Education World
Edible Resource Maps!
Young scholars discuss resource maps and examine examples from library resources. Working in groups, they create edible resource maps by drawing examples, such as popcorn on the border of Iowa and Nebraska. Then they use cookies in the...
Curated OER
Celebrate Library Card Sign-Up Month
Motivate your class to acquire and utilize a library card all year long.
Curated OER
Libraries Are the Place to Be
Celebrate National Library Week by discovering all that your local library and the Library of Congress have to offer.
PBS
Library of Congress: Media Gallery | Women's Suffrage
Designed to support a study of women's suffrage in the United States, a primary source document set from the Library of Congress includes images, song sheets, articles, statistical documents, political cartoon, and audio recordings...
Library of Congress
Thomas Jefferson's Library: Making the Case for a National Library
The United States Library of Congress, the largest library in the world. But such was not always the case. The library was destroyed during the War of 1812. In a persuasive letter to Samuel H. Smith, Thomas Jefferson offered to sell his...
Curated OER
Johannes Gutenberg and the Printing Press
Students use library or online resources to create time lines on the life of Johannes Gutenberg and tell the impact his invention, the printing press, had on the development of newspapers.
Curated OER
Three Little Pigs: Human, Natural and Capital Resources
First and second graders will learn about natural, capital , and human resources through the story The Three Little Pigs. They will listen to the story, write down what they know about straw, wood, and brick, then complete a chart...
PBS
Using Primary Sources: Nazi Spy Ring Busted
Spy games are not just for professionals anymore! Scholars use short video clips, primary documents, and photographs to investigate Nazi spies in America during World War II. The young detectives analyze the paranoia warfare can...
PBS
Using Primary Sources: Wide Open Town
A picture speaks a thousand words, no matter how old! Scholars use political cartoons from the era of Prohibition and the Temperance Movement to analyze what, a primary document (in this case, a bootlegger's notebook) is telling them...
Curated OER
Thomas Jefferson's Library: Making the Case for a National Library
Students examine a letter written by Thomas Jefferson. In this lesson on the Thomas Jefferson Library, students discover a methodology for creative writing by examining Jefferson's letter to congress explaining why they should purchase...
Curated OER
Putting a Face on History with Photographs
Use the Library of Congress to draw your students into history through photographs.
Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media
European Explorers
To compare how the Spanish, French, and English approached the exploration of North America, class groups examine primary source documents and become experts on one of four explorers: Francisco Coronado, Robert LaSalle, Samuel de...
Curated OER
How Current Events Affect Us
Elementary and middle schoolers research a current event using various resources. They participate in a class discussion to evaluate the information they gathered on a particular event. Additionally, they discuss the concepts of common...
National Endowment for the Humanities
Using Historic Digital Newspapers for National History Day
Your learners will take a trip through history as they peruse through historic digitalized newspapers, reading real articles from such historical periods in the United States as the Temperance movement...
National First Ladies' Library
Why Do We Have Libraries?
Students investigate the reason and origins of libraries and conduct an information search using a variety of resources. They are divided into groups that have a specific set of questions they are to answer. Each group will then complete...
National First Ladies' Library
Funding America's School Libraries
Young scholars discuss ways in which their own school library is funded, explore organization and funding of other school libraries, research Laura Bush's initiatives for school libraries, and gain experience planning projects and/or...
Curated OER
Curriculum Guide For Teaching Texas History
Follow Texas history from Native Americans all the way to the 21st Century. Teachers analyze the creation of a year-long course on Texas history and use a wide range of teaching subjects and materials to guide them through the state's...
PBS
Arthur’s World Neighborhood: Bibliography for Kids
Support young learners as they expand their cultural awareness with this list of children's literature on countries from around the globe. Including both fictional and non-fictional texts. This resource will help...
C-SPAN
Make a “Deliberations” Site
Many hot button issues require deliberations, even in your classroom! Learners work in teams or as individuals to decide on a deliberation question to make into a Google site. They research the topics in depth, discuss both sides of the...
Curated OER
Cartoons for the Classroom: Herblock at 100
In celebration of renowned cartoonist Herb Block's Library of Congress exhibition, this handout includes 2 of his famous political cartoons for scholars to analyze. Background information describes "Herblock's" career, and talking points...
Digital Public Library of America
Teaching Guide: Exploring Little Women
Louisa May Alcott's Little Women is a literary masterpiece as well as a timestamp of the formative mid-nineteenth century in America. Using a primary source set of photographs, letters, and portraits, readers discuss the ways...
New York State Education Department
TASC Transition Curriculum: Workshop 4
Why is it important to use precise language? Participants explore this question in the fourth activity in a series of 15 on effective instruction. Perfect for all content areas, the activity promotes appropriate language choice through...
Free Library of Philadelphia
Resources for Ghost Boys
Jewell Parker Rhodes, the author of Ghost Boys, wanted to bring the historical legacy of Emmett Till and the current topic of racial prejudice into today's young readers' mindsets. Use a reading guide and set of discussion questions to...
Middle Tennessee State University
The Invention of the Telephone
All of the people in your class would agree that life would be different without the invention of the telephone! Study Alexander Graham Bell's most famous and influential invention through the primary source document of his...