Are you teaching American History and trying to figure out topics to teach and a pacing guide? Grab this free US History scope and sequence!

Homeschool middle school history and have a fabulous time with the amazing tips!

While on the quest for independent learning we are focusing on American History. Here are some of my favorite American History resources for middle school.

Update your Social Studies classroom decor cheaply and easily with fun and useful decor. Make your classroom fun and inviting for students.

Well it took almost a full school year, but thanks to a professional development I went to, I found a review technique ALL of my 7th graders were on board with. I call it “True, False, Fix.…

Looking for some engaging, high-quality history lessons? Then check out my favorite free US history lessons for middle school!

Don't Decorate - Design! It is back to school time, and teachers all across the US are frantically putting up posters and bulletin boards to decorate their room before the first day of school. But instead

Interpreting history can seem like a daunting task for students, but with a few creative tools and ideas, teachers can bring historical events and people to life. I love providing students with an interconnection to the people who shaped our country. Our history is on-going and by studying our past, we can hopefully learn

Early American history is full of exciting people & events that make it easy to love, so get out of the textbook & make it fun with these hands-on activities.

You will love these creative classroom decor ideas for social studies teachers or history teachers! Check out this list of 10 different ideas for...

Wow! Is tomorrow already August? Time has flown by this summer! I have been gone the majority of the summer, hence the lack in posts... but I am back now! I have a lengthy list of things to blog about from my summer adventures! To begin with, here is one of my crafty Pinterest projects that I have completed (here is the link to the original idea): Colonial America/Revolutionary War Guess Who! I have been wanting to do this project for a while now and finally made the time this last month. It took me some time to put it all together! The old-fashioned Guess Who game is hard to come by! They have made it all fancy now, which is not what I wanted! I scoured garage sales and thrift stores until I found one! Here are my directions: 1. Find an old Guess Who game and take out the cards (you might already have one in your game cabinet.) 2. Select people from history, family, students, etc. to turn into a game. 3. Measure the game cards in your Guess Who game. (Mine were 1.75" x 1.12") 4. Using your favorite document maker, (I used Power Point) create boxes that are the measurements of your cards. 5. Find pictures of your people you want to use either on the Internet or photos you have taken. 6. Insert the photos into your document, sizing them to fit inside the boxes. 7. Insert a text box at the bottom of your boxes and type the person's name. 8. Print, laminate, cut, insert, and play! (Make sure you print an extra set to draw from.) Rules of play: 1. Open the trays by turning them upside down. 2. Each player draws a card that their opponent will be trying to guess. 3. Ask "yes" or "no" questions to narrow down the suspects. (You can ask if they are bald, wearing a hat, male, or even about something they did in history like did this person fight in a war?) 4. Narrow down the selection until you think you know who your opponent has for you. Make your guess on your next turn to see if you are correct! Bonus: If you want it to be more of a challenge, pull 2 cards to guess. Then, you can ask questions like: Is either person involved in the Revolutionary War? or Are both people female? I hope you will create your own Guess Who game now! I would love to sell my cards that I have made, but I just got the images from Google, so that wouldn't be legal. However, it really didn't take long to make. Make sure you link up pictures of yours if you make one!

As a classroom teacher, you often get hit with that question – usually within the first week of school by a student who “Does Not Want To Be Here”… and truthfully, how do you answer

Unlock History's Secret Vaults™ with these fun bell ringers for social studies that will engage even your most reluctant learners.

Guide to using Social Studies Simulations to step away from the lecture podium and engage your students with hands-on history activities.

I randomly came up with this idea during the last week of school. One of my reading groups had finished their book and project before any of the other groups had finished. Instead of giving them a new book (there was only one week left), I quickly created this template and told them to pick an event in history and research it. I had one boy choose the Vikings, someone else chose the atomic bomb, a girl wanted the great depression, and another student picked the Korean war. I loved that everyone had such diverse topics. After they got started, I saw some great learning take place in my classroom! Because it's an inquiry-based activity, they generated their own questions. And because they got to choose their own topic, they were excited and felt ownership over the project. I plan on using this next year as a fun fast finisher activity. This list is something I quickly generated. {I know it is not all inclusive - if I left something off that you really want me to add on, please leave me a comment.} This would be fun to hang up somewhere in the back of the classroom so fast finishers can work on a project whenever they want. CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD HISTORY DETECTIVES! * * * * * Want to hear some GREAT news? I am leaving next week on an 8 day history trip to Virginia where I get to study at the Colonial Williamsburg Teacher Institute! I also get to visit Jamestown and Yorktown. I'm so excited! I plan on posting lots of the things I learn, including pictures!

Hollywood has pushed out some impressive historical dramas. Here are some great quality historical movies for junior high and high school, under R.

Middle school kids want to interact with history like with these hands-on projects from ancient & medieval history, colonial & pioneer America, and civil war.

Do you need warm up ideas? I want to share 3 warm up ideas for social studies classes with you. These are engaging and easy to implement!

Use this vetted list to help teach Early American History with movies to your high school homeschoolers: Colonial Times, Revolutionary War, Early Frontier Life, and Westward Expansion

A list of Early American activities for 5th-grade social studies to help students understand the importance of history.

Middle school kids want to interact with history like with these hands-on projects from ancient & medieval history, colonial & pioneer America, and civil war.

If you want to up your Google Slides presentations, click above. These Google Slides hacks will make your classroom presentations polished and interactive.

March 22, 2017 Here is an infographic we created for the post we published earlier today titled ' 15 Great YouTube Channels for Social Studies Teachers'. The visual features what we think are some of the best channels on YouTube that provides educational video content relevant for social studies classes. Please check out the previous post for links to these channels. You can also download this visual in PDF format from this page. Have other suggestions to add to this list? Share with us on our Facebook page. This post originally appeared in Educational Technology and Mobile Learning ( www.educatorstechnology.com ).

