Diane Venzera
Kwanzaa Celebration: Celebrating Family, Community, and Culture
Kwanzaa is the focus of a three-part lesson that celebrates the history and traditions of the holiday. Before lighting the Kinara, scholars listen to a read-aloud of Seven Candles of Kwanzaa by Andrea Davis Pinkney. Learners express...
Curated OER
Our Family Histories
Students investigate their own family history by creating an in class project and presentation. In this genealogy lesson, students research their family history using resources from their homes as well as the internet. Students create...
Curated OER
Family History
Students create photographic family histories. In this technology skills lesson, students create family trees with digital photographs that they take of the family members.
Curated OER
Long Ago & Maybe Far Away
Students organize and make plans to interview their relatives about their family history and view any heirlooms, diaries or photographs their relatives may have kept over the years. They write and illustrate the story of their family's...
Curated OER
Four Foot Feat
Students examine cultural customs and practices in family histories. In this family history instructional activity, students read the poetry in 'All the Colors of the Race' to analyze the family history. Students complete guided reading...
Curated OER
Tracing Our Own Family Pilgrimages
The Pilgrims may have arrived in North America by way of the Mayflower, but chances are, your class members' ancestors came to the United States in another way. Guide them through an exploration of their own heritage, countries of...
Curated OER
Indigenous Peoples’ Day Lesson Plan
Indigenous Land Guardianship, Settler Colonialism, Racial Capitalism. While the terms may be new to some, they feature in a lesson plan designed for Indigenous Peoples' Day. Young scholars investigate four concepts: Land...
Curated OER
Lesson Plan on Family History and Past Generations
Second graders listen to The Keeping Quilt and through class/small group discussion relate this story to beliefs, customs, and traditions of their own families. They make a class quilt based on these discussions.
Curated OER
Pedro Menéndez de Avilés
Partners examine the family tree of Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, a Spanish admiral and explorer who founded St. Augustine, Florida, and answer several questions about the text using a worksheet. After they've explored the family tree,...
Museum of Tolerance
Family Role Model Activity
What does is take to be a role model? Through grand conversation, and the use of books and a graphic organizer, scholars find out and apply the requirements to identify a role model within their family. They then journey through the...
PBS
Free, but Not Free: Life of Free Blacks Before the Civil War
Using the family stories of a famous comedian and singer-songwriter, learners consider what life was like for African Americans who were enslaved and free before the Civil War. To complete a concluding activity, they write about the...
Curated OER
Family Interviews: The Grandparent/Elder Project
Students explore key concepts/facts in 20th Century history, develop interview questions, and produce master list of questions that can be used in project. Students then interview grandparent, great-grandparent, or other elder about...
Museum of Tolerance
Quilt Activity
After completing the first five lessons from the series, scholars assemble their quilt pieces to create a family history quilt. They then rate their experience of learning about their families by conducting interviews, creating family...
Curated OER
Family Culture:
Students tell about their family heritage by writing a story and illustrating it with a picture of a family item.
Curated OER
Lesson: A Garden Party of My Own
Kids look at a beautiful work of art to practice grammar, make connections from life to art, and sketching. They identify all the parts of grammar they see in the image, discuss what they see and do on a picnic, and then draw an imaged...
Curated OER
Family History
Students research information about their family history, record the information and create some sort of family tree. Then they present it orally to the class.
Curated OER
Family Timeline- Researching Family Histories
In this family timeline worksheet, students create a large scale timeline of their family history. They write an entry about the most important event of their life thus far. They use a web site to make a timeline of their future hopes.
Curated OER
Dramatizing Your Story
Students write a script, planning and recording improvisations based on personal experience and heritage, imagination, literature and history.
Curated OER
Arkansas Photographs as Research Tools
Middle and high schoolers look at historical photos and written materials, and they develop questions which they use to interview an elder in their community. Learners are divided into groups and given sets of historical family photos...
Civil War Trust
Civil War Personalities Lesson Plan
Caring, trustworthiness, and responsibility—these are only a few character traits in focus of a lesson based on stories from the Civil War era. Class members explore several influential lives while reading biographies that highlight...
Berenstain Bears
Family and Community
Here is a beautiful set of lessons on family and community. These charming, engaging, and meaningful lessons would be of benefit for any Pre-K through 2nd grade learners. The lessons are jam-packed with terrific in-class, and at-home...
Curated OER
Family's Tree House
Students research their family history and graph it in a family tree format. They appreciate similarities and differences in various cultures and customs by comparing and contrasting their family trees. They then create an original...
Curated OER
Coming to America: Immigration Today
Learners research their own family histories and current U.S. immigration issues, rules, and regulations. They participate in a class discussion, watch a video about a Mexican immigrant's experience, and complete a WebQuest and a worksheet.
Curated OER
Quilting Our Diverse Classroom
Students explore diversity and race by creating art. In this ethnic background lesson, students discuss their family history, where their relatives lived and how it affects their life today. Students create pieces of a quilt representing...