I taught for 33 years and I have my MST in the teaching of Social Studies. In 1988, I was awarded the Elementary Social Studies Classroom Teacher of the Year Award from both the New York State Council for the Social Studies and the National Council for the Social Studies. My shop contains mostly social studies materials including web quests, and reader's theater scripts on famous people in history, science and literature.
I taught for 33 years and I have my MST in the teaching of Social Studies. In 1988, I was awarded the Elementary Social Studies Classroom Teacher of the Year Award from both the New York State Council for the Social Studies and the National Council for the Social Studies. My shop contains mostly social studies materials including web quests, and reader's theater scripts on famous people in history, science and literature.
Wish to to practice oral reading fluency in Language Arts and want a biographical reader’s theater play?Try this fun and information play on Amelia Earhart based on the To Tell the Truth Game Show. Comprehension/discussion questions/ extension activities and links,too.
Learn about Michelangelo, one of the world’s greatest sculptor and painter, with this reader’s theater script! Included are 7 questioners, comprehension questions, a Did You Know? section, a teachers page with extension activities, links and the key.Great addition to a unit on the Renaissance,art history or for a Friday biography day! Ms. Bie Ografee’s Talk Show Series.Audience Questioners ask questions of Michelangelo.
Did you know that Michelangelo was hired to build a BIG snowman for the Medici family?
Are you a bibliophile(someone that loves books)?The Library of Congress, called our Nation’s Library has over 33 million books. There are also over 12.5 million photographs and 6 million pieces of sheet music! Learn more about the Nation’s Library with this fun and informative webquest.
Use these resource to share with kids that history is all around us. I start the year with Why Study History? These resources would be a great beginning of the year or end of the year activity. An activity I used to to with my students had the students writing a paragraph on their favorite childhood toy. What was it? Why was it important to you? What did it look like? What happened to it. This got the discussion started that even THEY have a personal history. I shared my Pinkie, a stuffed dog, that was my very favorite childhood toy( which I still have).
This resource includes seven famous writers in history.
Includes:
William Shakespeare: A Reader’s Theater Script
Charles Dickens: A Reader’s Theater Script
Hans Christian Andersen: A Reader’s Theater Script
Edgar Allan Poe: A Reader’s Theater Script
Louisa May Alcott: A Reader’s Theater Script
Sojourner Truth: A Reading Passage
Phillis Wheatley: A Reading Passage
Enheduanna, First Known Poet in History: A Reading Passage
Each resource is also available as an individual purchase.
Gail Hennessey
Covering the Ancient Greeks? This unit on Ancient Greece includes notes, lots of activities and resources I used with my students. Did you know that the ancient Greeks played with a yo-yo about 3000 years ago or that in the city of Athens, ancient Greeks sold snow cones that were mixed with honey and fruit?Check out my Let’s Explore the Ancient Greeks:
COUNTRIES IN FOCUS:
A BUNDLE OF RESOURCES ON COUNTRIES OF THE WORLDWEBQUESTS
RUSSIA
SWITZERLAND
CHINA
ICELAND
GREECE
ITALY
INDIA
BRAZIL
AUSTRALIA
IRELAND
Introduce young people to these 10 countries of the world with these different webquest. Additionally extension activities, links and the key are included. Use as part of a unit of study or as a Friday activity to foster world geography.
Benjamin Franklin’s birthday is January 17, 1706. A “founding father” of our country, Franklin was also a writer, inventor, statesman, post master and librarian! He once said, “An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.” Learn about Franklin with this fun/informative ten question web quest. There ares Fun Facts and lots of extension activities. There is also a Test Your Knowledge Quiz on Ben Franklin.
Use Our American Flag webquest of 12 informative questions to learn about Flag Day,Fourth of July and flag history. In addition to the webquest there are 7 extension activities.I always try to include a multi-curricular idea such as writing in the content area with my activities. There are also 16 fun facts about the American flag, flags of the world and the Fourth of July. After students in small groups complete the webquest activity, discuss the information learned as a class. Students can also create a short comprehension review of 5-7 questions to exchange with another group to answer. Grades 4 and up.
Use on Flag Day or any day you have an opportunity to discuss the American Flag with your students!