Most Secondary Social Studies teachers recognize the importance of using Document Based Questions in their classroom – however writing an entire DBQ can be daunting. My recent DBQ – What was Texas’s greatest

American History doesn't have to be boring with these 100+ activities and lesson ideas. Fill your middle school history lesson plans and bring history to life.

Engage your students right when they walk in the door with bell ringers that will support your middle school early American history curriculum! Inside this resource, you'll find 200 bell ringers to use throughout the year while you teach about American history. Along with a PowerPoint version of the slides, the bell ringers are also compatible with Google Slides! There are links to digital versions of the bell ringers included for easy use in your classroom. This bundle includes the following American History Bell ringer sets: American History Critical Thinking Bell Ringers Engage your students right when they walk in the door with thought-provoking questions that prompt them to think critically about the American history content you're teaching in class. This resource includes a 40 page PowerPoint (non-editable) containing one unique writing prompt on each page that encourages students to use critical thinking skills and previously learned knowledge about American history to craft a response. There are also two versions of a response sheet that students can use when answering the prompts. A link to the slides in Google Drive is included. Please Note: Each unique critical thinking prompt requires students to have knowledge of early American history. These questions are designed to support your curriculum content. This resource is designed to be used once a week in your classroom. There are 40 slides – enough for each week of the school year! Questions relate to the following topics in American history: 1. Exploring the New World 2. Colonial America 3. Causes of the Revolutionary War 4. Revolutionary War 5. Constitution 6. Federalist Era 7. Jefferson and Madison Eras 8. Westward Expansion 9. Jackson Era 10. Industrial Revolution 11. Causes of the Civil War 12. Civil War American History Vocabulary Bell Ringers Engage your students right when they walk in the door with vocabulary terms that relate to your American History content in Social Studies! This resource includes a 40 page PowerPoint (non-editable) containing one vocabulary term and definition pertaining to U.S. history on each slide. There are also two versions of a response sheet that students can use during their vocabulary practice. A version for Google Slides is included as well, for the vocabulary slides. Please Note: If you would like to see a list of all vocabulary words included, please review the PREVIEW. This resource is designed to be used once a week in your classroom. There are 40 slides – enough for each week of the school year! Vocabulary terms relate to the following topics in American History: 1. Age of Exploration 2. Colonial America 3. Causes of the Revolutionary War 4. Revolutionary War 5. Constitution 6. Federalist Era 7. Jefferson Era 8. Westward Expansion 10. Jackson Era 11. Industrial Revolution 12. Causes of the Civil War 13 Civil War American History Quote of the Day Bell Ringers Engage your students right when they walk in the door with bell ringer questions that prompt them to analyze quotes from notable people in American history! This resource includes a 40 page PowerPoint (non-editable) containing 40 quotes from notable people in American history, a writing prompt on each page and two versions of a response sheet that students can use when answering the prompts. A version for Google Slides is included as well, for the slides - not writing prompts at this time. Weekly Writing Prompt: What does this quote mean? Do you agree or disagree? How does this quote relate to an event in history or in your own life? This resource is designed to be used once a week in your classroom. There are 40 slides – enough for each week of the school year! Quotes from notable people cover the following areas of early U.S. History: 1. Age of Exploration 2. Colonial America 3. Causes of the Revolutionary War 4. Revolutionary War 5. Constitution 6. Federalist Era 7. Jefferson Era 8. Westward Expansion 9. Jackson Era 10. Industrial Revolution 11. Causes of the Civil War 12. The Civil War American History Historical Thinking Bell Ringers Engage your students right when they walk in the door with bell ringer questions that prompt them to analyze maps, excerpts, historic images and mini biographies from topics related to early American history! This resource includes a 40 page PowerPoint (non-editable) containing questions related to maps, document excerpts, historic images and mini biographies. There are two versions of a response sheet that students can use when answering the prompts and an answer key for the teacher. A version for Google Slides is included as well, for the slides. This resource is designed to be used once a week in your classroom. There are 40 slides – enough for each week of the school year! Historical thinking questions cover the following areas of early U.S. History: 1. Age of Exploration 2. Colonial America 3. Revolutionary War Era 4. Constitution 5. Federalist Era 6. Jefferson Era 7. Westward Expansion 8. Jackson Era 9. Industrial Revolution 10. The Civil War Era All historic documents and images used are Public Domain. Growth Mindset Bell Ringers Engage your students right when they walk in the door and help them cultivate a growth mindset with these bell ringers! This resource includes a 40 page PowerPoint (non-editable) containing one writing prompt pertaining to growth mindset, goal-setting and/or positive thinking per slide.There are also two versions of a response sheet that students can use when writing their thoughts to the prompt from the bell ringer. A version for Google Slides is included as well. This resource was designed with students from 5th - 8th grade in mind. Please Note: Please check out the preview for a closer look at the resource. This resource is designed to be used once a week in your classroom. There are 40 slides – enough for each week of the school year! Happy Teaching! :) Let's Connect! The Teacher's Prep Blog The Teacher's Prep on Facebook The Teacher's Prep on Pinterest The Teacher's Prep on Instagram

There are so many different directions you can go when decorating your social studies or history classroom! I have scoured the internet and Pinterest to curate this list of perfect social studies classroom decor! Everything is linked just for you! General Decorating: Standards Posters and Compu

Here's your go-to list of social studies YouTube videos and channels to help your teenagers understand complex issues around the world.

Want to know the secret for breathing life into American history? Make it as interactive as possible. Use unique tools and fun projects to engage your teens.