Student Activities

36 Result(s)
Grade Range
K-5
The Namesake by Willa Cather

Adapted from the What So Proudly We Hail curriculum, provides background materials and discussion questions to enhance your reading and understanding of Willa Cather’s short story “The Namesake.”

Grade Range
6-8
Mission US: For Crown or Colony? The Game

Mission US (Mission 1: Crown or Colony?) is an interactive adventure game designed to improve the understanding of American history by students in grades 5 through 8. The first game in a planned series, Mission 1: “For Crown or Colony?” explores the reasons for Revolution through the eyes of both Loyalists and Patriots in 1770 Boston.  This website provides information and materials to support the use of Mission 1 in your classroom, including assessment rubrics.

Grade Range
9-12
Southern Approaches to Europe

Southern Approaches to Europe walks students through Allied campaigns in North Africa and the Mediterranean during World War II.

Grade Range
6-12
Analyzing Photographs from Across A Changing Nation

Students engage with materials developed as part of a partnership between the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the National Endowment for the Humanities to analyze the photographs captured during the original survey projects of the 1970s and create their own interpretations of places near and far to them.

Grade Range
K-5
Flowers from Emily

Emily Dickinson, now widely recognized (alongside Walt Whitman) as among the first American poetic voices, published only a handful of poems in her lifetime. In fact, much of Dickinson’s reclusive life remains an enigma to scholars, who piece together what they know from her poems and letters. In the following, you will learn about Dickinson’s life, her poetry, and the influence of gardening on both.

Grade Range
6-8
Having Fun: The Economics of Leisure

By 1900, there were more than 29 million people in the American workforce including men, women, and children. Americans worked an average of 59 hours per week and usually received Saturday afternoons and Sundays off. Many companies provided unpaid leave to their employees. How do you think Americans might have spent their leisure time a century ago? 

Grade Range
6-12
The Social Security Act

Review the Great Depression time line and the section entitled “The Stock Market Crash and The Great Depression” on The Historical Background and Development of Social Security page, and answer the questions below.

Grade Range
K-5
Magna Carta

Read the brief description of Magna Carta from the British Library below. An annotated translation is provided and will be useful in identifying issues listed in the chart below. Focus on the sections that include annotations.