TEACH THANKSGIVING WITH HUMOR USING CRASH COURSE! Few classroom strategies are as successful as this simple approach: make learning fun! That, or course, is easier said than done, but when it comes to teaching the history behind our modern Thanksgiving holiday, the YouTube series Crash Course U.S. History is a great place to start since it devotes an entire episode just to Thanksgiving! The Thanksgiving episode of Crash Course contains about 12 minutes of content and is available to stream for free at the following link: Timestamps or No Timestamps? This packet will provide you with three resources to help you use the Thanksgiving episode with your classes: • A student worksheet without timestamps • A student worksheet with timestamps showing at which point in the video the needed information is presented • A full context answer key. This contains the student questions, the answer (sometimes annotated with additional information), and the timestamps for each question. About These Thanksgiving Video Worksheets For the Thanksgiving episode, the worksheet contains 24 True/False problems for them to solve as student watch. All questions are presented in video order so that students can easily follow along, but these worksheets are not mere outlines that merely ask students to generate their own notes. Instead, they focus in on certain key issues that students watching the videos should master in order to have a clear and concise understanding of the topic under study. Ideas for Using this Crash Course Thanksgiving Worksheet Only a teacher knows what constitutes best use for a particular class, but I always find it helpful to see what creative approaches other teachers are using. Here are some good options for these worksheets. • Standard use: Print off copies and have students complete them as they watch the video. Or send the copies electronically so students can complete them on tablet/laptop devices, if that is an option in your setting. Go over answers out loud if time permits (great for discussing/debriefing the video content) or collect papers to grade them more formally. • Accommodate students who claim that the worksheets "go too fast:" Assign students to do only the evens or only the odds. After watching the video, pair students up to discuss and fill in missing answers. • Create basic and advanced levels from the same worksheet: This is easily done by declaring that the "basic" level is odds-only (or evens-only) while the "advanced" level consists of all the questions.

_______________________________________________________________ What Buyers Are Saying: • This was a great Halloween activity for my social studies classes! • Love the resource! Thanks • Excellent Resource! _______________________________________________________________ Make your October academics spooktacular this year by using these Real Story of Halloween worksheets -- teaching students this history behind many of our beloved and familiar Halloween traditions! This resource provides 50 multiple choice questions designed for use with the History Channel documentary, "The Real Story of Halloween." Students will enjoy the film while you'll have a way to track how much they are getting from it. Plus, with these worksheets, students will be motivated to stay on task! ABOUT THIS FUN HALLOWEEN VIDEO This documentary, appropriate for students in both middle school and high school, usually airs on the History Channel each October. It can often also be found on a variety of video streaming sites. The best way to find it online is to run a simple Google Search. The program lasts about 42 minutes, making it a great fit into a one-period class. ---MAKE CLASS FUN USING THESE REAL STORY OF HALLOWEEN WORKSHEETS--- "The Real Story of Halloween" is a fascinating look into the historical roots of our current-day American Halloween customs. The video asks, and then answers, a variety of interesting and fun questions such as: • Why do we wear masks and costumes on Halloween? • Why is it customary to hand out treats on that night? • Where did the tradition of going door to door start? Along the way, a number of historical eras, peoples, and events are discussed, including: • The ancient Celts • The ancient Romans • Europeans during the early and late Middle Ages • The "Gunpowder Plot" / Guy Fawkes Day in England • Colonial America • The Great Depression in America • The Post-War Boom and 1960s America • The Current Day My personal opinion is that most history teachers would probably enjoy watching this video even if they had no plans to use it in class -- it's simply that fun of a ride. Using it with students, of course, is even better. As long as my world history classes are where they should be each October 31, I like to take a day out of the regular curriculum and use this video. They enjoy it a lot, particularly because it is both fast-paced and fascinating -- but they also learn a great deal about the various periods in history that contributed to our modern conception of how to celebrate Halloween.

