General
- Use this site for great pictures when making lapbooks.
- A vast resource for further research on 19th-Century Art. Click on 19th-Century Art.
- Excellent architecture sight: www.greatbuildings.com
- This art history project book can be used in all four year-plans, as it goes through the 1980’s. There are 80 projects in this book entitled Great Studio Projects in Art History, and is written by William Reid. ISBN 0825138523
- Here’s real help with Feast Nights: food timeline and recipes galore! Enjoy!
- Classics for Kids: a great website for composers and their music.
- Classicalworks: a great site with an extensive timeline.
- A user shared: “Home Depot Kids’ Workshops are a blast! They give the child a complete project kit which includes everything they need for materials to build something. Plus they give them a work apron and pins for completing the project. They were so proud of themselves.”
- Puzzlemaker: put in a list of words and it will generate word searches, crosswords, codes, etc.
- Brainpop Free educational movies. You can watch two free per day. Aimed at grades 3-8, but fun for all!
- Cookie Dough Recipe: A great alternative to salt dough maps.
- 2 c. smooth peanut butter
- 2 1/2 c. powdered milk
- 2 1/2 c. powdered sugar
- 2 c. white corn syrup
- Blue icing – lakes and oceans
- Green sprinkles – plains
- Clear sprinkles – deserts
- Chocolate chips – mountains
- Red candy strips – rivers
- M&Ms – capitals
Unit 1 – Napoleon’s World
Week 1: When John Adams Was President
- How to make a quill pen
- Grammar level coin counting game
- Display Boards: instructions and examples. Instructions are based upon the science fair project. Keep in mind there are many different types of display boards!
- Information for your display board: John Adams and George III.
- Patriotic Coloring Pages: Coloring pages for all of the presidents.
- Neoclassicism
Week 2: Napoleon: The Man and His Career
- Simple instructions for making your own crown.
- Flora and fauna of France
- Build a Model of The Arc de Triomphe
- Basic French words and phrases
- Information for your display board: Horatio Nelson
- Arc de Triomphe
- Beethoven’s Biography
- Listen to Beethoven’s works
- Francisco Goya
- Napoleon Bonaparte coloring page
- Puzzle of David’s famous Coronation of Napoleon. Fun to do while listening to Romance music or read-alouds
- Napoleon
- Napoleon in His Study
- “Napoleon crossing the Alps”
Week 3: Early Industrial Revolution
- Make a pneumatic wheel using an extensive set of Legos. Scroll to the bottom of the page for pdf files to download.
- Make a battery
- Information for your display board: Francis Cabot Lowell and Robert Fulton
- Steamboat Coloring page
- Instructions for making a cardboard loom
Week 4: Jefferson and the Louisiana Purchase
- To find pictures for your Lewis & Clark collage, click here and then go to “natural history.”
- Baroque violin music
- Make your own compass.
- Food Network has lots of great recipes for soups and stews.
- Here is one way to make moccasins.
- Information about Appaloosa horses.
- For your display board: Thomas Jefferson
- Thomas Jefferson coloring page
- How to Dance a Minuet
- Monticello
Week 5: Jefferson and the Supreme Court
- How to make a silhouette
- Practice counting money here.
- For your poster: Branches of Government
- For your display board: John Marshall
- Read about characteristics of Romantic music here.
Week 6: Madison and the War of 1812
- James Madison coloring page
- Lyrics to the Star-Spangled Banner
- Songs of the War of 1812
- American flag etiquette
- Dining etiquette to learn if you are a hostess or host
- Make an American flag out of construction paper
- Sew Your Own American Flag
- For your poster: History of the American Flag
- Learn to play chess
- For your display board: James Madison
- Gioacchino Rossini
Week 7: Reshaping Europe and South America
- South American recipes
- Apple recipes
- Franz Schubert
- For the Congress of Vienna Reenactment. These are pdf files of Germany tokens, Italy tokens, and Prussia tokens.
Week 8: South America in Transition
- Make a clay flower pot
Week 9: Monroe and the American Hemisphere
- South American recipes
- How to Make a Clay Pot
- Another method for making a clay pot
Unit 2 – The Age of Industry & Expansion
Week 10: John Quincy Adams and Political Realignments
- Lyrics and music to “The Erie Canal”.
- Diagrams of boats used on the Erie Canal. Great for children who wish to make models of barges or the canal itself.
- Chronology and bibliography of the Canal.
- Make a Pine Cone Bird Feeder.
- Audubon’s Birds of America
- Braille translator and alphabet
- Louis Braille coloring page
- Lewis and Clark
- Biography of Johann Strauss, Sr.
- Biography of Johann Strauss, Jr.
- Listen to music by Chopin.
Week 11: Jacksonian Democracy
- Make an Indian Headband.
- Make an Indian Chief Headdress and Indian Vest.
- Make Native American Moccasins.
