Core Knowledge Foundation
Marching into Civil War Times: Little Women, Past and Present
Here is a fine unit of lessons which compare and contrast the culture during the time period of the classic book, Little Women to present day. Topics covered are the family, politics, morality, fashion, transportation, cities, historical...
DocsTeach
What Else Was Happening During the Civil War Era?
Examine a time of political division and upheaval— not unlike our own—using firsthand accounts. While study of the Civil War often takes center stage in the classroom, the 1850s and 1860s were a period of profound change in other areas...
American Battlefield Trust
Civil War Personalities: Individual Examples of Character
What is a hero? What is character? Using biographies of figures during the Civil War, both famous and lesser known, scholars consider these questions. After brainstorming what they think makes a hero, they examine the lives of those who...
DocsTeach
The Civil War as Photographed by Mathew Brady
While there are no photographs of actual battles during the Civil War, the pictures of Matthew Brady still paint a vivid image of what life was like as a solider. Using a series of photographs, including those of camp life and the...
American Battlefield Trust
Creating Civil War Multimedia
What was it like to live through the Civil War? Learners investigate the question by creating multimedia presentations. With a scaffolded approach that includes research, creating a biopic poem, storyboard, and then polished multimedia...
American Battlefield Trust
Civil War Overview: Elementary Lesson Plan
How do you teach the Civil War and all its intricacies within the time limits of an average school day? Using a three-part plan, teachers easily integrate coverage of key Civil War battles into the unit. The instructional activity...
DocsTeach
Black Soldiers in the Civil War
Get hands on virtually with recruitment posters for African American soldiers during the Civil War with an interactive online resource. By highlighting key phrases in the posters using an Internet tool, learners discover how African...
DocsTeach
Comparing Civil War Recruitment Posters
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...
Curated OER
Life of a Civil War Soldier
Eighth graders write about the physical hardships endured by soldiers of the Civil War. They compare the losses between two communities during the Civil War. They analyze personal letters to understand what a battle was like. They...
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 learners...
Stanford University
Civil War Photographs
One of the first photographed images of the Civil War give historians a glimpse of the realities of war. By viewing images from the war—including pictures of those killed in the bloodiest battles—learners experience the war's impact...
C-SPAN
Women's Contributions in the Civil War
Women's history is often hidden, but pupils discover the role women played in the Civil War using a series of video clips. After reviewing the interview with a scholar of women's history, class members fill out a chart and then research...
C3 Teachers
African Americans and the Civil War: How Did African Americans Experience the Civil War?
To understand African Americans' involvement in the United States Civil War, high schoolers gather evidence from primary source images, census reports, and documents. As a summative performance task, individuals craft an argument,...
Smithsonian Institution
Civil War
Did you know that more than three million people fought in the Civil War? Through artifacts, graphics, and passages class members learn about the stark divide between North and South that led to the war, as well as about the events that...
Carolina K-12
African American Troops in the Civil War
Middle schoolers explore the history of the African-American troops that served during the American Civil War. After reading primary source documents that detail the controversies about permitting freemen and former slaves to serve,...
Center for History Education
Civil War Weaponry and Medicine: A Disastrous Mismatch
Ironically, science was the reason why the Civil War was so deadly. Despite the use of medical practices now considered barbaric—such as conducting surgery with bare, dirty hands—developments in weaponry meant that more men died on and...
Curated OER
Civil War Recipes
Students make foods that would have been staples during the Civil War era and may have been eaten by a soldiers. They follow a recipe to make hardtack and are exposed to other recipes at the included websites.
Curated OER
Who Freed the Slaves During the Civil War?
Pose the question to your historians: who really freed the slaves? They critically assess various arguments, using primary sources as evidence. In small groups, scholars jigsaw 5 primary source documents (linked), and fill out an...
Core Knowledge Foundation
The Civil War
A unit covers many aspects of the Civil War. Over six weeks, fifth graders delve deep into the history of slavery, the Civil War—before, during, and after—Abraham Lincoln, women's contributions, the Emancipation Proclamation, and...
Alabama Department of Archives and History
The Civil War at Home
To conclude a study of the 4 C's (cause, course, consequences, and characters) of the Civil War, young historians examine personal letters that reveal the effects of the war on those at home.
Alabama Department of Archives and History
From Alabama Farmer to Civil War Soldier
As part of a study of the Civil War, class members conduct a WebQuest to create a timeline of battles fought by the 10th Alabama Infantry Regimen. They then use Google Earth to pinpoint these battles of the Civil War on a map of Alabama.
Curated OER
Civil War Scouting
Students complete a webquest that focuses on the basic causes and major events of the Civil War. They answer a series of questions each having an Internet link to a reading that provides clues for the answer.
Curated OER
Battle Flags: Michigan and the Civil War Lesson 5 Letters from the War
Students investigate the letters written my Michigan soldiers during the Civil War. They examine the letters for clues about the life and attitudes of these soldiers.
Curated OER
A Civil War Lesson
Fifth graders research information about the US Civil War using the Internet in order to complete a worksheet. They complete the worksheet using accurate research information after studying background information from their textbooks.