It was cold, snowy night: March 5, 1770. The colonists in Boston were riled up over what they felt were unjust laws and taxes. Soldiers stationed in the city were on edge, anxious about the behavior of the colonists. A fight broke out between Captain Preston’s regiment and the locals. Shots were fired. Five people lay dead. The events of that fateful evening quickly came to be known as The Boston Massacre. This “Massacre” further deepened the divide between England and the American Colonies, leading to the Revolutionary War in just five short years. Did Captain Preston order those shots to be fired on innocent civilians? Was this a premeditated attempt to enact revenge on the colonists? Or was he just a victim of circumstances beyond his control? Are the colonists the guilty ones? YOU DECIDE. This is a primary source analysis activity complete with student packet, teacher packet/key, and presentation. Optional activities are also included to extend and deepen understanding. Like my other primary source activities, you will get a helpful student packet with difficult words defined, graphic organizers, and (most importantly) engaging and accessible texts. You will also receive an awesome teacher packet to help you jump right in with minimal prep. It includes helpful tips, ideas, and supplemental material as well as a fun “British Debate” activity. You will ALSO receive a presentation to help teach students HOW to analyze primary sources using a fun text message example. This presentation includes everything you need to go over the first few primary sources together as a class with lots of notes, markings, tips, and ideas to help guide the students through this process. It also includes the supplemental materials mentioned in the teacher packet. This primary source analysis includes 12 sources, which is more than my other activity packets. However, several of the sources are short testimonies from the actual trial of Captain Preston. It is still very manageable for students and easily adaptable to many different class scenarios. In order to complete the entire activity without adaptation, you should allow for two 45 minute class periods. It can be modified for one class or extended to last up to a week if all the supplemental materials are used. Check out the reviews on my very popular “Christopher Columbus: Hero or Villain” in order to hear from other teachers how these primary source analysis activities work in the classroom!

The perfect project for those two days before Thanksgiving! Keep your students learning and engaged! Your students will analyze a letter written by Pilgrim Edward Winslow, one of the few accounts that actually mentions the first Thanksgiving. The letter talks about the First Thanksgiving and goes into more detail about their harvest and what they ate that first year. (I have edited this primary source for clarity and have taken out parts that weren’t necessary for this assignment.) After analyzing the letter, your students will use the provided template to create a restaurant menu from the first Thanksgiving! I have included a presentation to help you introduce the assignment. It includes a description, sample menus, and a suggested rubric. This assignment is easily adaptable to a variety of ages. It is made for a U.S. History class, but would also be fun in a home living/cooking class! If this is your first experience teaching primary sources, this is a great one to start with! This assignment also works well in homeschool situations. Feel free to jump in and try out a few of the dishes your students come up with!

Did you know that Tisquantum literally means “Wrath of God?” Doesn’t quite sound like the do-gooder Native American we have come to love and revere throughout history, does it? What if there’s another side to Squanto? One we gloss over in history books and Thanksgiving day pageants? This primary source analysis will not only help your students analyze, evaluate, compare, and think critically about ten different sources regarding our beloved Squanto; it will also help them realize that every “character” they learn about history is a complex individual with multiple motivations and outlooks. This set includes ten carefully selected and edited sources, tailored with the teenager in mind. They are assembled in an easy to navigate packet with graphic organizers and helpful tips. It also includes a teacher’s packet with tips and ideas for you. I know time is a precious commodity, so I created this with the idea that you would be able to jump right in with minimal preparation. There is also a helpful PowerPoint presentation that guides you as you teach your students HOW to analyze primary sources and then walk through the first few sources with them, pointing out important facts and phrases along with helpful blurbs and tips for the teacher. I want you to be successful. If you have purchased my popular “Christopher Columbus: Hero or Villain?” or “Aztec Primary Source Analysis,” this set will build on the skills your students have already begun to learn. It is formatted and organized the same way. Good luck and happy teaching! I hope you enjoy the lively debates that follow as you help your students engage with history, instead of just reading about it.

An engaging PowerPoint to use for warmups around the different holidays during fall semester. Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas each have two warmup options. Veterans Day includes an activity that is easy to expand into two warmups if desired. The warmups include a variety of activities and are filled with interesting facts such as: the worlds largest giant pumpkin (over 2,600 lbs), inscriptions on famous tombstones, how many presidents were veterans, what really happened that first Thanksgiving, the many things Batman and Santa Claus have in common, and what Hitler had to say about the Christmas Truce of 1914. Flexible and easy to adjust for time! 18 total slides plus two optional handouts to make your life easier. Grab Part 1 in time for the holidays this year and check back soon for part two!

