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Get Your Facts Right!
Students explore the life and the contributions of Christopher Columbus. In this Exploration Age instructional activity, students participate in several activities regarding the explorer. Students use the Internet and print...
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Reading the World, Then and Now
Students distinguish geographic features using Ptolemy's map of the world.
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Ft. Vancouver the Fur Trade: A Skin for a Skin
Students study Fort Vancouver. They discuss trading and what is meant by "a skin for a skin." They complete math story problems that represent possible trading scenarios. They explore the Chinook Jargon trade language.
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Intro to Witch on Blackbird Pond
Fourth graders read Witch on Blackbird Pond and understand the difficulties of traveling to America during the colonial period. In this Witch on Blackbird Pond lesson, 4th graders compare the choices we have in...
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Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Lesson: Immigration
Many of your class members will have heard of Executive Order 9066 and the Japanese internment camps of World War II. Some may even recognize the terms “Issei” and “Nisei,” but few will have heard of Enemy Alien Hearing Boards, of the...
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Early Explorers of America
Fifth graders examine a time line of early American explorers from England, Spain, and France. They trace exploration routes on maps and write reports about early explorers. Students view a laser disc presentation, Land of Opportunity...
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Handshakes and Greetings in American Culture
Students explore the meaning of greeting friends, acquaintances, strangers and family and learn when shaking hands is appropriate.
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"The Scientist and The Prince: Two Interesting Early Pennsylvania Immigrants
Young scholars examine immigrants including why people immigrated to America and their places of origin. In this immigrants instructional activity high schoolers analyze the importance of immigrants and the obstacles that they...
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Sitting Bull: Chief of the Lakota Nation
Students view the "Sitting Bull" video, complete vocabulary work, and discuss the video as a class.
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The Immigrant and the American Dream
High schoolers describe the concept of the American Dream and explain how it is related to immigration.
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Civil Rights Movement in America
Eleventh graders explore the Civil Rights movement as a culmination of history and cultural perspectives developed from the Slave Trade and Reconstruction. They identify leading persons and organizations and their personal philosophy to...
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Henry Spelman: The Powhatan Indians' English Boy
Sixth graders read and analyze narrative writing by and about Henry Spelman, a boy-laborer who helped settle Jamestown. They read biographical information, discuss the harsh conditions, and write a narrative piece on Henry's experiences.
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Christopher Columbus
This is a nicely done presentation on the voyages of Christopher Columbus. Most young historians don't realize that Columbus made, not one, but four journeys from Spain across the Atlantic Ocean to the New World. This PowerPoint does a...
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Colonial History: Fearless and faaithful
Students discuss reasons why early europeans immigrated to North America. Working in groups, they complete Internet activities on the PBS Website. They take a simulated voyage to the new world and rercord their actions on worksheets. ...
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Journey of Discovery and Rivers
Young scholars investigate the rivers encountered and mapped by the Corps of Discovery. They analyze maps, outline and label rivers on a blank map, complete a chart, and answer discussion questions while watching a National Geographic...
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Johnny Tremain/Boston Tea Party
Fifth graders understand chronological order of events. In this Boston Tea Party instructional activity, 5th graders compare the events surrounding the Boston Tea Party to current times. Students learn vocabulary and customs of the...
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Fahrenheit 451
Learners agree on a definition of censorship and then discuss incidents of censorship with which they are familiar. They might consider incidents in present-day America, elsewhere in the world, and in the past. Bradbury's novel serves as...
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Shakespeare Was A Black Woman
"I all alone beweep my outcast state." After a discussion of the "Shakespeare in American Life" segment in which Maya Angelou's relates her reaction to Sonnet 29, class groups create and perform a scene about an outcast that includes the...
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New England Colonies
Young scholars study the New England colonies. In this colonies lesson, students use a directed reading-thinking method to learn about the New England colonies. Young scholars follow the method to make predictions, read the text, and...
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Journey to America
Students explain how life changed drastically for many families. They recognize the hardships involved in emigrating and immigrating and explain the concept of being a victim
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The Great Migration: Two American Tales
Young scholars compare and contrast experiences of European immigrants and African American migrants in U.S. cities. After examining the topic, they write essays evaluating the differences and similarities of the groups' experiences.
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Travel Diary
Darwin kept a travel diary as he voyaged to South America, noting the politics, geography, cultures, animals, and interesting facts he encountered. Your class will do the same. Each student chooses a country to research and keep a five...
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Spanish Colonization: The Anza Expedition
Students research the Spanish explorations and North American geography. They create web pages based on their study.
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Exploring Racism in America
Students compare racism today to racism that existed during the nineteenth century. As a field research project, students individually keep track of examples of racism, biases, and stereotypes illustrated throughout the US media over a...