Encourage pupils to design an election plan for the entire school. They participate in a Board of Elections, create polling rules, discuss election controversies, write questions about the issues, run the election through an online...

Famous people in the history of Arkansas are the focus of a history lesson for kindergartners. Pupils identify important Arkansas citizens, such as President Bill Clinton. They create an illustrated poem that features some of the...

Elizabeth Peyton is an artist who creates images of people (often famous) that she doesn't personally know. These images become part of her imagined community. Learners analyze her work, her community of imagined friends, and then create...

Students explore U.S. government by participating in a role playing activity. In this House of Representatives lesson, students discuss the first day of congress and the role the House plays in running the United States. Students define...

It was the single bloodiest day in Civil War history. Now, class members have the opportunity to walk in the footsteps of soldiers who fought in the Battle of Antietam using an interactive website. Supplemental resources include...

Tenth graders examine the different parts of history that make up people's lives.  In this American History lesson, 10th graders explore how historians learn about events that happened in the past by looking at events that happened...

Students examine the facts and myths that surround the "First Thanksgiving" (the harvest celebration of 1621) at Plimoth Colony. They study the role that historians play in the collection and dissemination of history and use their...

Students gather and record information in interviews with adults discovering their first, best, and worst school memories, and transfer interviews into memory pages containing the interview information.

Students examine traditional role of women in Afghanistan, their experiences under rule of Taliban, and their struggle to provide better lives for themselves, their families, and their country in years since 2001. Students then organize...

Help middle schoolers conduct Internet research and develop a working definition for the discipline of social studies. From a list of websites, they develop classification skills and differentiate between primary and secondary sources....

Sixth graders explore culture by reading a book with classmates. In this Hispanic history lesson, 6th graders read the story First Day in Grapes, and discuss the tough lives of migrant workers. Students answer study questions after the...

Students use the internet to research people who have contributed to the cause of freedom. They identify examples of freedom which are important to them and categorize them. In groups, they create a timeline of the Freedom Fighters and...

Students explore the Forest and the vocabulary associated with it. In this Forest lesson plan, students take the roles of photographer and reporter to examine an area of land for evidence of past life. Students take a close-up and...

We are all immigrants to this country and the study of immigration can help students connect to history in a personal way. Students will listen to audio clips from the Ellis Island web site, discuss the treatment of immigrants in the...

Students investigate how philanthropy began in Michigan. In this philanthropy lesson, students read Michigan History of Philanthropy and read a timeline of several events. Students create a picture with a sentence about a time when they...

Middle schoolers gain understanding about where some of today's words originated by reviewing a list of Latin words and their meanings. They work in small groups to create dictionary pages which will then be compiled into a large...

Students create a mural of the history of Thanksgiving. In this holiday lesson, students recall the history of Thanksgiving and create a mural of the holiday using large paper and crayons.

Young scholars examine the history of the Labor Day holiday and write a newspaper article about it. They practice using new vocabulary words and discover the layout of a newspaper.

Second graders leave clues from the past for students of the future by creating time capsules filled with artifacts from the year. These artifacts are buried along with others on school grounds somewhere. Students identify and analyze...

High schoolers author and film their own adaptations of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare. In this multimedia skills lesson, students script a play that pits an Orthodox Christian family against a Muslim family. High schoolers use...

Third graders explore Canadian history by participating in a role-playing activity. In this First Nation treaties instructional activity, 3rd graders identify the difficulties the Aboriginals faced when dealing with early European...

Learners research the history of philanthropy in Michigan by looking at images and pictures while discussing the definition of philanthropy. They design a picture of the first time they saw a philanthropic act and write three sentences...

Students create fringed Valentine's Day hearts in this Art lesson for the elementary school classroom. The lesson includes step-by-step instructions and a materials list. This was created by an 11-year old who loves arts and crafts.

Students create bouquets of roses using tissue paper, pipe cleaners, masking tape, paint, and construction paper in this early elementary art lesson. A possible extension includes making Vlentine's Day cards to go along with the flowers.