Searching for great resources to help students understand the Cold War Space Race and what a huge challenge it was to make it all the way to the moon in just a decade? Look no further than this From the Earth to the Moon worksheet covering a key episode from the acclaimed HBO series! The series has 12 episodes, but finding time to show them all would be nearly impossible in a class setting. For that reason, I've broken out my worksheet set on the series into individual episodes so you can buy only what you need. ABOUT THIS EPISODE 4 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON WORKSHEET "1968" is a really useful episode for history classes because it integrates key events of this pivotal year with the historic mission of Apollo 8, which went all the way to the moon, orbited it, and returned safely to earth. This mission was critical for getting ready for the moon landing that would occur the next year, but the nation had a lot more on its mind that fulfilling Kennedy's goal for reaching the moon. EPISODE 4 SUMMARY: "Depicts Apollo 8's historic first manned lunar flight, as the redemption of an otherwise strife-torn year filled with political assassinations, war, and unrest. Documentary footage of the turbulent political events are interspersed with the drama, which is mostly filmed in black and white except for scenes aboard the spacecraft and some color newsreel footage. The fears of mission commander Frank Borman's wife Susan of the possibility of her husband dying in a spacecraft trapped in lunar orbit are highlighted." HOLD STUDENTS ACCOUNTABLE FOR THEIR VIEWING This worksheet provides students with 32 questions to answer and includes both true/false and multiple choice items. Since the question types are not mixed together, teachers who want some flexibility can use the true/false during viewing and the multiple choice afterwards as a discussion springboard or a quiz (or vice-versa). To assist the teacher, an annotated answer key is provided. This answer key consists of not just answers, but also helpful commentary and additional information that will help to enrich review and discussion of the episode and the Apollo program. Video Questions by Elise Parker

Searching for great resources to help students understand the Cold War Space Race and what a huge challenge it was to make it all the way to the moon in just a decade? Look no further than this From the Earth to the Moon worksheet covering a key episode from the acclaimed HBO series! The series has 12 episodes, but finding time to show them all would be nearly impossible in a class setting. For that reason, I've broken out my worksheet set on the series into individual episodes so you can buy only what you need. ABOUT THIS EPISODE 5 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON WORKSHEET "Spider" dives really deep into the technology challenges faced by the engineers responsible for building the equipment astronauts relied on to accomplish their missions. In this episode, engineers have to figure out how to make a lunar lander that can get by on very little fuel. This means making it very lightweight -- but how do you guarantee the astronaut's safety when you are thinning down their vehicle in every way you can? "Spider" also does a great job of illustrating for students just how *many* people worked on the Apollo missions. Most people tend to think no further than the astronauts and perhaps mission control, but there were hundreds of thousands of support personnel, without whom the moon landings would never have happened. The moon program really was a nationwide effort. After seeing "Spider," students will understand and appreciate that a lot more. EPISODE 5 SUMMARY: "Returns to 1961, and NASA engineer John Houbolt's lonely fight to convince management that the easiest way to land men on the Moon will be to use a separate landing craft. It then traces the design and development of the Lunar Module by a team led by Grumman engineer Tom Kelly. Covers the selection and training of the first crew to fly it, Jim McDivitt and Rusty Schweickart (along with Command Module pilot David Scott), and culminates with their first flight of Spider in Earth orbit on Apollo 9. The Apollo 10 lunar "dress rehearsal" is briefly mentioned." HOLD STUDENTS ACCOUNTABLE FOR THEIR VIEWING This worksheet provides students with 25 questions to answer and includes both true/false and multiple choice items. Since the question types are not mixed together, teachers who want some flexibility can use the true/false during viewing and the multiple choice afterwards as a discussion springboard or a quiz (or vice-versa). To assist the teacher, an annotated answer key is provided. This answer key consists of not just answers, but also helpful commentary and additional information that will help to enrich review and discussion of the episode and the Apollo program. Video Questions by Elise Parker

