Helping Your Child Learn History |
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Introduction | ||
By Elaine Wrisley ReedEdited by Jacquelyn Zimmermann IntroductionImagine waking up one morning to find out that you have no memory! You are not able to remember who you are or what happened in your life, yesterday or the day before that. You are unable to tell your children from total strangers, you cannot communicate with people because you no longer know how to greet them, or understand their conversation. You don’t remember what “the election,” “war,” or “the movies” mean. Lack of historical memory is parallel to this loss of individual memory. The link on which we depend every day between the past and present would be lost if we had no memory of our history. And we would miss a great source of enjoyment that comes from piecing together the story of our past. Today American educators are working to promote the study of history in the schools and at home. Knowledge of our history enables us to understand our nation’s traditions, its conflicts, and its central ideas and values. Knowledge of world history enables us to understand other cultures. We hope to encourage children to love history and to enjoy learning about it. This booklet is a tool you can use to stimulate your children’s active involvement in the history that surrounds them every day. It includes:
History Education Begins at HomeChildren and History
As parents we are in the best position to encourage our children’s natural interest in history. It is to us they address their first historical questions: “Where did I come from?” and “Was I always here?” These two questions contain the two main meanings of “history”: it is the story of people and events, and it is the record of times past. Now is the time to bring out the historical evidence and to share family stories with your child. Birth and adoption certificates, immunization records, first pieces of your child’s writing and art, as well as photographs all count as historical sources that tell the story of your child. Parents Make a DifferenceYour child is born into history. She has no memory of it, yet she finds herself in the middle of a story that began before she became one of its characters. She also wants to have a place in it. As parents we can prepare our children to achieve the lifelong task of finding their place in history by helping them to learn what shaped the world into which they were born. Without information about their history, children don’t “get” a lot of what they hear and see around them. Your attitude about history can also make a difference for your child. Showing your interest in history-your belief that knowing history makes a difference for your life-encourages your child’s own interest. Many parents say they love history. If you are one of them you can share your particular interests in history with your children as well as help them develop their own. Many other parents say they find history boring. If you are among these, try one of the following: start writing your own life story; read the diary of Anne Frank, or the autobiography of Frederick Douglass; read the Declaration of Independence, or rent a video about the Civil War. As you rediscover history your children may be inspired by your interest. History Is a Habit
The activities in this book can help you start doing history with your child. You will probably get more ideas of your own. In addition, you can develop some of the following “history habits” that make history important not only during an activity but every day. History Habits for ParentsHabits are activities we do on a regular basis. We acquire habits by choosing to make them a part of our life. It is worth the time and effort to develop good habits because they enhance our well-being. We suggest the following history habits to enrich your life experience and your children’s. Share family history with your children, particularly your memories. Help your own parents and other relatives know your children and talk with them about family stories. Participate in your community by voting and helping to make changes in areas that interest you. Encourage your children to vote in school elections, to present themselves as candidates, and gain knowledge of history and the values and behaviors that are the basis of their citizenship. Read newspapers and news magazines, and watch television news programs to maintain an informed judgment about the world. Talk about current events and your ideas about them with your children and other adults, and explore different points of view. Check the encyclopedia or your local library for additional historical information. Watch television programs about important historical topics with your family, and encourage conversation about the program as you watch. Get library books on the same topic and learn more about it. Check to see if the books and television programs agree on significant issues, and discuss their differences. Read with your children about people and events that have made a difference in the world, and discuss the readings together. The list of publications at the end of this book serves as a support to you for choosing materials. Help children know that the makers of history are real people like themselves, who have ideas, work hard, and experience failure and success. Introduce them to local community leaders in person if possible, and national and world leaders via the media and biographies. Make globes, maps, and encyclopedias available and use every opportunity to refer to them. A reference to Africa in a child’s favorite story, or the red, white, and green stripes on a box of spaghetti can be opportunities to learn more about the world. Have a collection of great speeches and written documents to read from time to time with your child. Your own involvement in history, in any of the forms referred to in this book, is a good habit you can pass on to your children. Enjoying Your Child and HistoryWe have intentions of good fun as we plan any