Curated OER
Stars and Stripes Book
Students create a stars and stripes patriotic book. In this visual arts lesson, students create pages with stars and flags. The students identify which item is the largest.
Curated OER
Sending Messages, Then and Now
Students analyze how patriots created ways to communicate during the Revolutionary War. After reading about and discussing ways patriots communicated, students create a chart analyzing the way messages are sent today with the way...
Curated OER
Wartime and the Bill of Rights: The Korematsu Case
Students examine the balance between civil liberties and protection. For this national security lesson, students explore the Korematsu case which references the Japanese internment camps of World War II. Students draw comparisons between...
Curated OER
Rehearsal and Sightreading Techniques
Eighth graders prepare the two pieces "American Celebration" and "Patriotic Bits and Pieces" for an upcoming performance. This lesson is a forty-five minute lesson geared towards a middle school advanced band (8th Grade). National and...
Curated OER
Patriotic Symbols
Students examine the symbols of their state and America. Using the history of the American flag, they identify what each star and stripe symbolizes and why red, white and blue were used. They discuss the use of the bald eagle and...
Curated OER
Let the Music Play: Bicentennial quarter reverse
To better understand who George Washington was and why we celebrated the bicentennial, pupils read a story and complete a worksheet. They sing and talk about the song, "Yankee Doodle Dandy" as they march around the room.
PBS
Walt Whitman: Journalist and Poet
Can you love something so much you want to change it? Young patriots investigate Walt Whitman's love of America—and his suggestions to improve it—using primary sources as well as video evidence. Scholars research American issues of the...
Smithsonian Institution
Mobilizing Children
Scholars find out how the government used propaganda to mobilize children to help in the war effort. Lesson exercises include analyzing a quote from Franklin Roosevelt, viewing propaganda images and posters, and participating in a lively...
Smithsonian Institution
Lexington and Concord: Historical Interpretation
Learners view and analyze three different images related to the Battle of Lexington and Concord. They also answer a variety of questions in a graphic organizer to help keep the information straight.
Curated OER
Life as a colonial silversmith
Students study the life experiences of people who lived in colonial Boston prior to the American Revolution. They define key terms including Loyalist and Patriot. They write a journal entry as Nathaniel Hurd, a silversmith.
James Madison Memorial Fellowship Foundation
A Deliberate, Palpable and Dangerous Exercise of Other Powers: James Madison & Homeland Security
This resource uses primary source documents to explore the First Amendment. After reviewing key events of the 1790s, government or US history classes explore Madison's letter to Jefferson regarding the Alien and Sedition Acts. They then...
Curated OER
Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet: A Novel
Jamie Ford’s historical novel, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, explores the relationship between a young Chinese American boy and a Japanese American girl set against the backdrop of Seattle during World War II. The teaching...
Curated OER
Creating a Memorial Day Poster Poem
Does your class know about the meaning of Memorial Day? Discuss the history of the holiday in this lesson plan, which prompts elementary and middle schoolers to create word webs of ideas about the holiday. Additionally, they create poems...
National Endowment for the Humanities
The President Under the Articles of Confederation
The Articles of Confederation sounds like one big, fancy title to middle schoolers. Here, scaffolded steps help to ease novices into understanding this all-important American document. Discussion questions, lesson activities, and ideas...
Curated OER
The Red Badge of Courage: A New Kind of Courage
Students provide examples of Crane's treatment of the "manly virtues" associated with war using support from the text of The Red Badge of Courage. They describe the three published endings of The Red Badge of Courage and the difference...
Curated OER
Paul Revere: The Midnight Rider
Learners watch a video of "Paul Revere: The Midnight Rider," complete a vocabulary list and discuss the video using the questions that are provided.
Curated OER
Lesson Plan
Eleventh graders will read, write, listen, and speak for information and understanding Key Idea: As listeners and readers, 11th graders will collect data, facts, and ideas, discover relationships, concepts, and generalizations. As...
Curated OER
A Burning Desire: A Focus Group Turns Its Attention To Old Glory
Students explore the issue of a Constitutional amendment to ban flag burning. They simulate the role of a Senator's aide, conduct Internet research, write and prepare an oral and a written response based on research,
Curated OER
Color My World
Students examine colors and describe how colors contribute to the way a person may feel after listening to several books. Students also survey class for favorite colors and graph results, as well as discover how different colors are made...
Curated OER
Building a Nation
Eighth graders identify the main ideas of the U.S. Declaration of Independence. They read and discuss text, read and summarize a section of the Declaration of Independence in small groups, and write a paper on why the colonists felt it...
Curated OER
The Old Folks Will Bless You and the Girls Kiss You
Fourth graders reflect on the Revolutionary War. In this Colonial America history lesson, 4th graders discuss various battles of the war, specifically the Battle of Cowpens. Students begin by watching a video chronicling that...
Curated OER
Taxation Without Representation
Eighth graders empathize with how colonists felt when they were taxed without representation. They use a metaphor of students and a school principal to describe the strained relationship that developed between the colonies and Britain.
Curated OER
Taking Up Arms and the Challenge of Slavery in the Revolutionary Era
Students examine a series of documents which discuss the contradiction in the Americans' rhetoric about slavery. They act as members of designated Committees of Correspondence in the five different colonies, communicating their...
Curated OER
Simple Symbols and American Children
Students are introduced to a variety of symbols representing the United States. As a class, they identify places in which they have seen the various symbols and discuss what they mean. To end the lesson plan, they state the words from...