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Showing posts with label history. Show all posts
Showing posts with label history. Show all posts

Free printable Anzac Day lesson plans on WWI, Australia, New Zealand, Gallipoli military history


April 25 commemorates Anzac Day in Australia and New Zealand. It's akin to Veteran's Day, or as it was originally called Armistice Day in that it honors WWI Anzacs (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps). However Anzac Day falls on April 25, to recognize the landing at Gallipoli, in 1915. As with Veterans Day, the holiday has been expanded to honor all who served, suffered or died, in any conflict, war or peace-keeping operation. 

Here are free printable history lesson plans from New Zealand History, to help students understand the significance of Anzac forces in World War I, not just to Australia and New Zealand but to the entire world. This site has activities and information on the Maori Battalion. 28th Maori Battalion has more on the Maori and their role in WWI and WWII. 

For Teachers For Students has complete units of Anzac Day lesson plans including history worksheets, puzzles, word search activities, poems and math activities to explore Gallipoli and WWI by the numbers. 

Teach Starter is a blog with all kinds of Anzac Day lesson plans, including free printable word search activities, arts and crafts to honor veterans, such as wreaths and poppies. The poppy is the symbol for remembrance of the fallen in World War I (WWI). There are also recipes for Anzac biscuits, a type of hardtack made for the WWI troops at Gallipoli and other engagements. Here's another site with free printable Anzac Day activities to remember this auspicious holiday. 


Free printable American government lessons: Democracy, core democratic values

The summer patriotic U.S. holidays, beginning with Memorial Day, turn attention to American government and historyt. America was founded on a democratic government system. Here are free printable American government lessons on democracy and core democratic values for teachers and students. PBS Kids free printable American government lessons teach that democracy is a Greek word meaning 'government by the people' ('dem' people + 'cracy'). Check that link for more free printable Greek words and roots. The people of Ancient Greece were the first to establish the idea of common people ruling their own country. In Greek democracy, all citizens had a right to participate in the process of choosing who from amongst their ranks would represent them. Typically nations were ruled by other forms of "-cracy" or "-archy." A monarchy refers to a country ruled by one supreme head, such as a king. "Oligarchy" refers to rule by a few elite people. In these forms of government, people who were ruled had no say about who their ruler would be. Leaders came to power by inheritance of a crown or by forced military take-over. These rulers had absolute power. They made the laws that the common man must obey. Typically the rules they made did not include themselves.
Never before the Greeks had a nation been ruled by a collective of people who voted to choose representatives. Here are free printable American government lessons on Greek democracy. Never before had a nation's people been given a voice over who should make the laws or what those laws would be. Never before had the rulers of a country had to obey the laws they made. The Greek experiment with democracy, or rule by the people worked well. Here are free printable Ancient Greece and core democratic values lesson plans to use for American government lessons.
Along with a system of democracy and core democratic values, the people of Ancient Greece taught gave the world philosophy, music, art, literacy, technology, medicine, science and language. Here is music of Ancient Greece for American government lessons. Here are free printable lesson plans on the medicine of Ancient Greece to use for American government lessons. Here are free printable Ancient Greece lesson plans on all those subjects.
When the founding fathers and mothers in America set out to establish a government, they looked to the Greek form of democracy as a model. Early Americans had experienced life under the monarchy of King George III and his predecessors. They had lived in a colony ruled by another nation across the sea. The American colonists knew about monarchies and oligarchies. To them, core democratic values in rule 'by the people of the people and for the people' looked very attractive. In the First and Second Continental Congress they drafted what a federal constitution and Bill of Rights that would become a model of democracy outlined core democratic values for other nations as theirs was modeled after the Greeks.
In a democracy, the constitution lays out the rights of citizens very clearly. Every citizen has a voice as to what goes into the constitution. When changes are made to the constitution citizens must approve those changes. To explore democracy and American history lessons in an interactive online games, visit Democracy Game. To experience life in an ancient kingdom, click here for a free download ofSeven Kingdoms. Here are free printable

