May Curriculum Calendar - Lesson Plan Ideas by Date

Enhance your current curriculum with this fun reference calendar. Whether you want to highlight historic events, honor birthdays of significant people, or celebrate holidays, this is a valuable tool for every teacher. Click on any event to find a breadth of related teaching resources that will spark new ideas to spice up your daily lessons. There's something worth celebrating every day!

Curriculum Calendar

<< May 2020 >>

Sun	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thur	Fri	Sat
26 Chernobyl disaster occurs (1986) Also try: nuclear accident, radiation National Richter Scale Day Also try: earthquakes, seismic waves	27 Samuel Morse born (1791) Also try: Morse code, communication technology National Tell a Story Day Also try: story telling, oral tradition	28 James Monroe born (1758) Also try: Founding Fathers, US presidents Harper Lee born (1926) Also try: To Kill a Mockingbird	29 International Dance Day Also try: choreography, ballet William Randolph Hearst born (1863) Also try: newspapers, yellow journalism	30 International Jazz Day Also try: Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, Dizzy Gillespie Louisiana Purchase (1803) Also try: US expansion	1 May Day Also try: may pole, spring Physical Fitness and Sports Month begins Also try: sports, physical education National Mother Goose Day Also try: nursery rhymes	2 Spring Astronomy Day Also try: space exploration, solar system William Herschel discovers first binary star (1780) Also try: William Herschel, astronomers King Charles II gives royal charter to Hudson's Bay Company (1670) Also try: fur trade, Canadian history
3 World Press Freedom Day Also try: First Amendment Washington DC incorporated as a city (1802) Also try: capital cities Niccolò Machiavelli born (1469) Also try: Italian Renaissance	4 AP Testing begins Also try: test taking strategies International Firefighters Day Also try: careers, jobs, public service Margaret Thatcher becomes first female Prime Minister of the UK (1979) Also try: prime minister, parliamentary system Four student protesters killed at Kent State (1970) Also try: anti-war protests, Vietnam War	5 National Teacher Appreciation Day Also try: teacher gifts Cinco de Mayo Also try: Battle of Puebla National Cartoonist Day Also try: political cartoons, comic strips	6 Sigmund Freud born (1856) Also try: psychology Hindenburg Disaster (1937) Also try: hydrogen, airship	7 The RMS Lusitania sinks (1915) Also try: U-boat, submarine warfare Tchaikovsky born (1840) Also try: Classical period, composers	8 Harry S. Truman born (1884) Also try: US presidents German surrender: Victory in Europe Day (1945) Also try: World War II	9 John Brown born (1800) Also try: Harpers Ferry, abolitionists
10 Mother's Day Also try: mothers, families Nelson Mandela becomes president of South Africa (1994) Also try: apartheid, South Africa US transcontinental railroad completed (1869) Also try: Central Pacific Railroad, Union Pacific Railroad Jefferson Davis captured by Union troops (1865) Also try: American Civil War	11 Salvador Dali born (1904) Also try: surrealism, famous artists Richard Feynman born (1918) Also try: physicists, nobel prize	12 Florence Nightingale born (1820) Also try: nursing, Crimean War International Nurses Day Also try: medical careers	13 US declares war with Mexico: Mexican-American War begins (1846) Also try: Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo Student hunger strike in Tiananmen Square (1989) Also try: hunger strike	14 Lewis and Clark begin expedition (1804) Also try: Corp of Discovery First US Space Station launched (1973) Also try: Skylab, space exploration	15 Johannes Kepler discovers his Harmonic Law (1618) Also try: Johannes Keplar, planetary motion US Department of Agriculture created (1862) Also try: farming, forestry	16 Mississippi River steamboat service begins (1817) Also try: Mississippi River US Bureau of Mines founded (1910) Also try: mining industry, mineral resources
17 Supreme Court rules on Brown v. Board of Education (1954) Also try: separate but equal, desegregation Gary Paulsen born (1939) Also try: Hatchet	18 Mount St. Helens erupts (1980) Also try: volcanoes John Winthrop elected first Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony (1631) Also try: Massachusetts Bay Colony, colonial America	19 Anne Boleyn, wife of King Henry VIII, beheaded (1536) Also try: King Henry VIII The Empire State Building is designated a New York City landmark (1981) Also try: New York City, historic landmarks	20 Charles Lindbergh begins first solo transatlantic flight (1927) Also try: transatlantic flight Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis patent the first blue jeans (1873) Also try: blue jeans, clothing, fashion	21 American Red Cross founded by Clara Barton (1881) Also try: Clara Barton, emergency preparedness	22 Lassen Peak erupts (1915) Also try: volcanoes First major wagon train heading for the Pacific Northwest sets out on the Oregon Trail (1843) Also try: westward movement	23 Ramadan ends, North America Also try: Islam, Muslim calendar Carolus Linnaeus born (1707) Also try: biological classification, taxonomy Scott O'Dell born (1898) Also try: Island of the Blue Dolphins World Turtle Day Also try: reptiles
24 Brooklyn Bridge opens (1883) Also try: bridges, civil engineering Mary Had a Little Lamb published (1830) Also try: nursery rhyme	25 Memorial Day Also try: US military, war heroes Jesse Owens breaks six world records in one hour (1935) Also try: track and field The Constitutional Convention begins in Philadelphia (1787) Also try: US Constitution, US government	26 National Paper Airplane Day Also try: flight, engineering design Sally Ride born (1951) Also try: NASA, astronauts William and Frederick Langenheim take first photos of a solar eclipse in US (1854) Also try: photography, astronomy	27 The Queen Mary takes maiden voyage (1936) Also try: passenger ships Golden Gate Bridge opens (1937) Also try: suspension bridges, San Fransisco	28 Amnesty International Day Also try: human rights, justice Jim Thorpe born (1888) Also try: athletes	29 John F. Kennedy born (1917) Also try: US presidents Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay reach Mount Everest summit (1953) Also try: Everest expedition, mountains Learn About Composting Day Also try: soil, gardening	30 National Creativity Day Also try: imagination, inventions Lincoln Memorial dedicated (1922) Also try: Abraham Lincoln
31 World No Tobacco Day Also try: cigarettes, healthy habits Walt Whitman born (1819) Also try: poetry	1 Audiobook Month Begins Also try: listening skills, literature National Pen Pal Day Also try: friendly letters, friendship	2 Snyder Act is passed, granting US citizenship to Native Americans (1924) Also try: Native Americans The Vandals sack Rome (455) Also try: Ancient Rome, Roman Empire	3 First US spacewalk conducted by Ed White (1965) Also try: Space Race, space travel Casey at the Bat published (1888) Also try: baseball, poetry	4 The first Pulitzer Prize is awarded (1917) Also try: journalism, literature, musical composition 19th Amendment passed (1919) Also try: women's suffrage, voting rights	5 World Environment Day Also try: conservationism, environmentalism Robert F. Kennedy assassinated (1968) Also try: the Kennedys	6 US storms Normandy beaches, D-Day (1944) Also try: Normandy, World War II

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