Searching for great resources to help students understand the Cold War Space Race and what a huge challenge it was to make it all the way to the moon in just a decade? Look no further than this From the Earth to the Moon worksheet covering a key episode from the acclaimed HBO series! The series has 12 episodes, but finding time to show them all would be nearly impossible in a class setting. For that reason, I've broken out my worksheet set on the series into individual episodes so you can buy only what you need. ABOUT THIS EPISODE 6 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON WORKSHEET "Mare Tranquillitatis," or "Sea of Tranquility" portrays the true stand-out moment of the Apollo program -- the first moon landing! For all that, though, the episode is packed with historical detail that gets left out of most history textbooks. We think of the 1969 moon landing as going off without a hitch. In reality, Neil Armstrong was within just a few seconds of calling an abort as he and Buzz Aldrin descended to the surface of the moon. The lunar lander was quite literally almost out of fuel -- running practically on vapors -- when it finally touched down on the lunar surface. This is all true, but it makes for fantastic drama and will keep students on the edge of their seats, even though they'll almost certainly already know that Armstrong is fated to succeed in being the first man on the moon. The episode also shows a surprising event on the lunar surface -- something few Americans realize happened. It makes for a great discussion started on the meaning of the First Amendment and the separation of church and government. Most likely, you'll have student on both sides of the issue and can have a rousing debate about whether Buzz Aldrin should have received permission to perform a religious ceremony while working for the government and representing the nation to the world. EPISODE 6 SUMMARY: "A dramatization of the Apollo 11 first Moon landing in Mare Tranquilitatis ("Sea of Tranquility") is interspersed with flashback sequences of Emmett Seaborn's television interview with the crew of Neil Armstrong, Lunar Module pilot Buzz Aldrin, and Command Module pilot Michael Collins." HOLD STUDENTS ACCOUNTABLE FOR THEIR VIEWING This worksheet provides students with 39 questions to answer and includes both true/false and multiple choice items. Since the question types are not mixed together, teachers who want some flexibility can use the true/false during viewing and the multiple choice afterwards as a discussion springboard or a quiz (or vice-versa). To assist the teacher, a heavily annotated answer key is provided. Video Questions by Elise Parker

Searching for great resources to help students understand the Cold War Space Race and what a huge challenge it was to make it all the way to the moon in just a decade? Look no further than this From the Earth to the Moon worksheet covering a key episode from the acclaimed HBO series! The series has 12 episodes, but finding time to show them all would be nearly impossible in a class setting. For that reason, I've broken out my worksheet set on the series into individual episodes so you can buy only what you need. ABOUT THIS EPISODE 7 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON WORKSHEET History textbooks tend to end the story of the Apollo program in 1969 when Neil Armstrong makes history. This episode is key to showing students that contrary to what they may assume, there were several more lunar missions following that historic first landing. The technological and scientific advances that the later missions yielded helped to make the modern world we still live in today. This episode is filled with quirky humor and is quite possible the most enjoyable one in the series, just because students will have so many reasons to grin and even laugh at the real-life antics and problems faced by the crew of Apollo 12 as they successfully accomplished a second mood landing. EPISODE 7 SUMMARY "The story of the Apollo 12 second lunar landing mission is told by Lunar Module Pilot Alan Bean. Bean, the last member of NASA Astronaut Group 3 to fly in space, narrates his experience with the tightly-knit, all-Navy crew commanded by Gemini veteran Pete Conrad, and accepts with humor and grace his responsibility for the failure of the first color TV camera on the lunar surface, and for almost fracturing his own skull by failing to properly secure the Command Module's TV camera before splashdown." HOLD STUDENTS ACCOUNTABLE FOR THEIR VIEWING This worksheet provides students with 27 questions to answer and includes both true/false and multiple choice items. Since the question types are not mixed together, teachers who want some flexibility can use the true/false during viewing and the multiple choice afterwards as a discussion springboard or a quiz (or vice-versa). A full answer key is included. Video Questions by Elise Parker

Searching for great resources to help students understand the Cold War Space Race and what a huge challenge it was to make it all the way to the moon in just a decade? Look no further than this From the Earth to the Moon worksheet covering a key episode from the acclaimed HBO series! The series has 12 episodes, but finding time to show them all would be nearly impossible in a class setting. For that reason, I've broken out my worksheet set on the series into individual episodes so you can buy only what you need. ABOUT THIS EPISODE 11 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON WORKSHEET "The Original Wives Club" concentrates on the contributions that women made to the Apollo program -- specifically, the difficulties and sacrifices associated with being the wife of an astronaut. EPISODE 11 SUMMARY "Shows the Apollo program from the point of view of the nine wives of NASA's second group of astronauts, from 1962 beyond the end of the program. The burdens placed on them include maintaining a home while presenting a positive image to the news media, shielding their husbands from any family concerns which could affect their position in the flight rotation or ability to return to Earth safely, and comforting each other in the face of tragedy as Elliot See and Ed White are killed. The episode is anchored by the Apollo 16 mission, during which recently married Ken Mattingly loses his wedding ring in the Command Module, and Lunar Module pilot Charles Duke finds it while Mattingly is performing a walk in deep space." HOLD STUDENTS ACCOUNTABLE FOR THEIR VIEWING This worksheet provides students with 12 questions to answer and includes both true/false and multiple choice items. Since the question types are not mixed together, teachers who want some flexibility can use the true/false during viewing and the multiple choice afterwards as a discussion springboard or a quiz (or vice-versa). A full answer key is included. Video Questions by Elise Parker