activity with our children. We also want them to learn something from most activities. They probably would say they want to have fun and learn something new too. But sometimes the difference in abilities between us and them, or the demands of time, end up leaving us disappointed. Keeping the following in mind can help keep your time together fun and productive: You don’t have to know all the facts or fully understand history to help your children learn. Your willingness to learn with them-to read, to ask questions, to search, and to make mistakes-is the most important gift you can bring to the process. By viewing their mistakes as sources of information for future efforts, your children gain confidence to continue learning. Conversation gets you past the difficult moments. Keeping open the communication between you and your children, and encouraging continued discussion no matter how off the mark your children may seem, tells them you take them seriously and value their efforts to learn. The ability to have a conversation with your children profoundly affects what and how they learn. Children have their own ideas and interests. By letting them choose activities accordingly, you let them know their ideas and interests are valuable. Often they will want to teach you as a way to use what they know. Share their interests and encourage them to learn more. Make the most of everyday opportunities to do history:Visits from grandparents, reading books, telling stories, holidays, elections, symbols like the flag, the national anthem before sporting events, pictures in newspapers and magazines, visits to museums. If your child asks about a person in a painting, stop to find out who it is. Keep asking: “What does this mean? How do I know?” Choose your activities well.The activities in this booklet are for children aged 4-11. Each of the activities can be adapted to a child of any age and ability level. Even a preschooler can “read” a newspaper with your help, for a short period of time. While an activity that is too difficult will frustrate your child, an activity that is too easy will lose his interest. Challenges bring feelings of accomplishment. Have a goal.When you choose or begin an activity you may not have a clear idea of where it’s going. But keep in mind that the purpose of doing the activities in this book is to learn something about history. The first section of this book, the introduction to each activity, and the question boxes can help you. As you complete each activity discuss with your child what you learned together. Making bread is one thing, knowing that bread has historical meaning is another. Achieving a goal for an activity also helps your child sense the pleasure of a completed project. The Basics Of HistoryThe Meanings of HistoryIf you look for the meaning of “history” in the dictionary you may be surprised to find that history is not simply the past itself. The first meaning of history is “tale, story,” and the second meaning is “a chronological record of significant past events.” The opening of tales for children-“Once upon a time”-captures both the story and time nature of history. When we study history we are involved in a branch of knowledge that records and explains past events. Many would say that history is not just one branch of knowledge among others, but that it is the most essential one because it is the complete story of human endeavor. It happens that the word “history” comes from the Greek “to know.” The activities in this book are organized according to the two meanings of history as story and time in order to help you explore these meanings with your child. The Story in HistoryThe work of doing history is to consider people and events that are no longer in our presence. Unlike doing science, we do history without being able to observe behavior and its results. This work is fun when we make the past meaningful. We do this by weaving together various pieces of information about the past. In doing this we create a pattern that gives shape to “just a bunch of facts.” Doing history is a way of bringing the past to life, in the best tradition of the storyteller. But not just any story will do. While there are many possible tales of the same event, good history is based on evidence and several perspectives. The history with which we are most familiar is political history-the story of wars, peace treaties, and changes of government. But anything that has a past has a history. This includes the history of ideas, for example the concept of freedom, and cultural history, for example the history of music. The story of history is interesting to us because it tells us about real people who had ideas and beliefs, worked and struggled to put them in action, and shaped the present in which we find ourselves. Time in HistoryHuman events take place in time, one after the other. It is important to learn the sequence of events in order to trace them, reconstruct them, and weave the stories that tell of their connections. Children need to learn the measures of time, such as year, decade, generation, and century. When they hear “Once upon a time in history” they need to be able to ask “When did that happen?,” and to know how to find the answer. Time in history is a kind of relationship. We can look at several events that all happened at the same time, and that together tell a story about that period. Or we can look at the development of an idea over time, and learn how and why it changed. And we can consider the relationship between the past and the present, or the future and the past (which is today!). The present is the result of choices that people made and the beliefs they held in the past, while the past, in being retold, is in some way remade in the present. The future will be the result of the coming together of several areas developing today. The main focus of history is the relationship between continuity and change, and it is important that our children understand the difference between them. For example, the population of the United States