Free printable American history lessons: Jamestown, Pocahontas, Virginia Company, Captain John Smith

May 14 commemorates the landing of English colonists to what would become Jamestown, the first English settlement in the New World, in 1607. Tampa Bay Times said on May 12 that this marks the 409th anniversary of the Jamestown landing. Here are free printable American history lessons on the Jamestown settlement and its settlers. The story starts back in England. The year is 1606. King James I of England grants a charter (document giving permission to do something) to the Virginia Company. The Virginia Company owned merchant boats that traded with other nations. The Virginia Company merchants had heard that there were riches in the New World. The company sponsored (paid for) a group of 104 entrepreneurs (people who start businesses) to go to the New World to start a settlement for trade.Visit the links for free printable American history lessons on the Virginia Compnay and its preservation.
On May 14, 1607, after a difficult ocean voyage the settlers landed in the Chesapeake area of North America. They named the establishment they founded Jamestown in honor of King James. Unfortunately most Virginia Company travelers were men and gentlemen at that. Gentlemen didn't mean what it means today--really nice guys. It meant they didn't do manual labor. They were accustomed to having servants do their work. Not only did the settlers know very little about farming and homesteading, they didn't want to spend their time doing those boring farm jobs. They wanted to hunt for the gold and treasure.
However there was work to be done. The Jamestown settlers needed to find a safe place to set up camp. The Jamestown settlers needed to build shelter from the harsh weather and wild animals. They had to learn about local wildlife, to hunt and forage for survival. They had to plant crops for food. The Jamestown settlers were pretty much clueless about how to do any of those things. They also had do deal with unpleasant things like being shot at by Spanish ships. They were attacked by Algonquin Native American Indians who saw them as a threat. The Jamestown settlers weren't farmers nor soldiers. They were helpless.

Imagine the headaches for their leader Captain John Smith! Here are free printable American history lessons showing all the things the Jamestown settlers had to deal with. In fairness to everyone in the Jamestown settlement, Captain John Smith made a rule; "If a man will not work, he will not eat." You can play a settlement simulation game using the free printable American history lessons at National Geographic Kids to learn how Captain John Smith organized the work. Finally, the settlers managed to build a small small fort surrounded by a wooden palisade (wall). It helped that thePowhatan Indians helped the Jamestown settlers by trading food for tools and beads. Chief Powhatan's daughter Pocahontas befriended Captain John Smith and brought the settlers food. But when Captain John Smith returned to England in 1609 for treatment of a leg injury, Pocahontas ceased to visit. The Jamestown settlement suffered through the "Starving Time" that winter. Only 60 of the original settlers survived. When Captain John Smith returned on 38 of the 104 were left. Visit the links for free printable American history lessons on the Jamestown settlers' relationships with various native American Indian groups.

