The Worlds of North and South Pre-Civil War Bundle Review (Under $20 Unit Plan!)

Saving money is nearly more complicated than finding the right lesson plan to settle history squarely in your students' minds. This fantastic unit plan bundle on the pre-civil war society that sparked our country's darkest hour will save you some green and engage your middle graders. This review goes into the details of some of our favorite products within the bundle and offers some other teachers input on it.

Worlds of North and South Activity Bundle Pre-Civil War Lessons 

BY

(More on Mr. and Mrs. P below)

This bundle is brimming with unique primary resources and activities that are student centered and interactive. Games and primary source readings collide with various common core literacy and writing activities, making this bundle the perfect balance of fun and smart. It's a complete unit plan for 6th grade, 7th grade, and 8th grade history lessons on the complicated events of the Westward Expansion and the key figures that lead the political angles of it. In addition, several of the primary resources offer up challenging, thought-provoking activities that will have your middle grade students pondering things long after they leave the classroom. 

This in-depth writing activity is perfect for every classroom. Primary and secondary sources offer students the opportunity to explore the gap between slavery and industrialism via a response guide, analysis of the sources, and providing commentary. Answer keys make grading easy as well.

Another great lesson plan that will have students deep in thought and writing is this common core literacy activity that compares and contrasts the northern factory worker with the slaves. It will give some visual stimulation to engage students, and offer stark realities about the early US history of this time period.

If you're social studies unit is in need of a student centered, atmosphere boost, this activity is a perfect option. Ten (10) graphs and charts give history teachers flexibility to do stations or a "graph walk" around the classroom. This can help get the wiggles out of middle grade students, and get them thinking critically as they fill out their graphic organizers about the differences of north and south in relation to the following pre-civil war big ideas:

 Populations of North and South

Labor Systems

Transportation Systems

Rural/Urban Land

Patents

Immigration

City Growth and Agricultural Growth

Industry

Exports

This writing activity also takes advantage of graphs to make students analyse and critically think like the Graph Walk Investigation above. However, it also adds in the advantage of emgaging students with pre-civil war advertisements for various relavant topics such as steam power boats, locamotives, cotton gin, sewing machine, textile mills, and more. These primary resources will bring US history alive for your students!

This bundle also includes other engaging activities and games, plus some assessment options for a complete unit plan (individually costing $70!). Other items included are:

• Sectionalism Reading and Worksheet with Common Core Writing Extension
• omen's Rights Reformers Gallery Walk, Graphic Organizer and Common Core Writing Activity
• North and South Interdependence Mini-project Investigation Activity 
• Coming of the Railroad Common Core Reading and Graphic Organzier
• Uncle Tom's Cabin Primary Source Reading and Writing Activity
• Immigration in the Early 1800s Internet Investigation Activity. This is an outstanding webquest on a great, visual Library of Congress site.
• Venn Diagram Comparing the North and South
• Common Core Reading and Worksheet: Virginia's Apology for Slavery
• The Declaration of Sentiments Primary Source Reading and Writing Activity
• Plantation Owner and Factory Owner Engaging Pinterest Pinboard Activity
• Two Part North and South DBQ (Document Based Questions) Assessment with 6 Primary Source Documents and Common Core Writing
• A Fantastic Key Concept Match Activity, with graphic organizers, a matching assignment and writing guides with 3 options.
• Password Game Review

Here is what teachers are saying about the Worlds of North and South Pre-Civil War Bundle: 

Want to see a complete activities list for this 30 page social studies bundle, as well as more about the creators Mr. and Mrs. P? Click the link below for all the details on their 26 years combined teaching experience and how they were literally student nominated as superheroes!

INSTRUCTOMANIA, INC.

How This Interactive Game Can Teach Your Students US History

Instructomania has made it our goal to collect resources on our Pinterest boards as well as create curriculum to help teachers present history in the best way possible. (Feel free to check out all our Pinterest Boards and follow your favorites here.) One of the resources we’ve recently discovered is Mission US. More than anything else, teachers often comment on how hard it is to get their students to engage with history. The creators of Mission US stepped up to the task with interactive “serious games” for middle grade students to be emerged into critical parts of American history.

There are currently four missions available with a fifth based on the Great Depression due to be released later this year. Here’s an excerpt from www.mission-us.org about each of the missions available:

“Mission 1: “For Crown or Colony?” puts players in the shoes of Nat Wheeler, a printer’s apprentice in 1770 Boston. They encounter both Patriots and Loyalists, and when rising tensions result in the Boston Massacre, they must choose where their loyalties lie.  

In Mission 2: “Flight to Freedom,” players take on the role of Lucy, a 14-year-old enslaved in Kentucky.  As they navigate her escape and journey to Ohio, they discover that life in the “free” North is dangerous and difficult. In 1850, the Fugitive Slave Act threatens all African Americans in the North and brings new urgency to the anti-slavery movement.

In Mission 3: “A Cheyenne Odyssey,” players become Little Fox, a Northern Cheyenne boy whose life is changed by the encroachment of white settlers, railroads, and U.S. military expeditions.  As buffalo diminish and the U.S. expands westward, players experience the Cheyenne's persistence through conflict and national transformation.

In Mission 4: “City of Immigrants,” players navigate New York’s Lower East Side as Lena, a young Jewish immigrant from Russia. Trying to save money to bring her parents to America, she works long hours in a factory for little money and gets caught up in the growing labor movement.”

Our initial play led us into the American Revolution as an apprentice. It was easy to navigate and gave options that were realistic to the character. In addition, vocabulary for the era is presented in context and allows students to ask more about it within the game. Time period setting and objects are also part of the play, offering learning in a very simple and ingrained kind of way. All of this is the result of countless studies and testing by multiple universities, as well as input from teachers, parents, and students themselves.