Use this reading passage(and extension activities) to learn about the Santa Fe Trail and specifically Wind Wagon Thomas. As people were beginning to travel west by covered wagon along the plains of the Santa Fe Trail, William Thomas, had a most unusual idea. The average trip along the Santa Fe Trail took about eight weeks! He envisioned prairie schooners with sails that could move across the plains on wind-power much faster than wagons hitched to horses.
The resource includes a map activity, a Did You Know fun facts about the Santa Fe Trail and several discussion questions. The Teacher page has several extension activities and the keys.
American Revolution/ Revolutionary War: Studying the 13 Colonies/Colonial Times? This resource would work great for such a unit of study. Part of my Ms. Bie Ografee’s Reader’s Theater Scripts, I really had fun developing this play about the Culper Spy Ring and specifically, Agent 355, one of the female member of the organization!
During the Revolutionary War, the Culper Spy Ring was organized to work to defeat the British. Agent 355 and other members of the spy organization were very important in the colonists being victorious in the War for Independence from England. Although Agent 355’s real name remains a mystery, she was one of the women spies who showed that patriotism has no gender! Secret codes, invisible ink, LAUNDRY used to communicate messages, what spies did during the Revolutionary war, lots of information is weaved into Agent 355 being a guest on Ms. Bie Ografee’s Talk Show with the studio audience asking her questions.
Great for study on the Revolutionary War, during Women’s History Month or any time you are looking for a fun/informative play to use with your students!
Lots of extension activities, links, a Did You Know Fact section, comprehension questions and the key are also included.
George Washington asked for the spy ring to be organized and interestingly, it’s secret group was only discovered in the 1930s, about 140 years after the American Revolutionary War by historians reviewing some of George Washington’s private papers.
During the American Revolution, Tories supported the British in the war. Loyalists, the King’s Friends and Royalists were other names for those that took sides with the British. Students will learn about what it was like to be a Tory during the American Revolutionary War. Joshua Crabtree(fictitious character) is a guest on Ms. Bie Ografee’s Talk Show. The format of the Reader’s Theater Script is that a studio audience asks questions of Ms. Bie Ografee’s guest to learn what it was like to support the British and not the Patriots during the American Revolution.
There are 10 questioners, A Did You Know? section, comprehension questions and a Teacher Page with extension activities and the key. American Revolutionary War: A Visit with a Tory!
The Revolutionary War and the Birth of Our Nation:
A Bundle of Resources!
Includes:
Reader’s Theater Script: Revolutionary War Spies! A Visit with a Female Agent Reader’s Theater Script:
A Visit with Joshua Crabtree, a Tory! Reader’s Theater Script:
James Madison, “Father of the Constitution”. Reader’s Theater Script:
A Visit with Thomas Jefferson
5.Reading Passage Activity: Phillis Wheatley
Benjamin Franklin: A Webquest
Reader’s Theater Script: Dolly Madison
Reader’s Theater Scripts Include:
World War 2 Female Pilots(Members of WASP)
Revolutionary War Female Spies!
Civil War Female Soldiers
S.B. Anthony
Elizabeth Blackwell
Eleanor Roosevelt(“First Lady of the World”)
Amelia Earhart
Bessie Coleman
Sacagawea
Katherine Johnson
Learn some fun facts about King Tut with this freebie. The day, November 4th, was selected as that is the day the tomb of King Tut was discovered.
Great for a Friday or during a unit of study on ancient Egypt.
What is this event in the USA called an “Inauguration”? Taking the oath of office, a big parade and evening balls, Inauguration Day is a very busy day for the incoming President! There are 11 web questions, a Did You Know? section, comprehension questions and extension activities.
This resource would be a great activity for around Inauguration Day to learn all about the history and festivities surrounding our country’s inauguration procedures. It could be used as a Friday activity or when you are studying US Government and for Presidents’ Weekend. UPDATED for 2025.
My bundle for the 2016 Presidential Election includes:
1. Presidential Challenges:What do You Know about the Presidents?
2. Presidential Webquest/Extension Activities
3. White House Webquest/Extension Activities
4. Election 2016: Webquest/Extension Activities