American Centuries

Pocumtuck Valley
Memorial Association

American Centuries > Lessons > History Lessons By Teachers

History Lessons By Teachers

Here are over 100 brief U.S. history lessons based on the artifacts and documents from Memorial Hall Museum’s Online Collection. These lessons were created by teachers and librarians for other teachers and librarians. You can use the “Topics” filter below to help locate lessons of interest to you.

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  • “Four Little Girls”
    Middle School (6–8) Students will understand that the exposure to segregation encouraged young adults to participate in the civil rights movement.

  • “No Taxation Without Representation!”
    Elementary (K–5); Middle School (6–8) Through role play, students will understand that the colonist in the 1760s and 1770s felt unfairly taxed by the British Parliament and they will understand how feelings of unjust taxation brought about anger and revolt that led to the creation of The Declaration of Independence.

  • “So What Are We Going To Do About It?” The McCarthy Era
    High School (9–12) Students will understand that even in Western Massachusetts, citizens were fearful of a communist takeover of the United States in the years after World War II.

  • “Town Hall Meeting” on Shays’ Rebellion
    High School (9–12) There were two main viewpoints related to the events of Shays’ Rebellion: those of the Regulators, and those that sided with the government of Massachusetts.

  • A Ball for George!
    Elementary (K–5); Middle School (6–8); High School (9–12) Students will create an invitation to a Washington’s Ball. They will read, practice, and give toasts to the first president, after learning the proper elocution and posture of the late 1700s.

  • A Child’s Daily Routine – Then and Now
    Elementary (K–5) Students will understand after reading the diary excerpts from Ellen Louisa Arms (1859-1860) and through discussion, that the routine of a child’s life in the middle 1800s was very different and also, in some ways, similar to a student’s daily routine today.

  • A Childhood Lost
    Middle School (6–8); High School (9–12) Students will understand that instead of going to school, children as young as eight years old spent long hours working at various difficult jobs, created by demands of the expanding Industrial Revolution.

  • A Cultural Math Lesson – Rum vs. Water
    Elementary (K–5); Middle School (6–8) Using page 20 from “The North American Arithmetic” book by Frederick Emerson (Boston, 1841), students will understand that cultural aspects of society in 1840 appear in arithmetic problems of the time.

  • A Day In The Life. . . The World War II Homefront
    Elementary (K–5); Middle School (6–8) Students will understand that the lives of civilians on the homefront changed during World War II, and will examine ration cards as well as other sources to discover the actions necessary for daily life and the “war effort”.

  • A Local Look at World War I Through Artifacts
    Middle School (6–8); High School (9–12) This activity is designed to help students understand that printed materials were the predominant means of communication during World War I and that the U.S. Government relied heavily on printed propaganda to gain public support and to encourage enlistment.

  • A Man’s Home Is His Castle: The Story of the Erving Castle
    Elementary (K–5) Using primary documents and picture books about John Smith and Henry David Thoreau, students will understand that the lives of the two men from the 1800s shared similarities and differences.

  • A Nation Prepares for Civil War
    High School (9–12) Students will read several contemporary news accounts of the attempt by both the Union and Confederacy to mobilize the resources necessary to achieve their respective objectives.

  • A Soldier’s Personal View of the Civil War
    Elementary (K–5); Middle School (6–8) Through the lesson activities students will develop an understanding of a soldier’s personal perspective of war and how families supported their soldiers. Students will understand that we can learn a great deal about past events through the writings and artwork created by the people living during these events.

  • A Young Person’s Diary: 1859 and 2010
    Elementary (K–5); Middle School (6–8) Students will understand that there are similarities and differences in the lives of young adolescents from 1859 to the present.

  • African American Experiences During the Pre-Civil War Era
    Elementary (K–5) Students will understand that there was not a single perspective on the events leading up to the Civil War. They will read and analyze several primary documents from 1860.

  • African Americans: A View from New England
    Middle School (6–8); High School (9–12) Through the close examination of text and pictures representing African Americans during the Civil War era, students will understand that Massachusetts residents held contrasting views about African Americans and slavery.

  • All Work and No Play
    Elementary (K–5); Middle School (6–8) Students will understand the ways in which 19th century students spent their after-school hours by comparing and contrasting after-school activities of the past with their own modern after-school activities.

  • American Voting Rights Timeline
    Middle School (6–8) Students will understand that the voting rights Americans have today came in distinct stages.

  • American Women Boycott British Goods
    Middle School (6–8); High School (9–12) Students will understand that people can engage in political and economic life through protests and boycotts, as women did during the revolutionary era.

  • An Investigation of Tools: A Historical Perspective
    Elementary (K–5) Students will understand that people used more primitive tools in the past.