Curated OER
The Freedom to Fight
Students study the African American troop experiences in the Civil War. In this American history lesson plan, students examine primary and secondary sources regarding the experiences and contributions of African American soldiers who...
Curated OER
America Moves Out!
First graders analyze the events of early American exploration. This is a unit resource for teachers in which there are six lessons about the American Western exploration and expansion. Within each lesson there are objectives, materials,...
Curated OER
Civil War Medicine
Eighth graders discover details about medical care during the American Civil War. In this medical advancements lesson, 8th graders participate in classroom station activities that require them to study doctors, amputation, medical...
Curated OER
Take a Memo - Primary Documents: African American Soldiers on the Homefront
Students examine the discrimination experienced by black servicemen during World War II. They read and analyze an official memo written in 1943, complete worksheet questions, and participate in a class discussion.
Smithsonian Institution
POWs
Why did Vietnam POWs and their families receive more media attention than POWs in previous wars? To answer this question, class members view artifacts, read articles, and engage in class discussion. Individuals then assume the voice of...
Curated OER
Classifying Artifacts
Students examine pictures of pottery and classify them. They work together to create a list of characteristics for each piece. They share their findings with the class.
Curated OER
Living Art-i-facts: Technology Takes Us There!
Students create living artifacts dealing with different times and cultures. They explore Ancient Rome, the Middle Ages, Islam, Africa, and the United States.
Curated OER
The Grapes of Wrath: Scrapbooks and Artifacts
Students interpret historical evidence presented in primary and secondary sources. In this Great Depression lesson, students read John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath and use ethnographic research processes...
Curated OER
Early Native Americans
Fourth graders locate on a globe where the land bridge was. They describe the progression of nomadic people into North America.
Curated OER
Black Kentuckians and the Civil War
Students demonstrate how the American Civil War affected black Kentuckians socially and politically. They identify and discuss the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which forced the end of slavery in Kentucky months after the...
Curated OER
Westmoreland Trail
Seventh graders complete a unit of lessons on the Westward expansion of the U.S. They play the computer game, Oregon Trail III, read primary source documents, conduct Internet research, write diary entries from the pioneer viewpoint, and...
Facing History and Ourselves
Connecting to the Past
Young historians research the connections between their personal histories and the histories of our country to gain a deeper understanding of who they are. To begin, class members write about an object that they consider significant to...
Smithsonian Institution
War of Independence
Want to explain the War of Independence without using just a textbook? The resource, an online exhibition, provides direct instruction to scholars. It discusses what led up to the war, the time of the war, and the legacy left behind long...
Curated OER
The Treaty Trail: U.S. Indian Treaty Councils in the Northwest
Students create a timeline with the major events of the 19th and 20th century dealing with Native Americans. They examine artifacts and discuss how they reflect culture. They also identify trade routes the Native Americans used.
Curated OER
Imag(in)ing History Across Generations
Students find an image depicting events of September 11 or after and write a letter to their future grandchldren explaining the image and why those chose to preserve it for them.
Curated OER
When Clay speaks
Students listen as the teacher reads "When Clay Sings," by Byrd Taylor. They discuss clay, and view a variety of clay items. Students watch a video clip "Interests in One of a Kind Pots." They watch a demonstration on working with clay....
Curated OER
The Museum Idea
Young scholars evaluate and record the various types of museum careers. In this The Museum Idea activity, students create a bicentennial time capsule, design a Museum of me, and make a classroom mini museum. In addition young scholars...
Curated OER
Does This Belong to You?
Fourth graders examine legislation that has been passed to protect the rights and religion of Native Americans. In groups, they discuss their feelings on others taking artifacts from Native American sites and what they do if they find...
Curated OER
Artifact Puzzles
Learners role-play the position of archaeologists to determine the different types of artifacts. They cut out a drawing of their object and connect them with their classmates objects. They write an essay about their object and where it...
American Museum of Natural History
Create Your Own Time Capsule
The corona virus pandemic is indeed a historic event. A time capsule activity permits young historians to document these days of social distancing, remote learning, and quarantine by collecting artifacts that capture what their lives are...
American Museum of Natural History
Up Close With a Zapotec Urn
If a Zapotec urn, buried for over a thousand years in a temple in the lost city of Xoxocotlan in the Valley of Oaxaca in the mountains of southern Mexico could talk image the stories it could tell. That's the set up in a clever resource...
Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation
Tea Overboard
While less well known than the event in Boston, the Yorktown Tea Party was equally decisive in turning community sentiment against Great Britain. To gain an understanding of why the colonists objected to the Tea Act, young historians...
Center for History and New Media
The Impact of the Jim Crow Era on Education, 1877–1930s
Even though American slaves were officially emancipated in 1865, the effects of slavery perpetuated throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. Middle and high schoolers learn about the ways that discrimination and the Jim Crow laws...
Theodore Roosevelt Association
Roosevelt's Legacy: Conservation
The legacy of Theodore Roosevelt carries through modern American politics, economics, foreign policy, and society. But his proudest and most profound efforts were in the world of conservation, and in preserving the natural beauty of...