Are you showing the film version of Evita in your Spanish or history class? These movie tests will provide you with three different ready-made assessments so you can evaluate student learning and help students stay on task as they are watching! Good for both social studies and Spanish classes, since the movie concerns the history and culture of a major South American Spanish-speaking nation. THREE TESTS TO CHOOSE FROM 1) True/False 2) Multiple Choice 3) Essay Prompts There are 50 questions between the first two tests, and eight different essay prompts, making it a snap to differentiate instruction for all levels. IDEAS FOR USING THE TESTS These questions are perfect for assessing how well students paid attention to the movie, certainly, but they can also be used as a springboard to preview important points before viewing or to help the teacher discuss the film with the class afterwards. The tests are all designed to assess understanding after students have seen the entire film. Another way to differentiate instruction is to require students to take notes during the movie for use on the test... or to have students respond to the test questions and/or essay prompts using their memory only.

Do you need a couple of fun ways to get students more thoroughly engaged as you take them through key information about the British Empire during the era of New Imperialism? Look no further than this Queen Victoria's Empire Episode 4 Worksheet set! Designed to go along with a showing of Episode 4 of the PBS series: Queen Victoria's Empire, this teaching guide will help students understand in detail issues of the age including: --Gordon of Khartoum's adventures and death in the Sudan --The slave trade in the Sudan --Prime Minister Gladstone's conviction that the British Empire had grown too large --Cecil Rhodes' use of racist policies to his economic advantage in southern Africa --The competition for diamonds and gold in southern Africa --The Boer War --The death of Queen Victoria and the end of an era This Queen Victoria's Empire teaching packet offers you and your students several different choices: --Fill-in worksheet with 36 problems to help students focus in on the concepts that matter most; all problems presented in video order --Fill-in worksheet as above, but including timestamps as well for teachers who like to offer their students this information --Follow-up crossword puzzle with 19 clues and terms --Answer keys for all activities

Do you need a couple of fun ways to get students more thoroughly engaged as you take them through key information about the British Empire during the era of New Imperialism? Look no further than this Queen Victoria's Empire Episode 3 Worksheet set! Designed to go along with a showing of Episode 3 of the PBS series: Queen Victoria's Empire, this teaching guide will help students understand in detail issues such as the missionary impulse to spread Christianity to Africa, the explorations of famed Dr. Livingstone, the importance of the Suez Canal as a lifeline to India, and the debate raging back in England about imperialism itself, with Benjamin Disraeli and William Gladstone facing off with conservative and liberal views about the imperial enterprise. This Queen Victoria's Empire teaching packet offers you and your students several different choices: --Fill-in worksheet with 39 problems to help students focus in on the concepts that matter most; all problems presented in video order --Fill-in worksheet as above, but including timestamps as well for teachers who like to offer their students this information --Follow-up crossword puzzle with 18 clues and terms --Answer keys for all activities

Do you need a couple of fun ways to get students more thoroughly engaged as you take them through key information about the British Empire during the era of New Imperialism? Look no further than this Queen Victoria's Empire Episode 2 Worksheet set! Designed to go along with a showing of Episode 2 of the PBS series: Queen Victoria's Empire, this teaching guide will help students understand in detail how the British dealt with the most "valuable valuable jewel in the crown," their all-important colony of India. Along the way, students will also become acquainted with the Crimean War and the "missionary spirit" that would characterize so many aspects of the Age of New Imperialism. This Queen Victoria's Empire teaching packet offers you and your students several different choices: --Fill-in worksheet with 35 problems to help students focus in on the concepts that matter most; all problems presented in video order --Fill-in worksheet as above, but including timestamps as well for teachers who like to offer their students this information --Follow-up crossword puzzle with 17 clues and terms --Answer keys for all activities

