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CURRICULAR RESOURCES
Innovative lesson plans, activities, resources, and online exhibits feature archival materials to fit your classroom needs.
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- Grade: 1, 6, 7, 8
- Curricular Standards: Massachusetts Framework - History and Social Science
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This program introduces students to the importance of voting and the struggle for voting rights, past and present. Students examine primary source material -- documents, photographs, and video -- to learn about racial discrimination in voting during the Kennedy years and strategies that public officials, activists, and everyday citizens used to address it. The program also explores voting rights today and actions students can take to protect this “most powerful and precious right” for everyone.
Guided Programs
Subject: Civics and US Government, US History
Grade: 6, 7, 8
Time: 0-1 hour
This interactive picture book about cellist Pablo Casals's historic performance portrays the importance of the arts in the Kennedy White House, and the power of music to strengthen commitments to peace and freedom.
Lesson Plans & Activities
Subject: The Arts, Civics and US Government, US History
Grade: 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
Time: 0-1 hour
Students examine a Jacob Lawrence painting to explore the experiences of participants in the civil rights struggle during the 1950s and 1960s.
Lesson Plans & Activities
Subject: The Arts, US History
Grade: 8, 9, 10, 11, 12
Time: 0-1 hour
Students learn about gender discrimination in space exploration by analyzing a letter to President Kennedy from a female aviator training to be an astronaut.
Lesson Plans & Activities
Subject: English Language Arts, US History
Grade: 5, 6, 7, 8
Time: 0-1 hour, 1-2 hours
Students can create their own campaign buttons to support a candidate or a cause of their choice.
Hands-On History Activities
Subject: Civics and US Government, US History
Grade: 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
Time: 0-1 hour
Civics for All of US is a new national civic education initiative from the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, the Center for Legislative Archives and the National Archives that promotes civic literacy and engagement. As part of this initiative, the education team at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, the Center for Legislative Archives and educators across the National Archives will be providing teachers with programming, curricula, and exceptional field trip…
Guided Programs
Subject: Civics and US Government
Grade: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Time: 0-1 hour
Students conduct historical research on individual and collective efforts to achieve gender equality in the United States by reading and discussing a nonfiction picture book, analyzing an historical photograph, and researching and taking action on the current gender pay gap.
Lesson Plans & Activities
Subject: Civics and US Government, English Language Arts, US History
Grade: 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
Time: 0-1 hour, 1-2 hours
Students read, listen to, and summarize excerpts of President Kennedy's June 11, 1963 speech on civil rights. They reflect on its resonance today and create images of a better future.
Lesson Plans & Activities
Subject: Civics and US Government, English Language Arts, US History
Grade: 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
Time: 0-1 hour, 1-2 hours
Students learn about ancient symbols and ornamental and architectural elements to identify some symbols of American democracy in the White House as an introduction to the origins of common symbolic representations of the United States and its values.
Lesson Plans & Activities
Subject: English Language Arts, US History, World History
Grade: 5, 6, 7, 8
Time: 0-1 hour, 1-2 hours
Adapted from the longer lesson plan "What if Laws are Unjust?", this activity asks students to analyze Dr. King’s discussion of when laws are unjust from his “Letter from Birmingham Jail.”
Lesson Plans & Activities
Subject: Civics and US Government, US History
Grade: 7, 8
Time: 0-1 hour
Students can learn about the suffrage movement and its symbolism in MA, and then color a bluebird sign.
Hands-On History Activities
Subject: Civics and US Government, US History
Grade: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Time: 0-1 hour
Encourage students to make their own American flag with popsicle sticks and learn more about its history and the meaning behind its colors.
Hands-On History Activities
Subject: Civics and US Government, US History
Grade: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Time: 0-1 hour
Students can use outlines of presidents and first ladies to make one-of-a-kind portrait collages.
Hands-On History Activities
Subject: US History
Grade: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Time: 0-1 hour
Students can design, make, and decorate a poster to support their chosen cause.
Hands-On History Activities
Subject: Civics and US Government, US History
Grade: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
Time: 0-1 hour
Students use primary and secondary sources to research a mystery artifact -- a coconut husk with a message carved on it -- and determine the object’s historical significance.
Lesson Plans & Activities
Subject: English Language Arts, US History
Grade: 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
Time: 0-1 hour, 1-2 hours
Students can make their own suffrage sash inspired by those worn by suffragists in the 20th century.
Hands-On History Activities
Subject: Civics and US Government, US History
Grade: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Time: 0-1 hour
Students can make their own suffrage sunflower and discover more about the popular symbols and colors used by suffragists in the campaign to secure the right to vote for women.
Hands-On History Activities
Subject: Civics and US Government, US History
Grade: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Time: 0-1 hour
Students can learn more about how suffragists represented themselves by creating a change-making suffragist zine, a self-published booklet.
Hands-On History Activities
Subject: Civics and US Government, US History
Grade: 6, 7, 8
Time: 0-1 hour