Lesson Plans

The following lessons have been created by educators from cultural heritage institutions and schools around Colorado, using digitized collections that are available through Heritage Colorado and other on-line databases of primary source materials. Many of these lessons are aligned with Colorado Model Content Standards and have been piloted in the classroom. Lessons are available on a range of subjects.

Lessons: by title | by subject

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121 matching lessons

Title Subject Grade Level
English Language Arts
1-5
During this lesson, students will be searching newspaper advertisements to locate Christmas toys which were popular during the years 1897 to 1922. They will use a Venn diagram to compare and contrast these toys with toys which are popular today. As a culminating activity, each student will choose a newspaper ad from the past to serve as the resource for a writing activity. In this writing activity, the child will assume the identity of a young child from the time of the date of their ad. They will then write a letter to Santa requesting toys listed in their ad.
 
English Language Arts
History
Multi-age
In this lesson, students will explore the history of the Ludlow Massacre through an online encyclopedia, through Colorado's Historic Newspaper Collection, and the Collaborative Digitization Program. In particular, they will measure the impact of the strike on the miners, their families, Colorado and the nation. Students will develop their skills in using electronic databases and primary sources, both print and digitalized. They will critically analyze and question the content and the digitalized images.
 
History
Science
6-8
In this lesson, students will locate primary sources in newspaper ads, charts or articles for information about how the medical industry has changed since the 1800s. They will identify three medical discoveries, technologies, pharmaceuticals or surgical procedures done in those time- periods. They will decide whether the information would be relevant today. Students will research what scientific progress has been made today from the products and medical technology of the past. Students will present their "medical" discoveries during a class "Medicine Show". Students will recreate their "wares" for the class or design a poster to advertise their product or procedure. Students will analyze the presentations made at the "medicine show".
 
Geography
History
6-8
This lessons looks at the history of the Denver Mint, the transition from a private mint/assay office to being a Department of Treasury Mint. The lesson will give students the opportunity to learn about the Denver Mint, events that happened there and offer them a chance to learn how to create a timeline with Microsoft Word.
 
History
1-5
The purpose of this lesson is to familiarize students with the day-to-day happenings and events of their hometown in the year 1908. The rationale for the year 1908 is relative to a fieldtrip that will occur following the classroom/lab learning experience. The fieldtrip is to our local history museum, The Animas History Museum. When at the museum, the children will participate in a classroom designed to look and feel like 1908. They will wear period dress and will enjoy lessons taught by a "schoolmarm".
 
History
6-8
Students will learn how to search for and use primary source material as part of their research. Students will learn about settlement patterns and diversity of agricultural workers in Weld County over time.
 
English Language Arts
9-12
 
English Language Arts
History
Multi-age
Students will explore different components that most newspapers share. Students will learn how to find resources using the CHNC web site by keyword searches. Students will explore linguistic and sociological differences in different time periods.
 
English Language Arts
History
Multi-age
Educators interested in using primary source material with students.
 
History
6-8
Students will gain a greater understanding of the ways that society changes over time. Students will come up with questions about how baseball in Denver has changed from the early 1900s to the present day and then seek answers through investigating historical resources. Areas to explore through questioning might include: How have the participants of baseball changed over the last 100 years (race, gender, etc.)?, How have the uniforms/equipment/safety precautions been altered? How have the playing fields changed over the last 100 years?
 
English Language Arts
Information Literacy
9-12
In this lesson students will identify and support examples of bias in print media.Students will learn to effectively and efficiently search the Colorado Historic Newspaper Collection for articles, headlines and illustrations about Native Americans to locate and identify obvious, as well as subtle, examples of bias and prejudice.
 
English Language Arts
9-12
 
English Language Arts
9-12
 
English Language Arts
9-12
 
History
Math
6-8
Students will learn the importance of researching and collecting historical and current data, for a larger project, the redesign and model building of a local bridge.
 
History
6-8
In this lesson students will find primary sources to support the Wright brothers claim to the first flight. Students will learn how to analyze and evaluate each source.
 
