What's In The Bag?

Set up your class to read Esperanza Rising, by Pam Muñoz Ryan, through a class read-aloud and exploration of the setting. The detailed instructional activity outlines each step. First, class members read over the first few pages and...

Students investigate why and how certain historical figures became famous in relation to the Texas Revolution. They view and discuss a variety of images, then in small groups record the names of individuals involved in the Texas...

Turn your kids into super sleuths! They use all eight clues to determine who owns the mystery bag. Each slide shows one clue to the famous person's identity, it's up to your class to find out who the bag belongs to! Tip: This idea could...

History detectives select a famous person to research, fill a bag with items associated with their subject, then ask class members to guess the historical figure represented by the artifacts.

Fifth graders create a class Powerpoint presentation of historical figures. They each research six names for their assigned alphabet letter and include a thumbnail sketch for the persons. Students present the finished project to other...

Fourth graders are introduced to the important figures in Virginia's history. In groups, they research the figure more throughly using the internet and write a one-page summary. They present their figure to the class and their impact on...

Bring a time machine into your classroom with this writing lesson, in which young writers project themselves back in time and have a variety of choices from that point forward. They either write a conversation with a historical figure,...

A PBS clip focused on collecting sports memorabilia launches this research project lesson. Class members then read Dan Gutman’s Honus and Me in which Wagner’s baseball card is used to time travel. The lesson ends with researchers...

Students examine portraits for different images they project, cite three purposes a portrait can serve, analyze portraits of historical figures, and relate biographical research to portraits.

Pupils act as historical archeologists and use their analytical skills to deduce, from lists of items related to historic figures, accurate details about the lives of those people.