Acting Out Historical Events

Close a unit or the year with a five-step research project. Class members choose a US landmark, research the landmark, compose a report about it, build a model of it, and present their model and findings to the class. Each step is...

Talk about intrinsic motivation! Begin where your young scholars' natural interests lie  -- with themselves -- and launch a variety of projects with this activity. Class members research important events that took place on their...

A historic site marks a place where a relevant historical event occurred, no matter how many people know about it. Small groups choose their own historical sites, including a place where a class member was born, or even a football field...

What makes a place historic? Using events from their own lives, learners consider this question, then deem places from their world historic. They then curate the experience for visitors, creating signs and other materials for their...

Narrow down your questions about author perspective, historical context, and veracity of claims in a document with the help of a historical reading chart. Learners track the basics of the document along with advanced evaluation skills...

Elementary and middle schoolers research a current event using various resources. They participate in a class discussion to evaluate the information they gathered on a particular event. Additionally, they discuss the concepts of common...

In what year was the Declaration of Independence signed? When did Thomas Edison successfully test the first light bulb? After your young historians quiz themselves on questions like these, they will have the opportunity to learn more...

Research a historic event using textbooks, primary source documents, the Internet, and other library and media resources. Young historians will take the research they have gathered and write an attention-grabbing, historically accurate...

Using the Balkan region as an example, fourth graders review the five themes of geography as a class. They identify the physical and human characteristics of a region before labeling the countries and landforms on a map. They then...

Students work together to research a historical event. They create their own poems based on their research. They share their poems with the class and discuss the historical event further.