Many textbooks for grades 3 through 8 do not include the story of the War of 1812.  Using this classroom activity, students will be able to cite the origins and outcome of the War of 1812 and be able to place the creation of the Star-Spangled Banner...

• Grade Band

  3-8

• Date Posted

  November 19, 2008

• Duration

• Resource
  Types

  

In this lesson plan from Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, students will analyze images and objects relating to Celia Cruz then create an autobiographical exhibition using personal objects.  This lesson is a resource included in...

• Grade Band

  K-4

• Date Posted

  July 7, 2008

• Duration

  90 minutes

• Resource
  Types

  

In this online exhibition from the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, students will learn how racism, social attitudes and policies such as Jim Crow laws and poll taxes led to the Plessy v. Ferguson case which legalized segregation. Segregated...

• Grade Band

  6-12

• Date Posted

  July 7, 2008

• Duration

• Resource
  Types

  

Every house holds clues to its history. On this page, students will find some of the methods historians and curators used to learn about the house at 16 Elm Street in Ipswich, Massachusetts. The house is the focus of Within These Walls, an online exhibition...

• Grade Band

  4-12

• Date Posted

  October 21, 2008

• Duration

• Resource
  Types

  

Thomas Alva Edison changed our world! His genius gave us electric lights in our home and an entire system that produced and delivered electrical power. He was the first to record sound - and he also started the recording industry. Edison developed the...

• Grade Band

  4-12

• Date Posted

  September 8, 2008

• Duration

• Resource
  Types

  

Travel back in time to visit five of the families who lived at 16 Elm Street in Ipswich, Massachusetts over the past 200 years in this interactive game from the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History.  Students will match primary source...

• Grade Band

  4-12

• Date Posted

  August 28, 2008

• Duration

• Resource
  Types

  

Join Gouverneur Warren on his 1856 expedition into the American frontier and identify the specimens he sent back to the Smithsonian for study and classification in this interactive activity from the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History. ...

• Grade Band

  4-12

• Date Posted

  September 9, 2008

• Duration

• Resource
  Types

  

Like the 250-year-old house from Ipswich, Massachusetts in the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, your home has a story to tell and a place in history.  Whether you own your house, rent it, or live in an apartment, you and your family...

• Grade Band

  4-12

• Date Posted

  September 2, 2008

• Duration

• Resource
  Types

  

Cartoons are great documents that can tell both funny and serious stories.  In this activity, from the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, children will first read Mr. Lincoln's Whiskers . Then they will use what they have learned...

• Grade Band

  K-4

• Date Posted

  January 14, 2009

• Duration

  50 minutes

• Resource
  Types

  

Josiah and Lucy Caldwell believed in the moral power of home and family, and their beliefs inspired a radical mission. The Caldwells were local leaders in the international struggle to end slavery. In 1822, they bought the Ipswich, Massachusetts house...

• Grade Band

  4-12

• Date Posted

  October 21, 2008

• Duration

• Resource
  Types