Social Studies Lesson Plans & Activities for Middle School

Bring history to life with timelines and comics! With these lesson plan and activity ideas, students will depict historical events, outline important philosophies, and analyze different periods with our American and World History lesson plans. They can even create posters and infographics for summative projects or information reinforcement.

Project Ideas

• Timelines
• Cause & Effect of Events
• Compare and Contrast Events
• Forms of Government
• Biography Posters
• Historical Narrative Comics
• Political Cartoons & Propaganda
• Development of Ancient Cultures

US History

Example from the Declaration of Independence

• 13 Colonies
• 1850s America
• Age of Exploration in America
• American Revolution
• Atlantic Slave Trade
• Civil Rights Movement
• Cold War: 1945-1962
• Common Sense
• Constitutional Convention
• COVID 19 Pandemic
• Declaration of Independence
• Election of 1800: Jefferson vs. Adams
• Emancipation Proclamation
• Events Leading Up to the American Revolution
• Federalism
• French and Indian War
• Great Depression
• History of the US Civil War
• Indigenous Peoples
• Jacksonian Democracy
• Japanese American Incarceration in WWII
• Massachusetts Bay Colony Teacher Guide
• Missouri Compromise of 1820
• New Deal
• Pilgrims and Plymouth Colony
• Presidency of Abraham Lincoln
• Presidency of Harry Truman
• Presidency of Richard Nixon
• Presidency of Ronald Reagan
• Reconstruction Era
• Revolutionary War
• Tinker vs. Des Moines
• Transcontinental Railroad
• U.S. Territorial Expansion 1783-1959
• Voting Rights
• War of 1812
• World War II: (1939-1941)
• World War II: (1942-1945)
• World War II: An Introduction

World History

Introduction to World War 2

• Ancient China
• Ancient Civilizations
• Ancient Egypt
• Ancient Greece
• Ancient India
• Ancient Mesopotamia
• Ancient Rome
• Buddhism
• Canadian History
• Canadian History 1784-1896
• Christianity
• Communism and the Russian Revolution
• COVID 19 Pandemic
• Early Humans
• Enlightenment & Scientific Revolution
• French Revolution
• Geography of Canada
• Hinduism
• History of Imperialism
• History of the Holocaust
• Indigenous Peoples
• Industrial Revolution
• Islam
• Judaism
• Primary and Secondary Sources
• Sikhism
• Vietnam War
• World Geography Projects
• World War I (1914-1918)
• World War II: (1939-1941)
• World War II: (1942-1945)
• World War II: An Introduction

Civics

Introduction to US Government

• Bill of Rights
• Canadian Government
• Executive Branch
• How to Become President
• Introduction to Democratic Principles
• Introduction to Government
• Judicial Branch
• Legislative Branch
• Political Parties
• US Elections
• Voting Rights

Primary Sources

Diary of Anne Frank

• Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl
• Bill of Rights
• Boy on the Wooden Box, The
• Common Sense
• Declaration of Independence
• Emancipation Proclamation
• General History of Virginia, The
• I Have a Dream
• Letter from Birmingham Jail
• Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
• Night
• Of Plymouth Plantation
• Speech in the Virginia Convention

Historical Fiction

The Witch of Blackbird Pond

• A Single Shard
• Al Capone Does My Shirts
• Anne of Green Gables
• Book Thief, The
• Breadwinner, The
• Bud, Not Buddy
• Calico Girl
• Catherine, Called Birdy
• Cay, The
• Dragonwings
• Echo
• Elijah of Buxton
• Esperanza Rising
• Full Cicada Moon
• Glory Be
• Inside Out and Back Again
• Johnny Tremain
• Julie of the Wolves
• Kira-Kira
• Last Cherry Blossom, The
• Lily's Crossing
• Lions of Little Rock, The
• Long Walk to Water, A
• Midnight Without a Moon
• Moon Over Manifest
• Night Diary, The
• Night Divided, A
• Number the Stars
• Once
• One Crazy Summer
• Refugee
• Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
• Sylvia & Aki
• Towers Falling
• Underground to Canada
• War That Saved My Life, The
• Watsons Go to Birmingham - 1963, The
• Wednesday Wars, The
• White Bird
• Witch of Blackbird Pond, The
• Wolf Hollow