60 Multiple Choice Questions on Episode 6 of America: The Story of US America: The Story of US is a History Channel series that uses engaging imagery, powerful special effects, and a lively script to convey the story of the United States in 12 concise yet comprehensive episodes. This teaching packet covers Episode 6: “Heartland," which means it covers the domination of the West by the railroad and mass settlement in the decades following the Civil War, including the heartbreaking saga of Native American experiences at the hand of the U.S. government and military during this period. Using any of the series’ episodes in class opens up several useful possibilities. They are so well presented that they are easily understood by students. This in turn means that episodes can actually be used as an introduction to a topic or a unit. On the other hand, they also make excellent reinforcers, so some teachers will want to show the episodes after the end of a chapter or unit for use as a review or recap. ABOUT THIS TEACHING PACKET I’ve kept this episode versatility in mind when making these materials. This teaching resource contains both a worksheet and a test on the episode it covers. These two components are based on different approaches to the video: • The student viewing worksheet has 50 multiple choice questions, all presented in video order. These questions are fairly detailed. Certainly, many students will have good enough recall to be able to complete the worksheet after the episode has been shown, but because of the detailed nature of the questions, some teachers may want to use the worksheet as a “during-viewing” activity that will help students track information and stay on task . • The 10-question test, on the other hand, is designed to help students synthesize the episode’s information and see larger patterns that span different sections of it. Students who have paid attention to the video might should definitely have mastered these basic, fundamental issues from the targeted time period. All test questions are also multiple choice. • Two answer keys are provided for all questions. One is designed for fast grading. The other one provides the full context of question and answer to help teachers review material out loud or facilitate class discussions of the material. DIFFERENTIATED INSTRUCTION POSSIBILITIES Because the worksheet and test take these different approaches, teachers can also use them to differentiate instruction. keywords: transcontinental railroad, prairie, farming, soddies, locusts, logging, Custer, Little Big Horn, Wounded Knee, Indian Wars, open range, range wars, barbed wire, Sears catalog, buffalo, cattle, Texas longhorn

Few teaching units can effectively capture the breadth of human history since the dawn of farming to the present day, but Jared Diamond's breathtaking series, Guns, Germs and Steel does so with aplomb. High school students being what they are, however, they may not fully appreciate Diamond's fascinating episodes for their own sake. That's where these worksheets come in. They will help hold students accountable for paying close attention to the videos so that much more content is learned and absorbed. This bundle contains video worksheets for episodes 1 and 2 of Jared Diamond's 3-part series. (There is no worksheet provided for episode 3 simply because, after having used this series with World History and Economics classes for several years, I have concluded that the third episode is the weakest. The most important content is well-covered in the first two episodes, which is what my classes focus on every year.) ABOUT GUNS, GERMS and STEEL This series is *perfect* for World History courses and fits in well when studying the ancient world and again when looking at the age of European imperialism. Basically, the series is an exploration of one of the key questions about the modern world: why are wealth and power distributed so unequally? Why are some continents so rich while others seem to be so poor? Because this is the major focus of the series, it is also ideal for Economics classes. During the Age of Imperialism, a number of explanations were floated to explain these discrepancies. By and large, they were based on racism. Diamond debunks these skillfully, presenting the idea that won him a Pulitzer Prize: the physical geography of the earth has had a controlling influence on the development of key technological breakthroughs that gave some areas a head start over others. It all starts with farming, and with the fact that not all world areas started off with the same wealth of animals that were capable of being domesticated. The shape of the continents has actually been a key historical force, according to Diamond; those with a long east-west axis enjoyed a great advantage over those with a north-south orientation. From these factors, much of the modern world has sprung. WHEN TO USE THE VIDEOS AND WORKSHEETS Guns, Germs and Steel fits into the curriculum at a number of key places -- it truly is a very versatile video to add to your teaching library. You could show episodes when the class reaches any of the following moments in history: * Neolithic revolution * Fertile Crescent * Age of Exploration * Age of Imperialism * Spanish Conquest of South America * Age of New Imperialism