has changed dramatically over time with each wave of immigration. With the entry of these new groups into American society, bringing their own ideas, beliefs, and cultures, American democracy has continued and grown stronger. It continues to function according to its original purpose of safeguarding our basic values of freedom and equality, even as the meanings and effects of these values change. A New Look at HistoryHistory is now understood to be more than memorizing names and dates. While being able to recall the details of great people and events is important, the enjoyment of history is enhanced by engaging in activities and experiencing history as a “story well told.” Original sources and literature are real experiences. Reading the actual words that changed the course of history, and stories that focus on the details of time and place help children know that history is about real people in real places who made real choices that had some real consequences, and that they could have made different choices. Less can mean more. “A well-formed mind is better than a well-stuffed mind,” says an old proverb. Trying to learn the entire history of the world is not only impossible, it feels too hard and reduces our enthusiasm for history. In-depth study of a few important events gives us a chance to understand the many sides of a story. We can always add new facts. History is hands-on work. Learning history is best done in the same way we learn to use a new language, or to play basketball: we do it as well as read about it. Doing history means asking questions about historical events and characters; searching our towns for signs of its history; talking with others about current events and issues; writing our own stories about the past. There is no final word on history. There are good storytellers and less good storytellers. And there are many stories. But very rarely does any one storyteller “get it right,” or one story say it all. A good student of history will always look for other points of view, knowing that our understanding of history changes over time. Asking QuestionsCritical thinking is judging the value of historical evidence; judging claims about what is true or good; deciding what information is important to have; looking at a topic from different points of view; being curious enough to look further into an event or topic; being skeptical enough to look for more than one account of an event or life; and being aware that our vision and thinking are often limited by our biases and opinions. The following two sections contain a sampling of history activities, organized by the meanings of history as story and time. Each group of activities is preceded by a review of three elements of story and time from the perspective of history. The review is meant to inform and support conversation between you and your child, which is the most important step in each activity by far. Activities: History as StoryRecordsHistory is a permanent written record of the past. Because recording history is an essential part of doing history, a “history log” is indicated for each activity. More recently, history is also recorded on audio and video tape, and many of the activities lend themselves to this type of recording as well. Your children may be interested to know that the time of their favorite dinosaurs is called “prehistory” because it is unrecorded history. They should also know that some written languages have been invented because telling stories orally, without recording them in some form, is not by itself a sure enough way to preserve the identity of a people. NarrationGeorge Washington, in his Farewell Address in 1796, said: EvidenceAll good histories are written on the basis of evidence. What’s the StoryHistory is a story well told. Through storytelling children can understand what’s involved in writing the stories that make history. What you’ll need
What to do
In the storytelling session about the person you know, how did you verify the “truth” when there were differences of opinion about what “really happened”? If you were to write the story of a real event for the newspaper, what would count for you the most in preparing it? What else would you include? Where would you get your information? How would you check the accuracy of the information? Our TownYour phone book, newspaper, and other resources can serve as your best guide to history in your town. Not only does referring to them save time, it teaches how to use tools to get information. What you’ll need
What to do1. Newspaper search.Look in your city and community newspapers. They list “things to do.” Look for parades, museum and art exhibits, music events, children’s theater, history talks and walks. 2. Phone book search.Look in your phone books under “History” or “Historical Places.” You will find a few places under this heading but many more are listed elsewhere. Brainstorm with your children about what other words to look under in the phone book to find local history. Call the places you find. Ask about their programs, hours, and upcoming special events. Ask to be put on their mailing list. Also ask where else you should go to learn about your town’s history. Your younger children should listen to your phone conversation. They learn how to ask for information by listening to you. 3.Begin a list in the history log of local historical sites.Include phone numbers, addresses, hours of operation, and other useful information for future visits. What is the most surprising thing you learned about your town? If you were asked to be a tour guide for visitors to your town, what would you show them? If you went to another town, how would you go about visiting it? History on the GoVisit the historical places in your child’s history book, either in person or by collecting materials. What you’ll need
What to do1. Find out what historical events your child is studying in school. Perhaps a historical site is near your town. Choose a site of one of these events to visit in person or through the materials you collected.
