Activity
Curated OER

African Savanna Habitat Diorama Craft

For Teachers 1st - 4th
Set the stage for a unit or lesson on the African savanna by creating a cute habitat diorama. Cheetahs, lions, zebras, and elephants are all present in a shoe-box-sized craft that requires your learners to color, cut, and paste. These...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

African Masks And Their Impact On Western Art

For Teachers 7th - 12th
Explore the influence of African-style masks on Western art. Learners create individual masks using construction paper. They discuss and explore the techniques used to create these types of masks. The resource includes links to...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

African Ceramic Portrait Vessel

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students create a piece of art inspired by traditional African pieces.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

African Folktales

For Teachers 6th - 7th
Learners study the elements of folktales. They write, perform and produce their own African folktales using camcorders and movie software.
Lesson Plan
National Gallery of Art

The First African American Regiment

For Teachers 6th - 8th Standards
Young historians examine a memorial sculpture of the first African American regiment in the Civil War, and then compare how the experiences of the regiment are portrayed in letters and poetry, as well as in the motion...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Retelling the African Folktale Abiyoyo

For Teachers K
Act out the African folktale Abiyoyo. Kindergartners listen to the tale and discuss the characters, dressing as their favorite characters in order to retell and perform Abiyoyo using props. They will gain an understanding of...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Role of Masks in African Cultures

For Teachers 3rd - 8th
Students explore ancient tradition and craft of mask making, examine role or function of masks in African culture, create instruments, and participate in class projects.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

After Reconstruction: Problems of African Americans

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students describe issues or problems facing African Americans following Reconstruction. They explain possible solutions to these problems suggested in the sources you find, and cite arguments for and against these solutions.
Lesson Plan
Education Oasis

Creative Writing Unit: Analyzing, Interpreting, Discussing and Writing Various Genres of African-American Literature

For Teachers 10th - 12th
A six-week unit takes high schoolers through various works of African-American literature, including poems, plays, and short stories. The lesson plan format includes a week-by-week description of activities, goals, materials, and...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Researching African Americans Who Made a Difference

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Celebrate Black History Month with this lesson, in which middle schoolers create an essay about a famous African-American. Writers conduct research online, take notes to write an essay in proper format, and use ideas, text, and graphics...
Lesson Plan
American Institute of Physics

African Americans in Astronomy and Astrophysics

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
A two-part lesson focuses on the contributions to the fields of astronomy and astrophysics of two African Americans: Benjamin Banneker and Dr. George Carruthers. In part one, scholars learn about Benjamin Banneker by examining his...
Lesson Plan
Academy of American Poets

The African American Experience

For Teachers 6th - 8th Standards
Disrespect can be as subtle as a frown or a turn of a head. To prepare for a study of Toi Derricote's poem "The Weakness" class members create wordless skits that demonstrate subtle or not so subtle signs of disrespect. After a...
Interactive
DocsTeach

African American Soldiers and Civil Rights During WWI

For Students 7th - 12th Standards
Young scholars analyze primary source documents and images to determine how African American soldiers were denied their civil rights during World War I.
Lesson Plan
North Carolina Consortium for Middle East Studies

Missing Pieces of the Puzzle: African Americans in Revolutionary Times

For Students 5th - 11th
What's missing from most studies of the American Revolutionary War is information about the role African Americans played in the conflict. To correct this oversight, middle schoolers research groups like the Black Loyalists and ...
Lesson Plan
Center for Instruction, Technology, & Innovation

Did African American Lives Improve After Slavery?

For Teachers 7th - 8th Standards
The Civil War made slavery illegal, but all ex-slaves were not totally free. Scholars visit eight different classroom stations to uncover life during the Reconstruction Era in America. Groups discover items such as Black Codes, 13th,...
Lesson Plan
Carolina K-12

African Americans in the United States Congress During Reconstruction

For Students 5th
The Civil Rights Act of 1866, which granted citizenship to all males in the U.S., resulted in the first African Americans to be elected to Congress. Class members research 11 of these men, the challenges they faced, and craft...
Printables
Curriculum Corner

African American Inventors

For Students 1st - 4th Standards
Celebrate Black History Month with a packet of materials on African American inventors. Readers discover several inventors' character traits, their inventions, and their lives. They even have the opportunity to conduct further research...
Lesson Plan
Smithsonian Institution

African American Music: Let’s Sing and Play Clapping Games

For Teachers K - 2nd
Two lessons focus on making a beat. Using popular African American music of its time, scholars listen and analyze the rhythm then recreate it with hands drums, and cups. 
Lesson Plan
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Smithsonian Institution

Art to Zoo: Life in the Promised Land: African-American Migrants in Northern Cities, 1916-1940

For Teachers 4th - 8th Standards
This is a fantastic resource designed for learners to envision what it was like for the three million African-Americans who migrated to urban industrial centers of the northern United States between 1910 and 1940. After reading a...
Lesson Plan
Alabama Department of Archives and History

An African American Represents Alabama during Reconstruction

For Teachers 4th Standards
The era after the Civil War saw a flourishing of African Americans exercising their rights. Using graphic organizers and Internet research, pupils consider the legacy of Benjamin Sterling Turner, who sat in Congress. Afterward, they...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Enslaved African Americans and Expressions of Freedom

For Teachers 9th - 12th
High schoolers analyze a painting from African-American culture to determine its meaning. Reading slave spirituals, they discover what live was like for African-Americans who were enslaved in the South. They draw conclusions about their...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

African-American Soldiers in World War I: The 92nd and 93rd Divisions

For Teachers 9th - Higher Ed
Students research the role played and contributions made by African American soldiers during World War I. They discuss the evolution of civil rights in America's history, and the progress that has been made in the last 100 years.
Lesson Plan
Center for History Education

Frances Ellen Watkins Harper: 19th Century African-American Writer and Reformer

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
Although some African American abolitionists—such as Sojourner Truth and Frederick Douglass—are well known, others, like Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, remain in the shadows of history. Harper was a poet and activist who played an...
Lesson Plan
Carolina K-12

African Americans and the Vietnam War

For Teachers 9th - 12th
No need to look any further. This resource has everything for a solid exploration of the role of African Americans in the Vietnam War. Class members read primary sources, including a Martin Luther King speech, political cartoons of the...