There are so many fun ways to bring history to life in the classroom, that I thought this would make a great post topic. Hopefully, you may be a bit inspired to try something new as the year winds down.
1. Field Trips – Many museums offer reduced rates for school groups, and there are lots of funding opportunities for field trips.There are several organizations specific to my area which offer grants to fund school field trips and projects, but also DonorsChoose is an excellent way to get a field trip funded.
2. Biography Study – This is especially effective when students study biographies of famous people they are familiar with, such as famous children’s authors, sports stars, or musicians. There are also tone of project opportunities, such as lapbooks, poster projects, and dioramas.
Google Earth
3.Google Earth Field Trips – Take a google map field trip on your SmartBoard to Rome and view ancient sites.
4. Wax Museum – Put on a wax museum by having students study people of scenes from history and have them re-enact what they learned about for parents. This makes a great fundraiser night when parents have to purchase tickets/make a donation to the “wax museum” your students have put on.
5. Science Experiments – Making a potato battery or light bulb this year? Talk to students about the inventors who first figured this out.
6. Family History Projects – Have students research their own family history and see what they come up with. There al tons of opportunities for writing, and making oral presentations on this subject.
7. National Days – One thing I love doing with my students is talking about what national day it is. Some days just make the school day more fun, such as national donut day (June 5th). Other national days are opportunities to talk a bit about events of history. For example, May 13th is National Frog Jump Day courtesy of Mark Twain. Read more about National Days here.
8. Make Allegory – Whenever possible illustrate for children how events of history shaped our realities today. For example, no Martin Luther King Jr. day goes by without a moment of reflection upon the fact that if it were not for him, our class would be split in 2 and we would not all know each other.
Spinning Cotton into Thread
9. Historical crafts/cooking – Don’t just read about how Native American women made pots, have students try their hand at it as well. A favorite historical project of mine this time of year is to make ice cream by hand as a class.
10. Make Connections to Current Events – It is often said that history repeats itself, so current events often can be tied back to historical ones. Current debates such as ones over school uniforms can be tied back to historical debates for free speech or equal rights. If students are old enough they can research what worked int he past, and make a plan of action for how they would like to shape the future. DogoNews.com is a great place to find current events news articles for kids.
History is a favorite topic of mine, and I could go on and on. Perhaps I will in another post. Please leave me a note if you would like to hear more about any of the projects listed above.
This Post is part of the Sharing is Caring Elite Blogging Cooperative’s weekly blog hop. If you would like to read more on this topic check out the great links below:
What a great article! I love all your ideas for making history come alive but I especially love the take a Google Earth Field Trip and Make Allegory ideas! Thank you for sharing your time and ideas!
You have such great information here, from ideas for teaching to help with setting up a blog. Thank you so much.