videos on the history of the town or the historical figures who lived there. 3. Call the Chamber of Commerce of the area for maps and guidebooks. 4. Make a list. Think of some questions you want answered on your trip. 5. Talk about the place you are visiting. 6. Have your child write about the trip in the history log. Include answers to the questions that were answered that day. 8. Encourage your child to read more stories about the place you visited and the people who were part of its history, and historical documents that are associated with the site. For example, in visiting Akron, Ohio, the site of the Ohio Women’s Rights Convention in 1851, you might read Sojourner Truth’s address, known also as And Ain’t I a Woman? What was historical about the place you visited? What kinds of things communicated the history of the place? When you returned, did you see your town in a new way, or notice something you hadn’t seen before?
What’s News?What’s new today really began in the past. Discussing the news is a way to help your child gain a historical perspective on the events of the present. What you’ll need
What to do1. Decide on how often you will do this activity with your children-current events happen every day. This activity can be most useful to younger children if it is done from time to time to get them used to the idea of “news.” Older children benefit from doing it more often, at least once a week if possible. 2. Look through the newspaper or news magazine with your child. Ask him to decide what pictures or headlines are related to history. Highlight these references. Some examples are the Yalta Treaty, the French Revolution, Lenin, Pearl Harbor, or Brown v. Board of Education. 3. Together read the articles you have chosen. Write down any references to events that did not happen today or yesterday, or to people who were not alive recently. 4. Have a conversation with your child about what these past events and people have to do with what’s happening today. Help your child write in the history log the connections you find between past and present. 5. Watch the evening news or a morning news program together. 6. During another viewing, help your child focus on how the information was communicated: did the newscaster use interviews, books, historical records, written historical accounts, literature, paintings, photographs? 7. Help your child compare several accounts of a major news story from different news shows, newspapers, and news magazines.
“There is nothing new under the sun,” according to an old saying. Did you find anything “new” in the news? What “same old stories” did you find?
History LivesAt living history museums you can see real people doing the work of blacksmiths, tin workers, shoemakers, farmers, and others. Children can see how things work, and can ask questions of the “characters.” What you’ll need
What to do1. Awaken your children’s expectations of what they will see and what to look for. Write or call the museum ahead of time to obtain information brochures and a map. Living history museums are located in Williamsburg, VA and Old Sturbridge Village, MA, among other places. 3. When you visit the museum, ask your child what his favorite object or activity is, and why. 4. Help your children sketch something in the museum, and put it in the history log. Tell your children that this is the way history was visually recorded before there were cameras. 5. Use your camera, if you have one, to make a “modern day” record of history, and create a scrapbook with the photographs of what you saw. 6. When you get home, talk about what it would have been like to live in that historical place in that period of time. Compare this to the image you had before your visit.
How were days spent in the period of time you experienced?What kind of dress was common, or special? What kinds of food did people usually eat, and did they eat alone or in groups? What kind of work would you have chosen to do as an adult? If a living history museum were made of the late 20th century, what would people see and learn there? Reminder: if you can’t visit a museum, travel by reading books. Cooking Up History
Every culture has its version of bread. “Eating it, one feels that the taste one cannot quite put to words may almost be the taste of history.” * Children enjoy making this American Indian fried bread. What you’ll need
History log
What to do1. In a large bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, and salt.