Free printable September 11 lesson plans, 9/11 social studies printables


 As Britain commemorates Guy Fawkes Day on November 5, Americans "remember, remember the 11th of September." On the 14th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, how can we commemorate in a proactive way? A nonprofit called My Good Deed, suggests making it a National Day of Service and Remembrance reports the International Business Times. But how do you teach children why September 11 is so important? How do you explain what happened to the World Trade Center, Flight 93 and Pentagon? How can you help them understand war, violence and terrorism? Here are free printable September 11 lesson plans to help.
Scholastic has a free printable September 11 unit filled with activities, titled "9/11/2011: The Day that Changed America." There are dozens of social studies, history, government and civics lessons. Resources include primary sources (original pictures and documents), timelines, graphs, charts and maps. There are critical thinking and writing prompts, memorial activities, movie and book connections. There are September 11 units for preschool up to grade 8.
Education World presents a compendium of 9/11 printables and activities for teaching about tragedy, terrorism and tolerance. There are resources on Islam and its perspective, too. Lessons cover not just the who, what, when, where and how of the September 11 attacks, but the why, as well. Children learn why the U.S. was attacked, what we can do about it, what's been done, and why we must not forget.
PBS has a collection of free September 11 lesson plans geared primarily at students in middle school and high school. These lessons explore 9/11 in the larger world context and how the September 11 attacks affected the world. ABC Teach has a package of printable 9/11 lesson plans for younger children. There are coloring pages, writing prompts and vocabulary puzzles. These activities help kids who didn't experience September 11 understand why it's so important to those who did. Children see destruction and violence on television and video games all the time. 9/11 can seem unreal.
9/11 Memorial is museum, archive, repository and exhibition built at the site of the World Trade Center. This website offers virtual tours, photo walls, and features twin pools at ground zero, inscribed with the names of the victims. If children can't visit the 9/11 Memorial, a virtual classroom tour will help them explore. Here is the page with free printable 9/11 Memorial lesson plans .
Kids might make a memorial drawing quilt. Ask children to draw or color a picture reflecting the 9/11 attacks. Don't set boundaries. Let kids express feelings in any way that they need to. Collect the drawings and tape them together to form a September 11 "quilt." The quilt may be a thank-you for National Guard or public safety officers, too. Send it to a victim, rescue worker or veteran memorial group or display in your school.
Coloring may seem like a superficial way to commemorate a disaster. For children, it's therapeutic. It's like journaling for an adult. Drawing helps children access and express emotions. When a child hears sad news, drawing is a first response because he hasn't learned how to share feelings in words, written or spoken, Children show empathy for suffering people, making cards for them. There is so little anyone, let alone a kid, can do about tragedy. Simple acts of kindness, like drawing a picture, help heal.

Free printable Memorial Day lesson plans for Remembrance Day with US history worksheets


Memorial Day, Flag Day, 4th of July, Columbus Day. Labor Day, Veterans Day and Presidents Day focus on events in American history. Use these red white and blue crafts and art projects to celebrate. These free printable activities might easily be used as lesson plans for school or homeschool to teach American history, government, civics, social studies, geography, current events, US history and other similar classes.
All Crafts has a blowout of red white and blue crafts projects to use for major US national holidays. Use these free printable patriotic crafts for US national holidays like Memorial Day and 4th of July but also for lesson plans on Presidents Day, Constitution Day or even Election Day. Pecuniarities has a cute free printable toy soldiers crafts, perfect for Presidents Day and military holidays and US national holidays. Print toy soldiers, cut them out, wrap around toilet paper tubes and glue. Free Kids Crafts offers free printable patriotic crafts, games, activities, puzzles, paper dolls and paper airplanes. Use these for American history or Presidents Day activities!

The Toymaker has free printable patriotic crafts, red white and blue crafts and American history art projects. Making Friends always has lots of great crafts, including free printable patriotic crafts and RWB activities. You'll like the games,puzzles and mazes for US national holidays too. Teacher Vision has a bunch of educational free printable patriotic crafts. DL-TK has a loads of free printable red white and blue crafts and art projects and patriotic crafts for American history and US national holidays. Activity Village has free printable red white and blue crafts and art projects for all US national holidays. Here's the Presidents Day page but check the side menu and home page for season by season holiday activities.

Free printable Memorial Day lesson plans and patriotic Remembrance Day printables


