It’s St. Patrick’s Day! If you want a quick filler to begin or end class, use this 10-question quiz at National Geographic Kids. It covers the basics. If you want to go over more in-depth trivia, you can pick and choose from this 50-question list of St. Patrick’s Day trivia. If you want a short video that covers the basics, the video below is pretty thorough.
Those last few days before the holidays can be a tricky time. Students have checked out mentally, or it’s too late to start a new topic before the break. What can you do (other than showing a movie) that is creative, fun, and also history related? Click here to download the following options for free:
1- Have the students create a commemorative Christmas ornament. This is a great idea if you want to focus on one specific person or topic with just a few facts. For example, create a commemorative ornament about Benjamin Franklin.
2- Have students design a themed Christmas tree about a historical topic. If a Christmas tree were about World War I, what might it have on it? What type of ornaments would it have? What might replace the star or the garland? This is a good assignment to choose if you are covering a topic with lots of information available.
The great thing about these assignments is that they are not content-specific and can therefore be used with various topics and time periods. This is helpful because many teachers are covering different topics before the Christmas break.
Download these assignments with in-depth instructions and examples here.
As always, each students is different and you want to make sure you have an option for those who don’t celebrate Christmas. If students don’t feel comfortable doing one of these assignments, have them design a T-shirt instead with similar criteria.
Here’s a quick Veteran’s Day quiz. Project it on your board and go through it as a class. (Let the students silently answer the question, and then take an informal vote as to which answer you should choose.) When checking the answers, make sure you read the information that explains the correct answer before moving on. Use this quiz to activate prior knowledge or as a filler at the end of class. If you do my Quick Veteran’s Day lesson, I’d do it after the reflection, at the end of class, or the next day as a quick review.
Most of you don’t have time to devote a whole day to covering Veteran’s Day. It’s unfortunate, but it’s the truth. There is so much material to cover in US History that Veteran’s Day typically gets a very small piece of the pie, if any. How can you cover Veteran’s Day well, but also do it quickly?
First of all, make sure your students know what a veteran is. They probably do, but it’s always good to cover the basics. Then, show the first video below. It explains what Veteran’s Day actually is and how it came about.
After the video, ask the following questions:
Then show the video below. It’s about five minutes long, but it’s really well done. It shows a lot of clips from various wars. It evokes an emotional response and presents veterans as real people. It really helps students see the “people” behind the word veteran.
Then, have your students write an informal reflection or freewrite answering some of the following questions:
Download a free copy of these questions to display on the board here.
Do you need something fun to do with your students before the Christmas holidays? Have your students create a commemorative Christmas ornament about someone or something you have studied this year! You can get all of the directions and downloads at my TPT store here. It’s free! There’s a printable and digital template, so you can use it in the classroom or for distance learning. Links to Google Slides are also included.
Do you need more ideas? I’ve got an older blog post that gives you several other options here.
Use this short video before Thanksgiving break as a bell ringer or filler.
The True Story of the First Thanksgiving – PBS (2:58)
Optional questions to ask:
Here are two ten-question quizzes about Thanksgiving. The first one has fewer adds. Both give feedback explaining wrong answers. The questions on both are similar. Use these as a fun bell ringer or as filler at the end of class before Thanksgiving holidays.
I always show my students a couple of short videos about the history of Halloween each year. Here are some of my favorites from the History Channel. The first gives a general history of Halloween. The second focuses more on the origins of trick or treating. Both are about 2-3 minutes long. Use them as a fun filler at the end of class or to grab students’ attention at the beginning of class. You can even use them to start a discussion about how American traditions and culture were influenced by other cultures.
You know it’s coming. That dreaded “week before Christmas break.” It’s a time when it’s every teacher for himself, and most educators believe that just for a few days, entire schools should be crop-dusted with ADHD meds.
What do you do? Half of your class has checked-out mentally and the other half have checked-out physically. If you are on a block schedule, then odds are that you have a few days sandwiched between end-of-course tests and Christmas break. If you only have a day or two, by all means, give your kids a break and watch a movie. You all deserve it. But don’t check out and just show something with zero educational value like Elf. Make sure it is a movie with historical content, and write a few class discussion questions on the board while you’re at it.
Sidenote: I recently was somewhat horrified to hear that some teachers the local area had students watch movies for the last TWO WEEKS of the semester because testing was over. I know that it’s hard to keep kids focused after testing, but if you automatically show movies to kill time you are telling your students several things:
Movies in the classroom are ok as an occasional reward (be careful with this one) or to reinforce content, but they should NEVER take the place of instruction just because you don’t feel like teaching. Rant over.
What if your administrators won’t allow movies or you have more than just a day or two to kill? What then? Well, the thing to keep in mind is that you want assignments that meet the following criteria:
So just what can you do when things are crazy? Here are my assignment ideas to help get you through the pre-Christmas craziness. (Keep in mind that these can be used at the end of the year in May/June as well.)
The common thing about all of these activities is that they can be adapted to almost any subject, they allow kids to get creative, and they require very little planning on your part!
Good luck! You’re almost there!
“The soldier above all others prays for peace, for it is the soldier who must suffer and bear the deepest wounds and scars of war.” — Douglas MacArthur
I absolutely LOVE stories of historical events that show humanity at its best. One such story is that of the World War I Christmas truce. If you’ve never heard of this incident, it is fascinating! It began when British troops sitting in the trenches heard the Germans singing Christmas carols. Next thing you know, the British and German troops met in no man’s land and exchanged gifts, took pictures, and even played soccer together! Eventually, due to pressure by commanding officers, the fighting resumed between the two sides. To check out the whole story, read about it here. There are even pictures of the “enemies” mingling during the truce (see the picture above)! How cool! The History Channel also has a short video clip here that has a voiceover of one of the veteran’s who was involved!
If you like stories like this, you can also read the book Chicken Soup for the Veteran’s Soul. It is full of neat anecdotes from various wars that will make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside. I sometimes read a story from this book to my students when we had a few minutes to spare at the end of class. Random Acts of Kindness: True Stories of America’s Civil War is one that has a ton of heartwarming, true accounts from the Civil War. (I actually mentioned this in my last podcast.) Do you know of any other books like these? I’d love to hear about them. Leave a comment and let me know.
Can you imagine what it would be like to be on the USS Arizona when it was hit? Well, the guy in this video knows! In remembrance of the attack on Pearl Harbor, I thought I would link to this REALLY interesting video of a veteran of the USS Arizona detailing his experience during the attack. Sometimes when you are studying a large event where many people die, it’s hard to make it personal. This interview is fascinating and gives students a very personal glimpse of what these men went through! It’s 15 minutes long, but I loved watching to the end. At the end, he explains what he thinks happened to his twin brother, who was also on the USS Arizona. You can stop it at about 10:00 if students start to lose interest.
Here’s a great four-minute video from the History Channel that you can show your students on Columbus Day, if you aren’t out of school (and if you are, show it when you get back). It does a great job of explaining the purpose of Columbus’s mission and how it is linked to the holiday.