How is this bread different from other breads you have tried? Think of common expressions that use the word “bread.” For example, “the nation’s breadbasket”; “I earn my bread and butter”; or “breadlines of the 1920s.” What does “bread” mean in each of these? What place does bread have in your daily life and in other cultures? Rub Against History
Younger children find rubbings great fun. Cornerstones and plaques are interesting, and even coins will do. What You’ll Need
What to do
2. Have children make a rubbing of a quarter or half dollar.
4. Your child can ask family members to guess what each rubbing is. 5. Have the children tell about each rubbing. Tell them to look for designs and dates among the rubbings. 6. Children may want to cut some of their rubbings out to include in their history logs. Or they can fit several on one piece of paper to show a pattern of dates and designs.
What showed up in your rubbings? What did the date and designs commemorate? Historical preservation groups in America have worked to preserve old buildings and to install plaques on public historical places. Is this interesting or important work? Why have humans left their marks on the world from early cave drawings to Vietnam Veterans’ Memorial?
Activities: History as TimeChronologyWhile our children need the opportunity to study events in depth to get an understanding of them, they also need to know the sequence of historical events in time, and the names and places associated with them. Being able to place events in time, your child is better able to learn the relationships among them. What came first? What was cause, and what was effect? Without a sense of chronological order, events seem like a big jumble, and we can’t understand what happened in the past. It matters, for example, that our children know that the American and French Revolutions are related. Empathy
Empathy is the ability to put ourselves in the place of another person and time. Since history is the reconstruction of the past, we must have an idea of what it was like “to be there” in order to reconstruct it with some accuracy. For example, in studying the westward expansion your children may ask why people didn’t fly across the country to avoid the hazards of exposure on stagecoach trails. When you answer that the airplane hadn’t yet been invented, they may ask why not. They need an understanding of how technology develops and its state at the time. Using original source documents, such as diaries, logs, and speeches, helps us guard against imposing the present on the past, and allows us to see events through the eyes of people who were there. Context
Context is related to empathy. Context means “weave together” and refers to the set of circumstances in several areas that framed an event. To understand any historical period or event our children should know how to weave together politics (how a society was ruled), sociology (what groups formed the society), economics (how people worked and what they produced), and religion, literature, the arts, and philosophy (what was valued and believed at the time). When they try to understand World War II, for example, they will uncover a complex set of events. And they will find that these events draw their meaning from their context.
Time Marches On
The stories of history have beginnings, middles, and ends that show events, and suggest causes and effects. A personal timeline helps your child picture these elements of story. What you’ll need
What to do
1. Draw on a piece of paper, or in the history log, a vertical line for the timeline. Mark this line in even intervals for each year of your child’s life. 2. Help your child label the years with significant events, starting with your child’s birthday. 3. Review the timeline. Your child may want to erase and change an event for a particular year to include a more memorable or important one. (Historians also rethink their choices when they study history.) 4. For a timeline poster, use a long roll of shelf paper or computer paper. For a horizontal timeline, fasten it to the wall up high around the room using removable tape so that your child can take it down to add more events or drawings. For a vertical timeline, hang it next to the doorway in your child’s room. Start with the birthday at the bottom. Your child can begin writing down events and add to it later. 5. For older children, have them do a timeline of what was happening in the world at the same time as each event of their life. To begin, they can use the library’s collection of newspapers to find and record the headlines for each of their birthdays.
What is the most significant event on the timeline? What effects did the event have on your child’s life? What are the connections between the events in your child’s life and world events at the time?
Weave a WebA history web is a way of connecting people and events. Is there an old ball field in your town you’ve always wondered about? Or did you ever wonder why there are so many war memorials in your town? Then you need to do a history web! What you’ll need
What to do1. Pick a place in your community that has always seemed mysterious to you-an old ball field, general or hardware store, house, or schoolhouse. Or ask yourself. “What are there lots of in my town?” Churches, fountains? Pick one of these historical “families.” 3. Find out other information about the place by asking a librarian for resources, or by searching the archives of your local newspaper. Look for major events that took place there, such as the setting of a world record or the visit of a famous person. Also look for other events that changed the place, such as modernization or dedications. 4. Find people who have lived in your town a long time. Interview them using questions about these major and related events, and any others they remember. 6. Draw several strands from the middle to show the major events in the life of the place. 7. Connect the strands with cross lines to show other related events. 8. When the web is complete consider the relationships among the strands. (See parent box.) 9. Ask the editor of your local newspaper to publish your web. Ask readers to contribute more information to add to it. This is exactly how history is written!