Memorial Day, celebrated the last Monday in May, doesn't just kick off summer holidays. Also called Remembrance Day, the holiday honors veterans and those lost in U.S. wars. It's also referred to as Decoration Day, when family commemorates loved ones lost by putting flowers on graves. Teachers and homeschool parents, here are free printable lesson plans, worksheets, crafts and games to teach kids about this national holiday.
* Memorial Day Printables: About.com lists pages of free printable patriotic holiday games, word searches, crossword puzzles, writing activities and coloring pages. Why not print the packet and use for homework. Or let kids complete it while listening to stories on American war history. They could also watch one of these Memorial Day movies. Check my blogs Film Femme Fatale for educational movies for Memorial Day.
* Free Memorial Day Resource Unit: Homeschool Deals links to several free resources for Memorial Day printables and activities. There are Medal of Honor and soldier coloring pages, history worksheets, holiday games, reading and writing lessons and patriotic printable crafts. There are poems and literature-based activities. When I was young, teachers would have us write out seasonal poems in our best penmanship and create our own illustrations. Then she'd mount poem and picture on construction paper. This made a nice take-home project.
* Remembrance Day Printables: Free printable Memorial Day activities are suitable for 4th of July and Veterans Day, DL-TK offers pages of holiday printables. There are greeting cards, coloring pages and crafts. My favorite is a printable mini-book on Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae's stirring World War 1 poem "In Flanders Field." The poem is the basis for the poppies worn on Memorial Day. Print the booklet in black and white so students can color images.
* Patriotic Coloring Pages at Raising our Kids has dozens of free printable American history coloring pages featuring, military, national memorials and landmarks, soldiers, historic images, national liberty symbols and more. Have students use these as greeting cards. Assign them to color images and write a message on the back. Mail or better still hand-deliver to seniors in nursing homes. Memorial Day is particularly poignant for elderly who remember wars and lost so many loved ones.

Black History Month printables, worksheets, lesson plans, book activities

Complaints about why there's a Black History Month infuriate me. If you have to ask, you clearly don't get American history period. The revisionists aren't the ones teaching black history, they're the ones who wrote it out in the first place. Slavery, segregation, Jim Crow stole an entire peoples' past. Black History Month can't replace that. But it can renew the future, It can revive traditions, restore voices and reinvest in the heritage that was denied. I've always felt intense solidarity with the oppressed and marginalized. But recently, I experienced it in a new way. I sat in Rosa Parks' bus seat. 

Over Christmas, we took the family to Detroit and visited Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan. Since our last visit, the museum had acquired the Montgomery bus upon which Rosa refused to surrender her seat to a white man. 
Henry Ford Museum purchased the Rosa Parks bus from an Alabama family who'd used it for storage.  

Looking to profit, the family claimed, despite proof, theirs was the bus. An auctioneer found journal clippings and matching serial and coach numbers. With a bid of roughly $429,000 the museum won it from the Smithsonian and the city of Denver. 

The bus required extensive restoration The museum placed it in the "Liberty and Justice for All" exhibit. This ironically-named collection pays tribute to oppressed Americans who enjoyed no such liberty and justice--blacks, women, Latinos, native Americans. The chilling display features a "whites only" drinking fountain, Ku Klux Klan robe and Klansman's oath. Images show suffragette hunger strikers being force fed through the nose and mobs assailing black Woolworth's Lunch Counter. It's a gruesome reminder that freedom isn't free. 

Sitting in Rosa's seat was both eerie and exciting. Her act of defiance on December 1, 1955, spurred the 
Montgomery bus boycott  A Baton Rouge, Louisiana boycott failed due to lack of focus. Mrs. Parks' quiet, but firmly "no" provided that. Desegregation fire lit the nation, birthing Freedom Riders, SNCC protests, marches. And Jim Crow started to crumble.

If you're a teacher, you must visit the Henry Ford and experience Rosa Parks. There's no more fitting way to celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. There's better way to teach black history (or any history) than from inside looking out. Use these free 
Rosa Parks resources to prepare or follow up. 

Rosa Parks printables from Scholastic

Rosa Parks classroom activities from Education world

Printable Jim Crow activity booklet

Free Jim Crow worksheets from iCivics (you'll have to register for a free account)