Science
1-5
Students will learn how clouds form, how to identify cloud formations, and what weather affects cloud formation. Students will observe weather patterns, and make basic predictions about the weather based upon observations of clouds.
 
Science
Multi-age
The students will learn the names of different types of clouds, identify the characteristics of different types of clouds, reconstruct formation of clouds using construction paper, glue, and crayons, learn to take digital pictures of cloud formations and print the photographs, learn to search the internet to help identify names and characteristics of cloud formations, record observable data in their journals.
 
History
Information Literacy
1-5
Through historic newspapers, students will learn about the output of gold, the methods of mining, the dangers of mining, and value of gold in the late 1800's/early 1900's in Colorado.
 
History
1-5
Students will use selected Internet sites to research an industry of a Colorado city today and compare and contrast it to times past.
 
Economics
Geography
Physical Science
9-12
In the late 1800s and early 1900s, a series of irrigation ditches was constructed along the Arkansas and South Platte Rivers to provide farmers with sufficient water to meet their agricultural needs in an arid environment. Kansas claimed that the amount of water withdrawn from the Arkansas reduced the flow of water sufficient to affect their rights to that water. The Colorado-Kansas dispute was settled by the Supreme Court.
 
English Language Arts
History
Science
Multi-age
This lesson examines Colorado employment prior to and after 1920. Students use skills with computer literacy and searching in historical records. They also use higher level thinking skills such as comparing, contrasting, and categorizing. Career literacy is emphasized. Students will ask and answer critical thinking questions, such as "Are there any jobs that have become obsolete in Colorado over time?" and "How has the improvement of travel and communication impacted the kinds of jobs that we have in Colorado today that we didn't have before 1920?" Dictionaries are utilized. Students practice reading for retention and oral expression exercises.
 
History
Reading
6-8
Students will be able to: 1. Distinguish between primary and secondary sources. 2. Demonstrate the differences between each assigned group's view of labor unions. 3. Compare and contrast labor union views from multiple sources. 4. Effectively use the computer lab to access online sources. 5. Effectively use the library to access printed materials.
 
Visual Arts
9-12
Students will find images of colorful Colorado characters to use as subjects to study art. They will also learn about the history of the people in these photos by writing a brief report about the person(s) they have chosen to draw.
 
History
9-12
The central idea of this unit is for students to discover how, throughout history, significant "change" has been brought about by people who have "communicated" problems. Students will be introduced to the history of reform movements in America focusing on the following topics: Slavery/civil rights, Environment, Women's rights, Urban Poverty, Working Conditions, and Big Business Corruption. The final four center mostly on the Industrial/Progressive Era in American History. Students will learn to analyze and evaluate primary and secondary sources of information that were instrumental in the development of the reform movements.
 
History
1-5
Students will explore historical newspapers and newspapers of today to compare and contrast advertisements in order to see how society has changed and or stayed the same over time.
 
History
1-5
Students will compare and contrast the lives of children from the 1800's with the children of today by analyzing historical photographs of schools, home life and recreation.
 
History
1-5
Students examine some of the components that make up a lifestyle and compare different lifestyles during different time periods and different geographic locations
 
Civics
History
Media Literacy
Multi-age
In this lesson students will compare and contrast through technological exploration the Constitutional Amendments challenged within the last 20th century. They will develop skills to search two primary sources for a historical perspective from within Colorado's Historic Newspaper Collection, and current news in The Denver Post. Students will create meaning by asking critical questions about current legislation in litigation over civil liberties. Students will synthesize their newspaper exploration onto a newspaper front page cooperative group project.
 
English Language Arts
History
Multi-age
Students will use www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org, as well as other sources, to research a topic, create a timeline of the topic, and present their findings to the class. This 9-day unit project is ideal for 50-minute class periods at the secondary level.
 
Health
Multi-age
Students will explore Colorado's historic Newspapers to discover information related to healthy eating. They will compare and contrast common themes and claims from current resources with what they find in the historic collection and relate those themes to life today.
 
