Jim Crow and the Exclusion of African Americans from Congress, 1887–1929
Despite some advances made during the Reconstruction Era following the Civil War, the period from 1887 through 1929, African Americans serving in Congress suffered severe setbacks due to Jim Crow Laws and voter suppression. Class members...
National Endowment for the Humanities
La Familia
Young scholars identify at least one country where the Spanish language is spoken, describe similarities and differences between Spanish, Mexican, and Puerto Rican families, and practice speaking the Spanish words for several family...
Curated OER
Thanksgiving
First graders summarize similarities and differences of life in England and America for the Pilgrims by reading a mini-book. Then, they write a journal entry in first person on what it is like to be a pilgrim in England and in America....
Curated OER
Quilt Block Collage
Learn the art of quilting with this lesson plan that can be connected to a history lesson plan on quilts in Ancient Egypt, China, and modern art. After studying a general history of quilts, its uses, and the history of different...
Federal Reserve Bank
The Little Red Hen Makes a Pizza
Make a study of producers and consumers with an updated version of the classic story The Little Red Hen (this one is called The Little Red Hen Makes a Pizza). After reading and discussing the story and terms, learners practice being...
Reed Novel Studies
The Search for Delicious: Novel Study
Have you ever gone looking for one thing but ended up discovering something else? That is exactly what happened to Gaylen, a character in The Search for Delicious. Gaylen begins looking for a food to label as delicious, but...
Curated OER
Royal Painting Workshop
Learners study Emperor Akbar and his support of culture by examining an illustration from the Akbarnama. They explore Mughal illustration workshop practices and re-create those practices in their own version of an illustration for a...
Macmillan Education
Your Year Covered
Feeling stuck? Want to energize the class? Use activities such as quizzes and fill-in-the-blank worksheets to get class members' attention with a year's worth of holiday celebrations. From Mother's Day to Robert Burns's birthday,...