- Recipes: Corn Pone and Corn Fritter
- For your mini-poster: Sequoyah’s alphabet
- Examples of dioramas
- From EnchantedLearning: Make a Totem Pole (using a cardboard tube)
- From FamilyFun: Make a Tin Can Totem Pole.
- How to Carve a Totem Pole
- Native American Recipes
- Biography of Felix Mendelssohn. Follow links at bottom to read a more extensive biography, a list of his works, midi files, and more!
- Chopin: music and biography
Week 12: Revolutions in Texas & Europe
- From EnchantedLearning.com: Texas Flag Printout
- Texas State Flag
- Authentic Mexican Recipes
- The Ballad of Davy Crockett
- Scroll to the bottom of this page to learn how to make a faux fur coon skin cap.
- For your poster: History of the Bowie Knife
- Read about, and listen to, the music of Hector Berlioz.
Week 13: Victorian England
- Make a Pomander Ball: click here and here.
- Make a fruit and spice pomander ball. Smells wonderful!
- Set up a High Tea
- Calling Card Etiquette
- Augustus Pugin
- Victorian Parlor Games
- Make a Victorian hat
- Etiquette in Victorian England
Week 14: Victorians at Home and Abroad
- Make a boomerang!
- How to make a wood boomerang, for older students! Click on view all steps below the Step 1 picture and it is easier to follow.
- Draw the Australian flag: picture and printable flag to color.
- Australian Animals
- Frederic Chopin
- Pictures of the Great Barrier Reef
Week 15: Manifest Destiny
- Make corn recipes for your family.
- Robert Schumann
- Clara Schumann
- Enchanted Learning: Make a Rainstick or a Native American Rattle.
- Make sock puppets.
Week 16: Sea to Shining Sea
- Lots of wonderful Mexican crafts found on this site.
- Franz Liszt
- Color the Mexican Flag.
- Make a poncho.
- Mexican Recipes
- Make a Pinata.
- Make a Papel Picado: click here and here.
Week 17: The Oregon Trail
Week 18: 1848: Gold Dust & Gunpowder
- Art of the Gold Rush. Lots of great lithographs, paintings, etc. All ages… but supervised! We’ve not looked at all the pictures on this site.
- A song of the Gold Rush: “The Days of ’49”
- Build a simple model telegraph!
- Pony Express. Great site with information, more links, books, and more! All ages.
- T chart (pdf)
- Monroe Park: pan for gold in VA.
- Homemade Kettle Corn
- Chuckwagon Food
Unit 3 – Nations Uniting & Dividing
Week 19: Westerners in Asia
- Katsushika Hokusai
- Make Chinese paper lanterns.
- Write Chinese numbers.
- Chinese jade
- From EnchantedLearning.com: The Japanese Flag
- Make your own Origami.
- Bamboo: click here and here.
- Learn about Chinese Calligraphy
- Online Calligraphy lessons
- Chinese Architecture
- Pictures of traditional Japanese architecture.
Week 20: Franklin Pierce & the Crimean War
- Hygiene education website
- Information about nursing uniforms and the Florence Nightingale Museum.
- To find out educational requirements for nurses, type your state name and “educational requirements” into your search engine.
- Learn some first aid at American Red Cross or the Mayo Clinic.
Week 21: America Divides & Italy Unites
- Make your own decisions on this tour of the Underground Railroad interactive website by National Geographic.
- Historical underground railroad painting: Fugitives Arriving at Levi Coffin’s Indiana Farm
- Find the nearest safe house in relation to your home, on this list of sites, by state. Take a field trip!
- Play hangman on “Events Leading up to the Civil War”.
Week 22: Lincoln and the Start of the Civil War
- Civil War clipart! Pictures of uniforms: print them off to make paper dolls, etc. Much, much more!
- Instructions on making a pretzel log cabin.
- Instructions for making your hot air balloon.
- Make a Civil War flag: choose from the North or South.
- Making a periscope.
- Picture of the Merrimack and Monitor.
- Coloring page of Abraham Lincoln.
- Did you know it took two photographers with careful hands to take a photo on the battlefield? Check out the process here, and other interesting tidbits on photos taken during the Civil War.
- See scenes from a one-man play about Matthew Brady’s life.
- Actual photographs by Matthew Brady.
- Biography and photographs of Matthew Brady.
- Learn and hear Civil War songs! All ages.
- Civil War fife music.
- Touring The Hunley is only available on Saturdays and Sundays. This was the first submarine to ever sink an enemy ship. View history and recovery efforts!
Week 23: Decisive Years of the Civil War
- Civil War Potpourri: wander through this to find interesting & sometimes odd facts about the Civil War, from famous horses to Lincoln’s Thanksgiving proclamation. D and R, Teacher Preview.
- Make your own haversack.
- Make your own top hat: click here and here
- Civil War photographs
- Weapons during the Civil War
- Battles of the Civil War
- The Gettysburg Address
- The Emancipation Proclamation
- Hear and learn songs of the Civil War.