Social Studies
1-5
In this lesson students will explore a person in either past or present Denver History using Colorado Historic Newspapers and other resources. In particular they will develop a timeline and be able to present themselves as their person.
 
History
9-12
At the conclusion of this lesson, the learner will be able to: ï¿~ Observe and interpret print and photo primary sources. ï¿~ Identify and evaluate bias in primary sources. ï¿~ Research and gather both print and electronic secondary information on Relocation camps in the United States, 1942-1945. ï¿~ Hypothesize why Japanese and Japanese-Americans were sent to Relocation camps, 1942-1945. ï¿~ Describe aspects of everyday life at the Amache Relocation Camp, (Grenada, Colorado) 1942-1945.
 
History
9-12
Students will explore how differing newspapers, editors, and even communities had differing points of view on the development of the railroad through Colorado. They will explore different ways of searching in Colorado's Historic Newspaper Collection. Objective 1: Students will use the Colorado Historic Newspaper Project database and other historic materials databases to research the development of the railroads in Colorado. They will learn about different ways to effectively search the database. Objective 2: Students will prepare an historical reenactment that compares and contrasts at least two differing points of view related to the development and construction of the railroads or the individuals involved in their development. These points of view might come from different publications, or might have been published at different times during its development, or might represent different community or political points of view concerning the railroad.
 
Geography
9-12
Students will gather data/information about human activities in a local area (Denver) through analysis of historic photographs from different eras. Students will then apply knowledge about urbanization and industrialization to draw conclusions about change, patterns and trends during the past and present.
 
Visual Arts
6-8
Students will research newspapers in the year 1910 - the time period of The Music Man - to determine events, advertising, fashion, and other cultural categories that were similar to or different from today. They will determine if any discoveries they have made that would help with their production of The Music Man.
 
History
6-8
Through reading and viewing primary source materials, students will learn to evaluate and to draw conclusions about a period in history. Students will make connections to their own lives by reading letters written by other children during the Depression.
 
Economics
English Language Arts
Geography
History
Media Literacy
Multi-age
This lesson looks at advertising in Colorado's Historic Newspaper Collection and the products and services that met social, physical, and economic needs at the turn of the 20th century. Throughout the lesson, students will develop their skills in browsing entire newspaper issues by region, retrieving a variety of advertisements, analyzing and categorizing the advertisements, and asking critical questions of the content.
 
History
1-5
The focus of the lesson is for fourth grade students to understand that Denver schools and their neighborhoods have changed over time, how they have changed, and why these changes occurred. Students will compare photos (acquired from a database and some that they take themselves) and information about the history of four Denver schools and their neighborhoods.
 
History
9-12
Students will learn how to evaluate primary and secondary sources in order to complete a research project, creating a front page of a newspaper from the depression era. They will learn how to search Heritage Colorado as well as American Memory in locating the information they need to create their article.
 
English Language Arts
History
Media Literacy
6-8
This lesson will focus on articles in Colorado's Historic Newspaper Collection and an electronic edition of the Rocky Mountain News involving the significance of water in Weld County, Colorado. Students will be given an opportunity to develop their skills in searching historic databases, browsing articles, retrieving primary source information, analyzing past and current events, and asking critical questions of the content.
 
English as a Second Language
6-8
Purpose of the lesson is: - to read non-fiction texts using news and database sources. - to read for specific content (skimming/scanning). - to practice and use academic (higher level) vocabulary. - to write using content vocabulary. - to make conclusions based on readings about the past and the present. - to ask questions and find answers. - to repeat and practice geographical map skills. - to use the Internet for reading primary sources.
 
Information Literacy
9-12
The purpose of the lesson is to reinforce skills learned previously in creating and manipulating spreadsheets and charts for use in processing, evaluating, organizing and presenting information. Another purpose is to gain experience in using online databases. Another (optional) purpose is to reinforce web page design and desktop publishing skills.
 