When was the place you picked built? If you picked a “family” of places, when was each place built? If they were built around the same time, what similarities and differences do you notice about their features, such as style and what they commemorate? How is the place you picked connected to other events in history? Put Time in a Bottle
Collecting things from one’s lifetime and putting them in a time capsule is a history lesson that will never be forgotten. What you’ll need
Lift up your eyes upon Women, children, men, Excerpted from “On the Pulse of Morning”, delivered by Maya
What to do1. Have your children collect pictures of a few important things from their life to date.
Some things to collect that represent the life and times of a period are games and toys, new technology, means of transportation, slang, movies, presidential campaign memorabilia, great speeches, poetry and fiction, music, heroes, advertising, events, television shows, fashions, and accounts of issues and crises. 3. Meet together for a “show and tell” of the items. 4. Once everyone is satisfied with the collection, label the items by name and with any other information that will help those who find them understand how they are significant to the history of our time. 5. Place the items in a container, seal the container, and find a place to store it. 6. Write in the history log a short description of the time period and record the location of the time capsule.
What did, the collection of items tell about the period? Did the items tend to be of a certain type?
Quill Pens & Berry Ink What you’ll need
feather, scissors, a paper clip
½ cup of ripe berries, ½ teaspoon salt, ½ teaspoon
What to do1. Make the ink: 3. Write with the pen: 4. Practice signing your name, John Hancock style, with the early American letters shown here. Then write your signature in your history log. 5. Write your name again using a pen or pencil. Compare the results.
Why do we write? When do people in your family use writing? What written things do you see every day? What is their purpose? What effect do different writing implements have on writing, for example quill pens, ballpoint pens, typewriters, and computers? School Days
Did you ever wonder why there is no school in summer? Or why there might be soon? What you’ll need
What to do1. Talk about what school was like when you were a child.Include how schools looked physically (e.g., one-room schoolhouse or campus?); what equipment teachers used (e.g., chalk boards or computers?); what subjects you studied; what choices you faced (e.g., transportation to and from school, extracurricular activities ); and favorite teachers. 2. Talk about what school was like 50 or 100 years ago. Ask your librarian for help in looking this up, and talk to older relatives. Include the history of work in America and how this affects schooling. For example, when America was an agricultural society, children were needed to help plant and harvest crops. It was common then that children didn’t go to school every day, or in the summer. 3. Imagine what school will be like in the future.Younger children may want to use blocks to build their future school, and older children may want to draw theirs.
What has remained the same about school from the past to the present? What has changed? If you could be the head of a school 20 years from now, what would you keep and what would you change based on your current school? How would you go about making the changes?
Time To CelebrateOn quarters, dimes, nickels, and pennies is written the phrase “E pluribus unum,” “One out of many.” What does it mean? What you’ll need
What to do1. Have your children look at U.S. coins for the expression
of February Lincoln and Washington
of May
adoption of the
of September
of October Columbus in the
Thursday for Divine Goodness
3. Use the opportunity of talking about what holidays celebrate to read original sources. For example: on Presidents’ Day read one of the great presidential speeches such as the Gettysburg Address; on Martin Luther King’s Day read the “I Have a Dream” speech. 4. Find holidays celebrated in other nations. Classmates, neighbors, and relatives from other countries are good sources of information.
5. Think and talk about other important holidays our nation should celebrate. 6. Discuss what your family celebrates, and have your children write about the discussion in their history log.
What kinds of accomplishments or events do we celebrate in America? What similarities and differences did you find between American holidays and holidays celebrated by people from other countries.