Black History Month  and Jim Crow laws from EdHelper

Jim Crow Unit from Mr. Donn

Free printable World War I lesson plans for Veterans Day, Armistice Day


Veterans Day is celebrated November 11. It's also called Armistice Day and Remembrance Day. We honor veterans, military and those who've died. We remember World War One, which truce was called on November 11, 1918. Here are free printable Veterans Day coloring pages. Images include American military, patriotic themes and WWI history.
Edupics has free printable Remembrance Day coloring pages. There are also over 100 military pictures to print and color. There are images of soldiers, weapons, vehicles, sailors, uniforms and insignia. Pictures are realistic and detailed. They cover wars from different countries and times in history. There are sections on printable WWI and WWII coloring pages.
Apples 4 the Teacher has several sections with printable coloring pages for holidays. Veterans Day coloring pages are linked here. Here's the site's free printable Social Studies lesson plans page. There are printable coloring pages of flags, presidents, famous people, American symbols and history.
Raising Our Kids has a really nice assortment of free printable Veterans Day coloring pages. These could be used to make homemade cards for American national patriotic holidays like 4th of July and Memorial Day, too.
Coloring Book Fun has a free printable patriotic themed coloring pages. These simple images would make good preschool holiday activities. Little ones can color them for greeting cards to give to senior citizens.
DL-TK has free printable Remembrance Day coloring pages and crafts. There are also mini booklets to use as coloring books. There are Veterans Day word searches and puzzles and poppy crafts. Coloring.ws has more Veterans Day coloring pages to print free.

Here are free printable GI Joe coloring pages from Educational Coloring Pages. 101 Coloring Pages has more GI Joe coloring pages to print free. Print a coloring book for kids to teach them what Veterans Day is and why we celebrate it.

Free Printable Nelson Mandela Day Lesson Plans and Black History Month Activities

July 18 is Nelson Mandela Day. In the US, Black History Month is observed in February. Here are free printable Black History Month lesson plans to use in Nelson Mandela Day observances. Teach children about this hero.

To get lessons, visit Shmoop. There are 25-plus pieces of content available free on Black History Month. You'll find lessons on:
  Slavery
 
  Jazz Age and Harlem Renaissance
 
  Jim Crow
 
  Civil Rights
 
  Desegregation
 
  "Black Power"
 
  Famous court cases impacting slavery, integration and civil rights
 
  Race issues in US wars: Revolutionary, Civil, WWII
 
  Ku Klux Klan and racial tensions
 
  Civil War
 
  Abolition
 
  Antebellum America
 
  Reconstruction
 
  FDR's New Deal
 
  Race in music history: jazz, blues, rock & roll
 
  Desegregation in schools, sports
 
  Woolworth lunch counter and bus boycotts

  Apartheid

There are teaching guides for poetry and books of Langston Hughes, Gwendolyn Brooks, Zora Neale Hurston, Ralph Ellison, Phillis Wheatley, Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, Richard Wright, Lorraine Hansberry, Fredrick Douglass, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Mark Twain and Harper Lee. Read on.



Free Printable 4th of July Crafts History Lesson Plans for Kids


With Memorial Day right around the corner, here are educational US history art projects and patriotic crafts. Use patriotic crafts for 4th of July holiday art projects too.
* Homemade dough, putty, paint. Kids in US history typically had few toys, so they made fun with found materials. Turn the back yard into an old-school chemistry lab. Here are recipes for silly putty, moon sand, play dough and other media for patriotic crafts and art projects. If you have a natural clay deposit, mine your own. Make clay pots or marbles (a favorite old-times game). Concoct homemade fabric paint mixing tempera and Elmer's School Glue or powdered milk. Teach chemistry and experimenting with paint recipes for Memorial Day and 4th of July art projects from Nate and Rachel (safe enough for toddler crafts).
* Decorate tote bags. In times past, kids art projects were learning activities. Use US history patriotic holiday crafts to teach simple sewing, math and life skills lessons. Repurpose fabric tablecloths, sheets, blankets, pillow cases, towels. Have kids measure and cut two matching squares. Sew three sides of squares together by machine or with needle and thread. Turn inside out. Fold and sew a hem around the top edge. Braid scrap yarn, rope, twine, into handles. Attach and decorate with homemade paint.
* Family tablecloth. Family was important, elders were respected and everyone worked together in olden times. Hand print a clean plain-colored flat sheet or polar fleece blanket with fabric paint (see recipe above). Get everyone involved--grandma, grandpa, grouchy Aunt Mildred, the baby, the cat--dips a palm (paw) in paint and hand prints. Then, they sign names in permanent marker near their print. Make patriotic holiday crafts do double duty as gifts and give as a keepsake to an elderly relative.
* Flag pencils. Cut white sheets or plain fabric scraps into 4x6 squares. Show world flags and play afree printable flag bingo game from Suitcases and Sippy Cups. Then let kids create a personal flag that represents their interests. Color with markers or crayons. Hot glue to new pencils. Wave your flag patriotic holiday crafts in Memorial Day and 4th of July parades.
* Personal logo T-shirts. Famous Americans--Paul Revere, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson--are known by mottoes like "Don't Tread on Me." The Gadsden flag was an American revolution symbol, Universities typically have Latin mottoes. Have kids create their own slogan and logo to reflect their ideals. Then transfer images to T-shirts with fabric paints or permanent markers. Recycle old shirts. Buy packaged T-shirts. Check dollar stores for good prices on supplies for patriotic holiday crafts and Memorial Day or 4th of July art projects.