We highly recommend pairing this interactive learning option with some of our products. Mission 1 will emerge students into the world covered in either of our American Revolution bundles or beside this power point about the events that lead to it.

For 6, 7, & 8 grades.

For 4 & 5 grades.

Mission 2 is a great peep into the unrest that eventually lead to the civil war and builds empathy for the slaves and how they were unfairly treated, so we recommend using this mission to teach with our Civil War Bundle or Worlds of North and South Pre-Civil War Bundle. 

Mission 3 offers a unique, Native American boy's perspective of the railroad and "white man's takeover" of the United States and would connect with our Westward Expansion Bundle and Indian Removal Investigative Activity.

Even if you don’t pair them up, consider adding Mission US to your classroom plan. The website offers educator guides to help spark discussion and learning post-play. Be sure to create a list of your student’s usernames and passwords so you can monitor their completion of the levels for grading.

Have you used www.mission-us.org in your classroom and had success? Would you be interested in adding this type of serious play into your class periods? Please comment below and be sure to check out their website and our offerings on Teachers Pay Teachers by clicking the button in the top right corner!

Ingenious Ideas for the Classroom: A Guide to Making it Work for the Rest of the Year

Now that teachers have settled into the school year and got a feel for their students, they may have realized that some things need tweaked to help make the day run smoother or your students to focus more. We love making our classrooms more user friendly and thought this time of year might be just right to give you some ideas on how to do just that. (And bonus, Black Friday might be able to help you get it done cheaply!)

Avert the Clock Watchers

This might be for teachers in higher grades, but it’s the perfect way to get those clock watchers back on task. Around your classroom clock, put this message: “Time will pass. Will you?” Make the letters as colorful or sparkly as you want, so long as the students get the message.

Clear their Desks

A big problem, especially in the middle grade classrooms or any classrooms where students have limited desk space, share a table with others, or don’t have a cubby, is that they have personal items that take up too much. These sort of items may include purses, water bottles, cell phones, or baseball caps. You can combat this space problem by connecting a bike water bottle holder (water bottles) or hooks (purses and caps) to the leg of each chair. As for the cell phones, use black tape to create strips on a large glass cookie jar and add letters that read “Phone Prison.” Then encourage students to keep their talkers in there until the bell rings.

Make it Pretty

Did you know that color has been linked to better focus, critical thinking, and creativity? (See more here.) This is a good enough excuse to decorate your teaching space based on you and your students’ needs. There are loads of ways to make your classroom more colorful. One of our favorites is using contact paper to beautify the front of boring filing cabinet drawers.

Including students’ pictures in decorating can boost the confidence and morale in the room. This can be done on homework or mail boxes, or around cubby areas.

We also love the idea of running ribbon through milk crates if you use them, creating bunting with book covers to hang over reading areas, and covering an unsightly metal 70s special desk with boisterous wrapping paper.

Better Communication with Chalkboard Paint

Is there an area of your classroom you find yourself posting or swapping information, wasting sticky notes or taping papers up? Chalkboard paint is a great way to make data dumping easier. Painting a door or wall border will create a great place to write daily announcements or reminders.

Click the button in the upper left of this page or click here to check out our Pinterest board for these and more fun and clever ideas for any classroom!

How do you make your classroom more practical and fun for you and your students? Please share with us in the comments below!

The Best Social Media Site to Connect Students and Teachers

Statistics on the age of social media users are incredulous. As of July 2014, 78% of 12 to 17-year-olds (6^th to 11^th graders) that are active online used Facebook at least once monthly, and 52% used Instagram as often. Our world really is starting to become more about posting than relationship building. The instant gratification of online interaction and visual displays on sites such as Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, and Instagram has forced educators to connect with their students in new ways.

For middle grade teachers, this transition may have been slower than instructors in higher grades, but it has become the norm none-the-less. In our experience, Instagram is the best way to unite with our students for a number of reasons.

Firstly, there is less clutter. By sticking to photos and flipgrams on our Instagram profiles, we avoid getting lost in the conglomeration of personal posts, onslaught of each major topic that muddles the feed, and drama often seen on other social media sites.

Sometimes silly is good!

As we all know, “a picture is worth a thousand words.” But really, for us, the photos we share on Instagram do more than paint a point of view for our students. It offers a way to make them laugh, remind them of assignments due and upcoming quizzes, and praise them on work well done. We know it works when we get comments like this one: “Oh no we have a quiz tomorrow I need to study!” If posting those pics gets them to study, we’re not complaining!

We love telling our students well done via Instagram! There's something about public praise that builds their confidence!

 

Lastly, Instagram is easy. We can snap pictures throughout the day, thumb out a quick caption, tag a few students if necessary and voila! We've given our students reasons to stay connected and remember important details.

Our use of Instagram has further inspired us to create curriculum for our students!  We have common core fulfilling “selfie” worksheets of famous historical figures ranging from Marco Polo to Leonardo DiVinci to Confucius. We also have similar worksheets on Samurais, feudal medieval Japan, soldiers from different wars, and classroom ice breakers. (Click here to check them out on our Teachers Pay Teachers page.)

One of our Instagram Curriculum sheets on Teachers Pay Teachers Store

If you’re a middle grade teacher trying to find a way to reach your students without the hassle of competing with the other faucets of their lives, I hope we’ve convinced you to give Instagram a try! Check out our "Classroom Tools" for more ways to incorporate Instagram into your classroom.

How do you connect with your students? Please tell us in the comments below!