English Language Arts
Multi-age
In this lesson, students will explore Colorado's Historic Newspaper Collection and locate ghost stories published in the 1900s from different regions of Colorado. They will have the opportunity to develop skills in learning how to access and retrieve information in this primary source collection. Standards Assessed: Which standards will you be assessing in this lesson? Identify the content area, the standard number and any key components or benchmarks that are applicable.
 
History
6-8
Students will learn to access and use several databases of primary sources that would be useful for their research
 
Social Studies
1-5
Students will learn to differentiate between a product and a service. In addition students will determine whether the product or service is a need or a want. Using both current and historic newspapers through the use of computer technology, students will compare and contrast modern advertising versus turn of the century ads. Students will use the acquired knowledge to create an advertisement for a product or a service. Students will share their ad with the class and give supporting reasons why their ad is either a product or a service and if it is a want or a need.
 
Science
1-5
After completing this lesson, students will be able to identify and name animals native to the Grand Canyon, answer questions about animals native to the Grand Canyon, demonstrate research skills, identify specific animals habitats
 
History
6-8
Students will learn: to read for information and understanding through the use of the Internet while finding research on cemeteries, to speak to a variety of audiences about grave markers and the meanings of their designs, to apply critical thinking in designing a grave marker that would be a representation of their life and to respond to a primary source and recognize it as a record of human experience by walking to a nearby graveyard and completing an activity at the site.
 
English Language Arts
9-12
 
English Language Arts
History
9-12
Students will learn what issues and concerns were relevant from the 20th Century that may still be relevant in the 21st Century: Issues such as water, technology or invention/advancement, or environmental issues. (A sample of an invention issue has been provided from Telluride Journal (Telluride, San Miguel County); Date: Jan. 18, 1906): "Edison on the Future of Electricity" Students will have the opportunity to access the website: www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org and choose an article they feel strongly opposed to or an article they strongly agree with. They will write a letter to the editor in standard business format. Advanced students will have the opportunity to research and investigate issues that were relevant in the past and examine through comparison and contrast the relevancy of linked issues today. Resource students will have the option of choosing an article from the Denver Post and write a letter to the editor on an article of their choosing.
 
English Language Arts
History
Multi-age
In this lesson, students will identify a historical event of their choice. Students will then investigate this character by researching the Colorado Historic Newspaper Collection. After gathering three separate articles (sources), students will write a short historical fiction story. The story must contain references (quotations) from the articles used.
 
English Language Arts
Information Literacy
Social Studies
6-8
Students will learn to recognize the historic themes and diction of the late 19th and early 20th centuries by analyzing newspaper articles from Colorado's Historic Newspaper Collection database online. Students also will learn to understand identified aspects of a newspaper and journalistic writing.
 
History
1-5
Students will be able to use historic photographs to gain perspective on the different modes of transportation available at the turn of the last century. Additionally, they will be able to explain why different methods of transportation were used during different time periods.
 
English Language Arts
6-8
Students are to have first hand experience culling information from primary documents (Colorado's Historic Newspaper Collection), write a brief essay using this information, and use appropriate documentation and citation procedures.
 
History
9-12
Students learn to interpret and access primary source documents using primary sources of the Great Western Sugar Company, in Longmont Colorado. Students learn to distinguish between primary source and secondary source material by examining both types of sources. Students learn to recognize the uses and value of primary source documents in historical inquiry.
 
History
Information Literacy
6-8
In this lesson students will learn to research and use information from historic newspapers to answer the following questions: what role did yellow journalism play in influencing the U.S. to enter into the Spanish-American War and how does the media influence its consumers? Students will learn the differences between "yellow journalism" and objective journalism practices.
 
English Language Arts
Social Studies
Technology
Multi-age
Students will learn about early immigration issues. They will compare/contrast with today's immigration issues with those of the past using primary sources (images & texts) from the American Memory and Colorado Heritage Collections. The students will practice how to develop questions about a topic and use that knowledge to product a multimedia presentation illustrating their opinion pro or con about immigration. The students will learn that the immigration issue is not a new issue in America.
 