Have a Memorial Day and 4th of July parade. Sing US history songs, display your patriotic holiday crafts and art projects. Wear US history shirts. US History leaps off boring textbook pages and comes to life with these educational US history art projects.

Use Miss Fishers Murder Mysteries to Teach History, Free Printables

I became hopeless addicted to Phryne Fisher, the saucy, sensitive, savvy Jazz Age Aussie lady detective of Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries. She's part tart, part humanitarian, part intelligentsia, all tough cookie. She's a motherly vamp, if that makes sense. And can she hold her Mother-of-Pearl revolver...and gin! Tres elegante! And this show would make superb lesson plans for history.  Anticipating Miss Fishers Murder Mysteries Season 2

Free archaeology activities, earth science printables

I was going to major in archaeology and minor in anthropology in college. Then my over-cautious self said (in best yente voice) "Bones, schmones. Pick something mahketable. You can't eat history." (That last part could have been my pragmatic Dutch grannie head voice). So I picked teaching. Ahahahaa, marketable. Such irony.

Till I can find a dig that accepts volunteers and is close enough to be doable, I have to get my archaeology fix elsewhere. Here are free printable lesson plans on cave-related subjects of fossils, bats, archaeology, paleontology, habitats, geology, spelunking and earth science.
The National Parks Service has free printable lessons on the U.S. national park at Carlsbad Cavernsin New Mexico. There's curriculum for elementary school in the free printable booklet About Bats, Caves and Deserts. For middle school students, the NPS Carlsbad Caverns website features free printable archaeology lessons on Caves, Canyons, Cactus and Critters. High school students explore geology, spelunking, Global Positioning Systems and orienteering in the Chihuahuan Desert Lab school. Materials are designed to be used with interpretive visits but some may be used as stand-alone lessons in class. Check out the cool activities on fossils, bats, paleontology and other cave phenomena.
Also from the NPS, are free printable materials on Mammoth Cave in Kentucky. There are free coloring pages, word games, puzzles and lesson plans in the Junior Ranger section. Kids will love the printable Trog Tour booklet (trog is short for super cool fossils called troglodytes) The Making Connections series from Mammoth Cave National Park features books for grades K-3, 4-5 and 6-8. There are 83 pages of free printable paleontology lesson plans for teachers and homeschool parents. And be sure not to let young archaeology students miss the free printable Fossil Identification Guide with coloring pages of fossils to label.