A presentation to teach students HOW to use a textbook and a class poster to remind them. When I was teaching, I found a lot of students were completely unfamiliar with HOW to read nonfiction, informational texts, and textbooks. This is a necessary life skill and one worth teaching in EVERY classroom. 85% of what we read as adults in nonfiction, not to mention the fact that if our students going to make it through middle school, high school, and college a few tips about how to conquer those daunting texts are be more than necessary. In this engaging presentation filled with examples and tips, students can find out just how to conquer these texts and make textbooks work for them. This also includes a fun assignment with a rubric that has students making their own "textbooks" all about their favorite subject.... their lives ;) (I've also include the External Text Features Scavenger Hunt just for your convenience. This is one of the free resources in my shop)

Have students create classroom visual aids to help each other tell those tricky words apart. Includes a presentation with instructions and examples, a list of words you could choose from, and a quiz with a key.

Touches on the following topics: atlatl, Dominguez & Escalante, Wicki-ups, Hogans, Anasazi, Fremont, Utes, Navajo, Shoshone, Goshute, Paiute, Utah Native American culture, Jim Bridger, and Jedediah Smith Defines the following terms: Adapt, Primary sources, Migration, Petroglyphs, Cache, and Rendezvous Easy to edit to fit your needs!

Covers the following topics: 5 themes of geography, relative and absolute location, map features (key, compass, scale), human environment interaction, latitude and longitude, Prime Meridian and Equator, rain shadow effect, Utah's bordering states, Utah's land regions, Utah rivers, Utah mountain ranges, and Utah lakes. It is easy to edit if you'd like to change questions and answers to better fit what you covered in class.

Help students understand what life was like for those in a polygamous family in Utah in the 1800s. Primary sources can help students grasp difficult and foreign topics (such as polygamy) far better than basic facts and figures. Have students explore the different perspectives from those involved as well as read actual facts about Utah Polygamy in the 19th century. Includes 12 quotes and 12 facts, a short presentation explaining the assignment, and a handout for students to record their findings.

Everything you need for a unit on modern Utah! Will take students from the 1950s to Utah issues today. Includes a packet with vocab, projects, guided notes, etc. Also included is a PowerPoint presentation and links in the packet to Prezi presentations. Includes quizzes, a study guide, and a unit test as well. The presentation and notes on "Cultural Diversity in Utah" and the "Give Back to Your Community Service Learning Project" from my store are also included.

Have students correct these real life examples of grammar mistakes! Includes ten examples for correcting. Also includes a worksheet with a key for additional grammar practice if needed.

This is a fun and engaging final activity that the students work towards throughout a literary unit on Agatha Christie's novel, "And Then There Were None." This set includes a handout for the students, a rubric, and an explanation page for the teacher. Get ready for an exciting day filled with classroom discussion and accusations as students literally get in character and try to figure out "who done it!"

This powerpoint and guided notes could be used during the final unit in Utah Studies where students learn about the diversity of Utah today including new immigration, refugees, festivals, issues, etc. The powerpoint includes an introductory activity, notes, and an analysis of cultural diffusion at the end which could easily turn into a class discussion. It also includes links for the teacher to relevant news articles and a place online where you could have the students take a sample citizenship test to see how they would do!

A creative idea for an open project that gets kids thinking and giving back. Great to use during a unit on civics and government. I had great success with this project in my classroom. It is best to not use it at the beginning of the year. This is a handout that includes a description of the project, ideas, a simple rubric, and a place for students to write their proposals and for you, the teacher, to approve of before they begin.

This set includes resources on the Columbian Exchange and a project for researching explorers called Pokexplorers: Gotta Explore it All! It also includes the completed student packet. The entire Exploration Unit can be purchased as a bundle for $15.

Have your students create “Pokexplorer” cards based off the popular card game and battle each other! Includes a presentation with detailed explanations, blank cards, sample cards, and energy cards. This is a fun way for students to present basic information about an explorer and learn about other explorers when they play. It involves more critical thinking than a basic poster. An in depth understanding of the explorer is required in order to create attacks and powers that “fit in” with who each explorer was and the impact (positive or negative) he had on the area he explored. This project is easily adaptable and the presentation includes a link if the teacher would prefer students to use computers to create their cards instead of designing them by hand.