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!

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!

In this set of five primary sources, students will be able to compare and contrast different viewpoints surrounding who the Aztecs were and why their civilization fell in order to come to their own judgments and conclusions. There is a PowerPoint that will help teach your students (through the use of a text message scenario) the importance of looking at multiple sources and how to compare them while thinking like a historian. Students will analyze each source looking at author, audience, and purpose and then identify the main ideas, compare and contrast to other sources, and finish by making a judgment call. I have selected sources about the Aztecs that are both interesting and easy to understand. That being said, primary sources can be difficult for students especially if it is their first time. In order to help, I have a teacher page with tips and ideas and the PowerPoint will walk you through two of the five sources if you choose to do part of it as a whole class. I loved doing primary source analyses in the classroom. It made the history really come alive and taught the students critical skills. It’s no longer about giving the kids the information, its about teaching them how to analyze and sift through the information being hurled at them. Plus, they get really into it! Let them voice their opinion, be sure to use the arrow opinion gauge in a public place so the whole class can see how viewpoints shift, and get ready for an exciting and meaningful break from history lectures! This is part of a larger unit. If you would like to purchase the entire unit packet for $15, search for it on my store: “Native American Unit.” Please let me know if you have any questions!

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.

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.

Stop lecturing about history and help your students engage with it! They will use the highest levels of thinking in this challenging, but engaging activity as they figure out for themselves who Christopher Columbus really is: A Hero or a Villain? I had great success with my students and this activity as spontaneous debates erupted in the classroom over which title this controversial character deserves. This is part two of a three part unit on the Age of Exploration. This section is a primary source analysis where students will use 9 documents to determine if Christopher Columbus deserves the title “Hero” or “Villain.” These engaging documents include primary and secondary sources about the explorer. Students will analyze paintings, illustrations, letters, journal entries, reports, and news articles that share a variety of opinions about Columbus and who he was. Each document is fairly short, the longest being a page, and so are very manageable for students. Depending on the length of your class periods, this activity could take up to two days. If you have purchased the Aztec primary source set from my Native American Unit, this set is designed the same way and will help your students continue to build on those skills as the year progresses. A PowerPoint is included to help you be successful as well as a packet for you that includes a key and tips in order to simplify your lesson planning and help you make the most out of this teaching tool. Please let me know if you have any questions or would like to see a sample: jennalyn.mackay@gmail.com

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.

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!

This is designed to be a unit for about two weeks. The packet itself is 18 pages. I have included the packet as both a PDF and a docx as well as a teacher version with answers, explanations, and tips. This packet includes introduction pages, a geography portion, big questions, guided notes, a group project, primary sources analysis, and an individual creative project. The unit is modeled using Blooms Taxonomy: it starts with knowledge, but rises quickly through the different levels until the students are creating and making judgments of their own. It follows closely to three big questions that will help students differentiate myth from fact, analyze the way Native Americans used resources to the way we use them today, and look closely at how artifacts can help us better understand the cultures that left them behind. The most important part of the packet is a primary source analysis that allows students to compare and contrast information from 5 primary sources about the downfall of the Aztecs. These are sources that were carefully picked for this age group that are interesting and easy to understand. Please message me if you have any questions. I will also divide the packet up and sell it separately if that interests you. If you'd like, you can browse through any of my resources that begin with "Native American Unit" and get a better idea of what is included.