Free printable colonial America Crafts and early American history printables


I'm a teacher, homeschool veteran and American history reenactor. I teach a 1700s-era dame school(here's a model one at Thursley in Surrey, England) at our local history museum "Feast of the Strawberry Moon" encampment. Here are free printable hands-on early American history lessons and historical crafts and free printable colonial America lesson plans.
Teach about school history. Explain that education wasn't compulsory in the U.S. colonies till 1852 and then only in Massachusetts. Kids might be taught in "dame schools." Then only basics. Women weren't deemed capable of teaching boys. They taught handicrafts, reading, writing and ciphering. Higher education was taught by men to families who could afford it. Here are free printable history lessons and historical crafts from Kidipede linked to the main page for the whole collection.
Reading in Colonial America. In 1647, reading, writing and Bible was mandated, under the Old Deluder Satan Act. The New England Primer was used starting in 1760. MacGuffey Readers came out in 1836. But that was the colonies. The Michigan territory was settled by Catholic French. Education came from missionaries, like Quebecois Ursuline nuns under Marie del Incarnation. Catholic or Protestant, instruction was religious and moral. Here are free printable selections from the New England Primer. Teach kids the famous alphabet poem beginning: "In Adam's fall." Here are morecolonial early American history lessons.
Colonial America ladder school. Teachers grouped students by age and ability. In math, the first row, the youngest, worked on counting. The next row, basic addition. The next, subtraction and so on. Spelling, reading, and handwriting would be taught this way, too. D emonstrate this with students. If students are agemates, assign some to play older kids and some younger. Arrange seats or benches in rows (ladders). Here are sample free printable early American history lessons like those teachers would have used.
Make homemade books. Vellum was a costly paper-like material made from animal membrane. This could be scraped down and reused. Few could afford it. But they would have saved and reused everything. Teach kids colonial America frugality. Make books from paper grocery bags (similar to parchment or butcher paper). Sew pages by punching holes and weaving with pieces of twine, rope, yarn or leather cording. Have students write the New England Prime Bible poem and illustrate. Here are other free printable colonial early American history lessons and historical crafts.
Hands-on math games: Give children pebbles for counting. Kids transfer one pebble from hand to hand as they count. Demonstrate simple operations: addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. I've used beans, but tell kids these were food stuffs and wouldn't have been wasted. Shells, feathers, sticks would likely have been used.
Writing in early American history. Make slate pencils. Children in early American history used slates and a stylus made of rocks. Gather rocks. Scratch on pieces of rock tile. Ask local rock or tile dealers for samples. See which kinds write best. Make quill and ink. Cut the end off the feather at an angle. Heat in flame to make a nib. Ink would have been too expens

Free Printable Memorial Day Worksheets, Crafts, Games


Teachers and homeschool parents, here are free printable lesson plans, worksheets, crafts and games to teach kids about this national holiday.
* Memorial Day Printables: About.com lists pages of free printable patriotic holiday games, word searches, crossword puzzles, writing activities and coloring pages. Why not print the packet and use for homework. Or let kids complete it while listening to stories on American war history. They could also watch one of these Memorial Day movies. Check my blogs Film Femme Fatale for educational movies for Memorial Day.
* Free Memorial Day Resource Unit: Homeschool Deals links to several free resources for Memorial Day printables and activities. There are Medal of Honor and soldier coloring pages, history worksheets, holiday games, reading and writing lessons and patriotic printable crafts. There are poems and literature-based activities. When I was young, teachers would have us write out seasonal poems in our best penmanship and create our own illustrations. Then she'd mount poem and picture on construction paper. This made a nice take-home project.
* Remembrance Day Printables: Free printable Memorial Day activities are suitable for 4th of July and Veterans Day, DL-TK offers pages of holiday printables. There are greeting cards, coloring pages and crafts. My favorite is a printable mini-book on Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae's stirring World War 1 poem "In Flanders Field." The poem is the basis for the poppies worn on Memorial Day. Print the booklet in black and white so students can color images.
* Patriotic Coloring Pages at Raising our Kids has dozens of free printable American history coloring pages featuring, military, national memorials and landmarks, soldiers, historic images, national liberty symbols and more. Have students use these as greeting cards. Assign them to color images and write a message on the back. Mail or better still hand-deliver to seniors in nursing homes. Memorial Day is particularly poignant for elderly who remember wars and lost so many loved ones.

For more holiday printables visit my blog Free Printable Holiday. For more free printable lesson plans visit my blog of that name.