The Past AnewReenactments of historical battles or periods, such as colonial times, make our nation’s history come alive. And they get our children involved. What you’ll need
What was unusual or interesting about the reenactment? What role did each of the reenactors play? If there was conflict, what was shown or said about its causes? What obstacles did the characters face? How did they overcome them? What is the difference between the “real thing” and a performance of it? What did you learn from the performance? What to do
2. Choose one, and prepare your child to see it by visiting a local museum or historical site that relates to the reenactment, or by watching a television program about the event or period to be reenacted. Use your local librarian and TV guide as resources. 3. Attend the reenactment and participate. Ask the reenactors questions about anything-from the kind of hat they are wearing to the meanings of the event or period for the development or transformation of America. Finally, help your child write about this experience in the history log. Appendices 1. Become familiar with your school’s history program. Ask yourself:
2. Talk often with your child’s teachers.
3. Help to improve history education in your child’s school.
ResourcesListed below are a few of the many excellent books about people, events, and issues in American and world history that are available for primary and middle school children. They are available in most public and school libraries, as well as in children’s bookstores. Suggestions came from: The New York Times Parents Guide to the Best Books for Children, by Eden Ross Lipson; History-Social Science Curriculum: A Booklet for Parents, by the California Department of Education; The Horn Book Guide to Children’s and Young Adult Books, by The Horn Book, Incorporated; Children’s Books in Print; and from the 1991 bibliography of the National Council for the Social Studies-Children’s Book Council. The listing includes author, title, and publisher. Primary Level Books
1. American History and CultureAdler, David A. A Picture Book of Eleanor Roosevelt. See also other titles in this series, and Thomas Jefferson: Father of Our Democracy, and George Washington: Father of Our Country. Holiday. Fisher, Leonard E. The Statue of Liberty. Holiday. 2. World History and Culture
Adler, David A. Our Golda: The Story of Golda Meir. Viking. 3. Historical Fiction and Poetry
Aliki. A Medieval Feast. T.Y. Crowell/HarperCollins. Upper Elementary Level Books
1. American History and Culturea. Original sources and biographies
The Log of Christopher Columbus’ First Voyage to America: in the Year 1492, As Copied Out in Brief by Bartholomew Las Casas. Linnett Books/Shoestring Press. b. Period History and Historical Fiction
Alcott, Louisa May. Little Women. Little, Brown/Orchard House. See also An Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving. Holiday. 2. World History and Culture, and Historical Fiction
Blumberg, Rhoda. The Remarkable Voyages of Captain Cook. Bradbury. CollectionsBaker, Charles F., Ill. The Struggle for Freedom: Plays on the American Revolution. Cobblestone. Children’s Magazines
Calliope: World History for Young People. Cobblestone Publishing, Inc., 30 Grove St., Peterborough, NH 03458. World history for grades 6-8. Videos
An American Tail, Universal Studios. An animated fable about 19th century immigration, in color. References for Parents Local and National Resources
Federal GovernmentGeneral Services Administration, Publications Sales Branch, NEPS-G, Washington, DC 20408. Write for a list of available “documents from the past.”
National Nonprofit OrganizationsAmerican Association for State and Local History, 172 Second Avenue North, Suite 202, Nashville, TN 37201. The association maintains an extensive list of museums, historic sites, and historical societies.
AcknowledgmentsThis booklet was made possible with help from the following people who provided materials and suggestions: George T. Reed, Rodney Atkinson, Gilbert Sewall, Joseph Ribar, Steven and Amy Jack, Candece Reed, Joseph and Peter Ryan, Nancy Taylor, Joan McKown, Susan Perkins Weston, Carol Shull, Paul Regnier, and Joyce Hunley. Special thanks are given to Judith J. French, a media specialist in Fairfax County Public Schools, for reviewing the bibliography; to the 1990 third-grade class of Capitol Hill Day School whose illustrations of historical houses in Washington, DC appear on page 13; to Leo and Diane Dillon for their advice on how to work with illustrators; and to Gerard Devlin, Nancy Floyd, John Fonte, Paul Gagnon, Wilma Prudhum Greene, Margery Martin, and many others at the U.S. Department of Education.
The following sources were consulted in conceiving the introductory text: The activities are inspired by suggestions from John Ahem; |
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