Tag: freebie

American Revolution, Assignment Ideas, Teaching Tips

My First Video Post! Free Digital Pamphlet Template and Two Free Assignments

I’ve decided to start doing some video posts! Watch the video below or read the summary after the video for the basics.

Download your free template and assignments here!

An easy and creative way to let students showcase a large amount of knowledge on a subject is to have them create pamphlets. The most popular design for a pamphlet is the trifold layout.

A tri-fold pamphlet can be tricky for students to design, especially when creating it digitally. It’s hard to visualize which part will be the front. So, I created this free digital template to help your students create a trifold pamphlet! It works as a PowerPoint file, or you can upload it to Google slides and share it with your students. If your students create a hard copy at their desks, display the PowerPoint on your board to help them get started.

Tips
  • Make sure you give your students a subject for which lots of information is available. The students have six panels to fill, and you want to make sure they have plenty of information to fill those panels. So, rather than assigning a pamphlet on a single event, like the Boston Massacre, you might assign students a pamphlet on the Continental Army or one on major battles in the American Revolution.
  • When you give the assignment, be specific about the details you want students to include. Do you want pictures? How many pictures should students include? Should they be in color? How many facts do you want? Are there certain people, places, or things you want students to mention? Should the pamphlet be typed or hand-written?
  • Does your school have a career center? Stop by and see if they have an example of a pamphlet that you can show your students. (Next time you are traveling to a different state, stop by the rest area to get pamphlets to show your students. Bonus: Look for pamphlets about historical sites and experiences if you have time.)

To give you an idea of what this might look like, I’ve included two sample assignments to use with the template. One covers the Continental Army, and the other covers Jamestown.

Download your free template and assignments here!
Colonial America, Colonization & Settlement, Colonization to Civil War

Free Columbus and New World Doodle Notes

I thought I’d give you something that might help you along your way as you start the new semester. I hope to eventually have instructional videos that go along with these notes, but you can still use these in the meantime. These are doodle notes that cover the basics of the New World, Christopher Columbus, and the Columbian Exchange. I’ve also included an optional assignment idea on the last page of the notes.

If you don’t know what doodle notes are, they are awesome! While you cover the material, students call fill in and decorate the notes. This visual note-taking activates both hemispheres of the brain at the same time. Research shows that connecting images with information enables many students to remember more of the material covered than by using traditional notes. I’ve included tips and links to a couple of helpful resources in the files, so you’ll have all the info you need to implement them.

Would you like more doodle notes on other subjects? What subjects do you struggle with the most and need more resources for? Use the contact form to let me know! I plan on creating more doodle notes this year, as well as other resources. I hope to give away lots of freebies this year (along with posting resources from other sites), so be sure to check back often to see what I’ve posted.

Click here to download my Columbus Doodle Notes!

Also, FYI, I have LOTS of doodle notes available for Economics in my TPT store.

Holidays, Uncategorized

Free Christmas Assignments to Use with Almost Any Topic

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.