Free Weekly Lesson Guides for Ancient & American History

You have a lot on your plate each week as a teacher. You are balancing a mountain of work and finding time to create engaging lesson plans each week is a challenge - even when you love that part of your job! Between preparing activities, researching videos and resources, and ensuring your lessons align with educational standards...it can get overwhelming. But what if you could receive a comprehensive lesson guide each week, packed with exciting activities, resources, websites, video links and more - all completely free? 

As a fellow Social Studies teacher, I'm excited to share weekly lesson guides for American History and Ancient History delivered right to your inbox each week. These guides are completely free and designed to make your job easier and engage your students as you bring history to life in your classroom! Whether you're teaching about ancient civilizations or American history, these guides will help you save time and create fun learning experiences for your students.

What's Included in the Weekly Lesson Guides?

• Lesson Ideas: Find ideas and plans for engaging and interactive social studies lessons including bell ringer ideas, discussion questions, activity ideas and exit ticket prompts.

• Student-Centered Activities: Each week includes relevant resources to engage your students in the study of history. Depending on the week's topic, you may find links to interactive notebooks, graphic organizers, skits, informational text, document analysis, projects and so much more!

• Website Links: I love finding student-friendly websites! Throughout the weeks, you'll find curated links to educational websites and online resources to enrich your lessons.

• Video Links: Find recommendations to relevant YouTube videos to supplement your social studies lessons and bring topics to life in new ways!

Why Should You Sign Up for the Free Lesson Guides?

• You'll Save Time: Lighten your load! These weekly lesson guides are designed to give you back valuable time in your week. Just open your weekly email and find a treasure trove of activities, links and videos to give your lesson planning a head start.

• Engage Your Students: Keep your students excited about history with lessons that are designed to be both educational and fun. From class discussion and debate ideas to skits, projects and other interactive activities, you'll never know what you'll discover each week!

• Access to a Digital Library of Lesson Guides: You'll always have access to lesson guides from past weeks. No matter where you are in your curriculum this year, you can look back and discover valuable lesson ideas that have been added to the Digital Library!

How to Sign Up for Free Weekly Lesson Guides

Ready to get started? Signing up is easy and completely free! Choose which lesson guide you want (you can totally choose both!) and enter your name and email address below to start receiving the weekly lesson guides!

Free Weekly Lesson Guides

Subscribe to find lesson guides in your inbox each week!

American History

Ancient History

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A Classroom Favorite: Historical Thinking Skills Web Quest

I love creating engaging activities for students which bring history to life in my classroom. Before my middle school social studies classes dive into the study of history in depth, we always start off the year with a unit about historical thinking. Students learn about the differences between primary and secondary sources and how to analyze historical documents. These basic skills will be a significant part of our units of study throughout the year, so it's an important topic to teach at the start of the school year!

One of the activities I love to use with my students is a Historical Thinking Web Quest (click the link!) which you can download for FREE! 

What is a web quest? A web quest is a digital scavenger hunt. Students use multiple types of sources on the internet to discover answers to questions. It's a great way to introduce new concepts or review previously learned material.

In the Historical Thinking Skills Web Quest, students will visit two websites and watch a YouTube video to learn about the differences between primary and secondary sources, understand how to analyze historical documents and even practice their skills by analyzing a famous painting from American history! There's also a Check Your Knowledge section at the end that prompts students to review their new knowledge of historical thinking skills.

Oh...AND the free download includes a printable PDF and a link to a Google Slides version as well for all my techy teachers. :)

I absolutely love working alongside amazing Social Studies teachers like you and I can't wait for you to try this web quest in your own classroom! 

Happy Teaching!