English Language Arts
Geography
History
Multi-age
In this lesson, students will focus and explore the progress of immigration for the last 100 years in the History of the United States. They will compare and make contrast of the immigration situation of the past to the immigration situation in the present. They will infer solutions and problems in making immigration bills so that the United States will benefit from immigration.
 
Art
English as a Second Language
Math
9-12
Students will use newspaper articles and photos from the Colorado Historic Newspaper Collection databases to inform them of events and places in their town at the turn of the 20th century in order to generate images for a poster illustrating things that happened during these years. Students will develop their research skills using these databases and analyze the articles for subjects for drawings.
 
History
6-8
The purpose of this lesson is to allow students to analyze the expectations (instructions) of Thomas Jefferson of the Lewis and Clark Expedition and if Lewis and Clark met those expectations.
 
English Language Arts
Social Studies
Special Education
Multi-age
Students will learn how to research historic newspapers on the internet. Students will broaden their perception of what life was like over one-hundred by exploring this resource, and comparing and contrasting advertisements in historic newspapers to today's newspapers.
 
History
9-12
To introduce students to the Chicano Movement through pictures from the 1960s and 1970s. Students will acquire an understanding of what the Chicano Movement consisted of, the issues that sparked the Chicano Movement, the people who participated and the events that occurred during the Chicano Movement. Students will learn how to analyze and interpret photographs and make inferences. Students will demonstrate what they learned and express it in some form of writing.
 
Geography
History
6-8
Students will learn how to interpret primary source photographs and create and analyze a historical map. The map will have accurate map conventions and show change in the landscape of an area.
 
History
6-8
The purpose of this lesson is for students to learn about Western Expansion through the study of primary and secondary sources of the Lewis and Clark Expedition.
 
History
6-8
The purpose of this lesson is for students to become familiar with the art of analyzing and the process of researching for a purpose through the use of primary and secondary sources.
 
English Language Arts
9-12
 
Business/Marketing
9-12
This lesson will focus on the use of demographic, psychographic and cultural characteristics in the development of marketing messages. Students will compare and contrast specific marketing campaigns from the 1970's and today (2003) in order to identify key factors that influenced the design of commercials for similar products in different eras.
 
History
1-5
Students will learn to utilize both primary and secondary sources to examine the life of miners in different socioeconomic classes in the early 1900's in the Cripple Creek mining district (This includes the towns of Cripple Creek, Goldfield, and Victor, Colorado) to determine the differences there were in the lives of miners from high vs. low socioeconomic levels. An emphasis will be on the Portland Mine on Battle Mountain in Goldfield.
 
History
1-5
Using Margaret's Magnificent Colorado Adventure by Julie Danneberg (1999) as the inspiration for this project, students will learn the basic procedures of how to search Colorado's Historic Newspaper Collection to create their own scrapbooks of an historical Colorado virtual vacation.
 
History
6-8
Students will examine primary source photographs and analyze the images to help them discover that societies are diverse and have changed over time.
 
History
Reading
Writing
Multi-age
Photographs are an invaluable tool for understanding both history and culture. By carefully observing the objects in a photo, the people and the surrounding environment, one can have a true window into the everyday lives of those who lived long ago.
 
Reading
6-8
Students find nothing extraordinary about the inventions of the twenty-first century: high-speed computers, camera phones, and Ipods. However, many of the commonplace items that we take for granted were invented during the era of newspapers available at the Colorado Historic Newspaper Collection (CHNC), for example the horseless carriage, toilet paper, the telephone, and the cinematograph. For this lesson, students will use a digital timeline to choose a common household item, research its history, and write an informative report to be placed in a classroom Book of Inventions. In addition, students will obtain two articles or ads from the CHNC that demonstrate how the public responded to the invention. These pieces will be analyzed, printed out, and added to the classroom book.
 
