History

Lesson Plans

Elementary School Lesson Plans

Census: The Constitutional Count (Grades 3-5)

This lesson will acquaint students with Article 1, Section 2 of the Constitution, which calls for an enumeration of the population every ten years. Students will explore the reasons for the census and participate in a variety of activities designed to involve them in the census process. This lesson will be multidisciplinary involving math, art, language arts, and social studies skills.

Native Americans Today

Many people believe that Native Americans are a vanished peoples; that they do not exist in the present day.

Using this lesson plan, teachers can use photo essays and other texts to introduce students to Native children and their families, thereby countering the idea that Native Americans no longer exist.

A Land Between Rivers: The Land Has Shaped Us, And We Have Shaped The Land . . .

This lesson plan tells the story of central California between the San Joaquin and Kings Rivers, and the critical role the area played in determining the destiny of California and the American West.

Celebrate Cinco De Mayo

In the fiction story, students preparing to celebrate Cinco de Mayo learn the Mexican hat dance—jarabe tapatío. Their challenge is to dance without stepping on the hat. The non-fiction section introduces Benito Juarez and the Battle of Puebla, and describes the many ways in which Cinco de Mayo is celebrated across the United States. Students also research recent census data to find cities in the United States with the highest Latino (Hispanic) populations and then show the findings in a graph.