- Battle Hymn of the Republic
- Civil War Quizzes: click here and here
Week 24: Closing Years of the Civil War
- Excellent site for Transcontinental & Pacific Rail – check out loads of great pictures & info! Find how close it came to your town, by looking through Railroad timeline too! See the famous painting “The Last Spike”.
- Lots of historic locomotive pictures!
- Facts about President’s Day
- For your mural: Information on Abraham Lincoln.
- Quotes by Abraham Lincoln
- Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address
- Reconstruction and its aftermath, including emancipation.
- George Pullman: his cars, his town, and the Pullman Strike.
- P. T. Barnum: Visit the Barnum Museum for a field trip if you live near Bridgeport, CT.
- Make your own wanted posters.
Week 25: Andrew Johnson vs. Radical Reconstruction
- Highly recommended Kid’s Cowboy site with many activities.
- VERY wonderful site on Native American games. It’s interactive: try online versions of many games played by tribes throughout the US. Shuttlecock was a Northwestern Indians game: start there!
- Learn to lasso! Try your hand at this harder-than-it-looks-skill.
- The Plains Indians and their dependence on buffalo. This site encompasses art and history. A Native American artist created this tapestry and kids are encouraged to think constructively in order to understand its meaning. Explanations and online matching activity are provided.
- Comanche legends (including one on how the buffalo got scattered on the earth). Parents, please preview.
- The Nez Perce tribe
- The Shoshone-Bannock tribe.
- The Transcontinental Railroad
- Make a locomotive.
Week 26: Ulysses Grant & the Plains Indians Wars
- Edison’s original bulb! Cool pic! What else did Edison invent?
- PBS site on Edison’s Phonograph: listen to original Edison recordings.
- Do you like to sketch your own ideas for inventions? Check out Alexander Graham Bell’s sketches!
- Any amateur inventors out there? Check out these great interactive sites: Invent Now and The US Patent & Trademark office’s Kids Page, full of games and fun.
- Surf through the very addictive site HowStuffWorks.com. Find out how all sorts of toys, computers, and engines work. Be sure to check out telephones and light bulbs!
- Light bulb history.
Week 27: Technological Progress & the Unification of Germany
- Make a tin can Telephone.
- Make a Pinhole camera: a great detailed project.
- George Eastman, the man who made Kodak.
- Alexander Graham Bell
- The Great Chicago Fire
Unit 4 – The Gilded Age
Week 28: Introducing Africa and Reforming Empires
- African Voices, a Smithsonian website. Parents, please preview or guide your student through this site.
- Explore the Wonders of Africa – kingdoms, architecture, and people groups. Parents, please guide through this PBS site, too.
- Make a Lion Mask out of a paper plate.
- African Animal Paper bag puppets: Lion and Zebra
- Make an African mask or shield.
- Write a letter to a missionary. This is a great site with good resources
- Renoir’s The Ball at the Moulin de la galette
- Impressionist Art
Week 29: The Scramble for Empire
- Make a styrofoam cup drum.
- Hand Dye cloth: Batik style
- Make an African drum out of things around the house
- Make tie-dyed T-shirts.
- Biography and works of Edgar Degas
- Anton Bruckner: An Introduction and sound clips
Week 30: Imperialism and Culture
- Ellis Island virtual tour
- Wonderful online handbook of the Statue of Liberty. Click on “contents” on the left sidebar to get started!
- Make a paper Statue of Liberty.
- Languages of South Africa
- Great Monet site. Go to “Click Here For More” to get to a great visual catalogue of his work!
- Biography of Claude Monet
- Biography of Camille Saint-Saens
Week 31: Waves of Immigrants
- Ellis Island virtual tour
- Wonderful online handbook of the Statue of Liberty. Click on “contents” on the left sidebar to get started!
- Make a paper Statue of Liberty.
- Monet Gallery: life and works of Monet
- Biography of Claude Monet
- Biography of Camille Saint-Saens
Week 32: Captains of Industry
- Oklahoma land rush
- Rags to Riches: Andrew Carnegie.
- Biography of Andrew Carnegie.
- The History of the game Monopoly.
- Find the origin of your Surname.
- Biography and work of Mary Cassatt
- Anton Dvorak: biography for kids
Week 33: Labor Issues and the New South
- Rags to Riches: Andrew Carnegie.
- Biography of Andrew Carnegie.
- The Life of Paul Cezanne.
Week 34: Farmers, Populists, Gold Strikes and Gold Standards
- Life in the late 1800’s
- Virtual Museum of Booker T. Washington
- Biography of Booker T. Washington
- The history of Sear, Roebuck and Co.
- Sears, Roebuck and Co. Catalog
- Look at a vintage catalog from Sears, Roebuck and Co.
- Ellis Island Passenger Search: See if you can trace your ancestry.
Week 35: Powerful Men and Inspiring Women
- Helen Keller kids museum
- Sign language for Kids
- Marie Curie
- Biography of Georges Seurat
- Gabriel Faure: Biography and works
Week 36: The Balkan Problem & American Imperialism