Free Printable May Day, Labor History, Union Organizing Lesson Plans


Spring is a poignant time in labor history. March 25, 1911 remembers 146 workers, mostly women, lost in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. April 16 mourns Ireland's Easter Rising of slain Feinians. April 28 marks Workers' Memorial Day, on which the organized labor movement pays tribute to the fallen in workplace accidents or in organized labor struggles. May 1 is May Day, honoring International Workers' Day. May 4 commemorates casualties at Chicago's Haymarket riot at a 1886 labor rally. May 19, 1920 is a day when the organized labor movement grieves the Matewan and Mingo County massacre of coal miners. On May 26, 1937 those who would from unions were assaulted at Ford's River Rouge plant "Battle of the Overpass" in Detroit.
Organized labor history is taught as part of American history, but there is no American (or world) history without labor history. Unions, collective bargaining--the fight for workers' rights impact every industry, occupation and person. Teachers and homeschoolers, you can educate students about unions with these free printable May Day and labor history lesson plans. These links include websites, activities, worksheets, movies and books on the organized labor movement.
The American Labor Studies Center offers a gamut of free printable organized labor movement lesson plans. It covers history, events, strikes, lockouts, workplace injuries, child labor, working conditions, collective bargaining, 8-hour workday, sweatshops, slavery, organizing, indentured servitude, socialism and labor, women's rights, African American labor issues, minority discrimination concerns, ULP (unfair labor practices). Lessons cover the Triangle fire (the worst workplace accident in history), West Virginia labor, Pullman Strike (1894), Lawrence Textile Strike (1913), Lowell Strike, Paterson Silk Strike, agriculture strikes and other events. Get free printable union labor worksheets, fill-ins, puzzles and study guides. There are links to films and books.
Modern Heroes of the American Labor Movement explores famous labor leaders: Noam Chomsky, Joe Hill, "Big Bill" Haywood, Pete Seeger, Jimmy Hoffa, Caesar Chavez, the Wisconsin 14 and others from the IWW (Industrial Workers of the World), AFL-CIO, Teamsters and more. Here's another list ofbiographies of union organizers. This site has biographies of women labor leaders including Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Mary Harris "Mother" Jones and more. To use in lessons, print the list of names on one side and short bios on the other side (mixed up). Students match person with details. Print photos and pin to a map at places they are associated with. Or make a time line along the wall. Plot images in history.
The National Endowment for the Humanities offers two companion lessons in its series The Industrial Age in America. "Sweatshops, Steel Mills and Factories" and "Robber Barons and Captains of Industry" define the problems faced by workers in labor history and the reasons for the organized labor movement. Use the worksheets and activities with middle school and high school students.
The Walter P. Reuther Library of Labor and Urban Affairs at Wayne State University in Detroit maintains the largest organized labor history archive in the U.S. It has an impressive collection of images in physical exhibits and digital archives on The Labor Movement and Organizations. It also maintains a labor history document base. The library is named for the leaders of UAW (United Auto Workers) and CIO (Congress of Industrial Organizations) unions Walter Reuther who was one of several injured at Ford's Rouge factory "Battle of the Overpass" in Detroit.
The United Farm Workers is the union begun by Cesar Chavez that tends to itinerant and agricultural labor issues. Along with labor movement, the UFW educates people about food safety, immigration, deportation, earth and green initiatives, pesticides and more. An important piece is the youth activism page. UFW seeks to take union and agricultural awareness beyond the classroom walls and into real life.
The Wobblies is a documentary about the IWW (the Industrial Workers of the World). The IWW is a world-wide union that seeks to organize all workers regardless of occupation. This authoritative video is engaging and covers a broad labor perspective. It helps students understand the differences between business, trade and collective unions. The IWW honors May Day as the real Labor Day.

In honor of May Day, here's a quote from the Albert Shanker Institute. "Imagine opening a high school U.S. history textbook and finding no mention of-or at most a passing sentence about-Valley Forge, the Missouri Compromise...Benjamin Franklin, Lewis and Clark. Imagine if these key events and people just disappeared as if they'd never existed...That is what has happened in history textbooks when it comes to labor's part in the American story." Use these lesson plans to keep the May Day stories and message alive.