3 Activities for Middle School Students After Spring Break

 

Ah, glorious Spring Break. It's a much needed break from the rigors of school, both for teachers and students, and gives us a taste of the freedom of summer vacation on the horizon. There's just one catch - reengaging students  in the learning process when they return from the break can be a daunting task! You could always jump right back into regular content, but you may find that students have a hard time focusing after a week away. Here are 3 easy ideas to use in the your classroom when you return from Spring Break that helps students refocus on the school year ahead:

Idea #1: Play a Review Game. This is a personal favorite because it's easy and helps students refocus themselves on the content they recently learned in class. You can easily make review games using websites like Blooket and Kahoot or host a trivia game in your classroom filled with information they learned before Spring Break. My students love trivia games and there's a free trivia game template in my TPT store which you can customize for your own students!

Idea #2: Set SMART Goals. The last quarter of the year always seems to fly by! Set aside time to help students evaluate and reflect on their progress so far this year and establish new goals for the last few weeks of the school year. Students can keep their SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound) goals in their binder or folder for easy access so they can see them frequently throughout the last quarter of the school year!

Idea #3: Host a Debate. If you teach middle school students, you'll know that they LOVE to debate anyone...anytime. Harness that passion for debate and discussion into a meaningful activity that will awaken students' minds and excite them for the last quarter of the school year. Your debate topic can be centered around recent content you've taught in class or be more general. Here are some debate topics to consider:

1. Is homework beneficial to students?

2. Should students be required to wear uniforms?

3. Should students be allowed to use cell phones in school?

4. Should the voting age be lowered to 16?

5. Is year-round school beneficial for students?

Which idea do you like the best? Whatever you choose to do, I know you've got this, my friend! 

Free Introduction to Social Studies Mini Unit

One full week of lesson plans and activities just for you. Save valuable time, engage your students and bring history to life in your classroom!

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The Benefits of Using a Word Wall in the Middle School Classroom

The Benefits of Using a Word Wall in the Middle School Classroom

Do you use a word wall in your classroom? A word wall is a wall (or bulletin board) where frequently used words are posted for students to see. In my middle school Social Studies classroom, my word wall is filled with vocabulary words from our current unit. The more students see and interact with the vocabulary words, the more comfortable they will be when using them in group discussions, in writing activities, when making new connections between concepts and more!

What Does a Word Wall Look Like in the Classroom?

A word wall is placed in a location where students can easily see it during class. I have a specific location in my classroom where my word wall stays all year. The words on the wall change with each unit, but the location remains the same. When teaching or reinforcing vocabulary words during a unit, you can point to the words and easily refer to them frequently throughout the year. Students also know exactly where to look to review words and definitions! Your word wall can include vocabulary words or vocabulary words and their definitions. I also love to include pictures alongside the words so that students can see the word, definition and a symbol or picture that represents the word at the same time. 

How Can I Make a Word Wall?

Making a word wall is easy! You can type the words (or words and their definitions) on the computer and print them out. You can also use index cards and write one word on each index card. If you're looking for ways to save time, I've created word walls for each Ancient History and American History unit in my TPT store! (Click here to check them out) Just print and post them on your wall and you're ready to go. You can even laminate them and save them for future years!

How Can I Use a Word Wall?

It's important to use your word wall frequently throughout the year. Point to the words when you use them in the unit and encourage students to reference the word wall during class activities and discussions. The vocabulary activities in my TPT store directly correspond to the word walls so that students are consistently engaging with the words in dedicated vocabulary activities and within the instructional activities for the unit as well. It's fun to involve students in creating the word wall, too! When a new word is introduced, allow a student to place it on the word wall. The more they interact with it, the more confident they will be in using the vocabulary during class.

A Bonus for You!

If you're on the fence about using word walls in class, I invite you to try one for free! Fill out the form below and I'll send the Introduction to Social Studies Word Wall directly to your inbox. It is a great resource to use at the beginning of the year when you are introducing foundational topics or to keep up all year long for students to see! After all, they're probably frequently using words like point of view, bias, primary source, secondary source, timeline, chronology and more all throughout the year. Fill out the form and print and post your word wall in the classroom today!

Get started with word walls today!

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