Social Studies
1-5
The focus of the lesson is for third grade students to understand that many people came to Denver as pioneers and settlers, using many methods of transportation. The stagecoach and the various stagecoach routes going through Denver were an important factor in the building up of Denver as a major Western town. The students will be taking a field trip to Four Mile House, a former stage stop.
 
History
6-8
Students will learn how to evaluate and interpret primary source materials, using photos as the focus. Students will learn how the photographer's perspecive affects the interpretation of the photo, by analyzing manipulated photos and by creating their own photos.
 
History
1-5
To discover petroglyphs as a primary source, to learn to describe petroglyphs and to identify what they are trying to communicate (the main idea), and to identify the unique way that different cultures record their history.
 
English Language Arts
9-12
 
English Language Arts
9-12
 
Social Studies
1-5
By reading about the early city in the 1900's and the improvements that occurred, the students will learn how a town that was initially a farming community grew to become a city.
 
Physical Science
6-8
Students relate what they learn about the science of radioactivity to technology, human activity and history. Note: this is the first in a series of lessons about radioactivity, meant to engage students and activate prior knowledge about topo maps and radioactivity. A synopsis of other lessons in this series will be discussed under Possible Procedures, below.
 
English Language Arts
9-12
 
History
9-12
This lesson focuses on the ways in which public perception and interpretation of the events at Sand Creek on November 29, 1864 have changed over time. Using newspaper accounts from Colorado's Historic Newspapers, students will trace events and personalities related to the incident between 1864-1880. Discussion will revolve around bias in primary sources, with a focus on the importance of detecting and accounting for bias in these sources.
 
Physical Science
9-12
The purpose of this lesson is for students to use primary and secondary source material to research the concept of absolute zero. They will survey the current research involving extreme cold , and become aware of the many new discoveries and applications this research has lead to.
 
Special Education
1-5
Students will be able to identify the setting in a picture by: * The students will be able to discuss the 'setting' of pictures in a group setting. * The students will be able to tell their own story of what is happening in the picture. * The students will be able to color the setting only in a picture given to them. * The students will be able to choose three pictures from Colorado's Historic Newspaper Collection website that have 'setting' within the picture. * Using the left click button on the computer mouse, the student will be able to double left click to enlarge the picture with a setting in the screen. Using the left click button on the computer mouse, the student will be able to highlight the word 'picture' and add it to a 'Add to My Collection'* on the website Extension: Next day 1) Print out the compilation of the pictures saved on "Add to My Collection" and have the students identify the pictures that each student had chosen. (K-4th grade) 2) Discuss what they thought was happening in the setting for the picture they had chosen. (K-4th grade) 3) Tell a story about one of the pictures. (K-4th grade) 4) Why did they choose the picture? (K-4th grade) 5) Make a copy of the "Map" from the Colorado's Historic Newspaper Collection website and have the students find the county of origin where the pictures were printed. (3rd -4th grade) 6) Write a story about one picture describing the setting, using vivid adjectives. (4th grade) 7) Choose one picture and have the students go back into the website and print out the article which accompanied the picture and discuss/write what would have been happening at that time period in Colorado. 8) Assign a picture by County and have the students find the picture on Colorado's Historic Newspaper Collection website by using the Map showing the counties of Colorado. (4th grade)
 
History
1-5
Students will learn how to evaluate and interpret primary documents on the Japanese internment and relocation to the Granada (Camp Amache) Relocation Center.
 
History
6-8
In pairs, students will research and explore how society's view of divorce has changed, if at all, since the late 1800s and early 1900s. By developing their research skills in accessing news articles through the Colorado's Historic Newspaper Collection (CHNC - www.coloradoshistoricnewspapers.org), as well as through current news sources such as Post-News Educational Services (www.postnewseducation.com), they will create and attempt to answer one fundamental question of their choice about the social changes of American divorce.
 
English Language Arts
History
Multi-age
In this lesson, students will explore the rich history of the spelling bee in Colorado and the nation through Colorado's Historic N