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Ideas, Activities, and Plans

Lesson Plans, Units, PD Plans, Activities, and Book Backdrops to engage and empower your students.
This vetted searchable database of teacher-created resources is your source of inspiration for primary source driven teaching across the curriculum. Find just the right resource and then let us know how you used it:
Classroom Implementation Report
PD Activity Report

TPS Files
Activities--SnakeGame.jpg

Classroom Comparision: Then and Now

Wise, Sue
  • Activity
  • 6-8
  • History
  • Analyze, Analysis, Compare, Contrast, Classroom, School
BookBackdropImage--WizardofOz.jpg

Cold Mountain

Rokicki, Kristina
  • Activity
  • 9-12
  • English/Language Arts, History
  • Common Core
  • 1860s, Civil War, Confederacy, Contrabands, Cold Mountain, Love, Prisoners, Sacrifice, Slaves, Soldiers, Union, Women
Unit-poster.jpg

Columbus /Exploration New World

Lucas, Amanda; Mesanger, Courtney; Pulaski, Madison
  • Unit
  • 3-5
  • English/Language Arts, History
  • PA State
  • Columbus, Explorer, Santa Maria
PDPlans-primerofteachertraining-BLUE-light.jpg

Columbus: Hero or Villain?

Johnson, Angela
  • PD Plan
  • 6-8
  • 21st Century Learner
  • Columbus, Hero, Europe, Exploration, North America, New World, Villain
LessonPlan--ABCs.jpg

Comparing and Contrasting the Lives of Children in the Early 20th Century to the Present-Day Life of Students

Goldberg, Marina
  • Lesson Plan
  • 3-5
  • History
  • NCSS
  • Childhood, Children, Compare, Contrast, Lives
LessonPlan--ABCs.jpg

Comparison of the Environmental Movements through the Eyes of its Participants

Rokicki, Kristina
  • Lesson Plan
  • 9-12
  • Geography, History, Science and Technology
  • PA State
  • Environment, Green Movement, John Muir, Rachel Carson, Science, Society
LessonPlan--ABCs.jpg

Conestoga Wagons

Sheffer, Dustin
  • Lesson Plan
  • 3-5
  • English/Language Arts, History
  • Common Core, PA State
  • Colonies, Conestoga Wagons, Immigrants, Transportation, Travelers, Truck Drivers
PDPlans-primerofteachertraining-BLUE-light.jpg

Connecting Local to Global: Primary Sources and Place-Based Learning

Lindboe, Theresa
  • PD Plan
  • 6-8
  • Arts and Music, English/Language Arts, History
  • Learning Forward
  • Community, Global, Inquiry, Local, Narrative, Primary Source
LessonPlan--ABCs.jpg

Conservation and National Parks

Guthrie, Michael
  • Lesson Plan
  • 9-12
  • Geography, History, Science and Technology
  • Common Core, PA State
  • Conservation, National Parks, Theodore Roosevelt, Preserve, Progressive Era, Sanctuary
Unit-poster.jpg

Constitution

Brigich, Casie; Hagy, Angele; Broadwater, Annie; Berkebile, Kaitlyn; Falleroni, Shannon
  • Unit
  • 3-5
  • English/Language Arts, Geography, History
  • Common Core, PA State
  • Bill of Rights, Constitution, Convention, Map , Philadelphia, Preamble, Washington
Unit-poster.jpg

Constitution

Colamartino, Mara; Morrow, Nicole; Wishner, Brittany
  • Unit
  • 6-8
  • Arts and Music, English/Language Arts, History
  • PA State
  • Art, Articles, Constitution, Convention, Federalist Papers, Government, Media, Quilt, Ratification, States Rights
BookBackdropImage--WizardofOz.jpg

Countdown

Keruskin, Kelly
  • Activity
  • 6-8
  • English/Language Arts, History
  • Common Core
  • 1960s, Cold War, Communism, Countdown, Cuban Missile Crisis, Duck and Cover, Fidel Castro, Library, John F Kennedy, Nuclear War, Read Aloud, Soviet Union
PDPlans-primerofteachertraining-BLUE-light.jpg

Courage to Remember

Lee, Gorman
  • PD Plan
  • 9-12
  • Civics and Government, History
  • Common Core, MA State
  • Bigotry, Bystander, Courage, Discrimination, Hate, Holocaust, Jewish, Nazi, Remember, World War II, Anti-semitism
LessonPlan--ABCs.jpg

Creating Lincoln

Smith, Laurelin
  • Lesson Plan
  • 3-5
  • History
  • NCSS, PA State
  • Lincoln, Primary Sources, Personality, Life
Curriculum map

CRP Tenet 1: Motivate Students to Choose Academic Success

Inquiry in the Midwest
  • External link
  • Curriculum
  • Pre K-2, 3-5
  • Bilingual/ESL, Cultural Studies
  • CRP, Culturally Relevant Pedagogy, Culture, Elementary, Video
Curriculum map

CRP Tenet 2: Tap Students' Cultural Competence

Inquiry in the Midwest
  • External link
  • Curriculum
  • Pre K-2, 3-5
  • Bilingual/ESL, Cultural Studies
  • CRP, Culturally Relevant Pedagogy, Culture, Elementary, Video
Curriculum map

CRP Tenet 3: Students Examine and Critique the Status Quo

Inquiry in the Midwest
  • External link
  • Curriculum
  • Pre K-2, 3-5
  • Bilingual/ESL, Cultural Studies
  • CRP, Culturally Relevant Pedagogy, Culture, Elementary, Video
Curriculum map

Culturally Relevant Pedagogy with Primary Sources

Minnesota Historical Society
  • External link
  • Curriculum
  • Any Grade
  • Cultural Studies, History
  • CRP, Culturally Relevant Pedagogy, Videos
PDPlans-primerofteachertraining-BLUE-light.jpg

Cumberland, Maryland: Exploration, Encounter and Exchange

Leatherman, Grace
  • PD Plan
  • 9-12
  • Bilingual/ESL, English/Language Arts, History
  • Learning Forward Standards
  • Cumberland, Encounter, Exchange, Exploration, Maryland, Primary Source, Railroads
PDPlans-primerofteachertraining-BLUE-light.jpg

Days of Future Past: Making Cross Curricular Connections with Primary Sources

Gershman, Eric
  • PD Plan
  • 6-8
  • English/Language Arts, History, Science and Technology
  • 21st Century Learner
  • Analysis, Future, Past, Present, Primary Source, Resource
iCivics

DBQuest

iCivics
  • External link
  • Curriculum
  • Any Grade
  • Civics and Government, English/Language Arts, History
  • App, Civics, History, Primary Sources, Question
BookBackdropImage--WizardofOz.jpg

Death in the Afternoon

Dille, Sarah
  • Activity
  • 9-12
  • English/Language Arts, History
  • Common Core
  • Bullfighting, Ernest Hemingway, Pamplona, Seville, Spanish
PDPlans-primerofteachertraining-BLUE-light.jpg

Developing Inquiry Based Lessons with Digital Primary Sources

Martindell, Toni
  • PD Plan
  • 6-8
  • History, Science and Technology
  • Learning Forward
  • Digital, Inquiry, Library, Literacy, Media, Primary Source, Technology
C3 photo

Did Abraham Lincoln Really Want to Free the Slaves?

C3 Teachers Development
  • C3 Inquiry
  • 9-12
  • Cultural Studies, History
  • C3 Framework
  • Abraham Lincoln, Civil War, President, Slaves

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Citations for TPS Eastern Region Publications