U.S. History ACTIVITIES Bundle: 1600s to the 1980s (100+ Activities!)

Planning your U.S. history course from pre-colonization through the 1980s? Check out this bundle of 100+ activities to save yourself prep time! Get students active and engaged with these student-centered activities!

This bundle includes:

25+ Worksheets/Reading Activities

• Native Americans and America Before Columbus Readings & Group Activity
• Enlightenment Influence on the American Revolution Worksheet
• American Revolution Warm-Up Readings (7)
• Patriots’ Primary Sources: Patrick Henry and Thomas Paine
• Washington’s Farewell Address (Group Jigsaw)
• Alien and Sedition Acts Worksheet
• Understanding Judicial Review: What if it didn’t exist?
• Frontier Experiences on the American West Readings
• Texas Annexation Debates Worksheet
• Opposition to the Mexican-American War Readings
• Compromise of 1850: Notes + Worksheet/Role-Taking Perspective Activity
• Reading on Battle of Little Bighorn and Massacre at Wounded Knee
• Labor in the Gilded Age: Primary Source analysis for Workers’ Unions & Big Business
• Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire: Students Tweet as Eyewitnesses
• Nativist Primary Sources: Speeches about the Immigration Act of 1924
• United States v. Susan B. Anthony Court Case Worksheet + Creative Postcard Summary
• Progressive Amendment Worksheet: 16th, 17th, 18th, & 19th Amendments
• Introductory Worksheet to the Progressive Era on Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle and Carrie Nation’s work in Prohibition/Temperance
• Understanding World War I Reading (Covers the causes of WWI like alliances, militarism, imperialism, etc.)
• W.E.B. Du Bois's "Close Ranks" & Writings about African Americans in WWI
• Helen Keller's "Strike Against the War" Anti-WWI Speech
• Treatment of American Veterans Reading and Research Activity (Revolutionary War, Civil War, WWI, WWII, and Vietnam War)
• Cold War Primary Source Worksheet & Key (Iron Curtain, Truman Doctrine, and Soviet Perspective)
• Martin Luther King's "Beyond Vietnam" Speech
• Cesar Chavez Speech Reading
• Warren Court: Learn the Miranda v. Arizona, Escobedo v. Illinois, Engel v. Vitale, and Tinker v. Des Moines Supreme Court Cases

15+ Stations/Gallery Walks/Document Packets

• Race, Slavery, and Violence in the American Colonies
• Remembering the American Revolution Stations
• Lewis and Clark and Corps of Discovery Gallery Walk
• Market Revolution and American System Gallery Walk
• Civil War Politics Stations: Draft Riots, Greenbacks, Emancipation Proclamation, etc.
• Reconstruction Stations, Handout, and Key: Amendments, Jim Crow, etc.
• Native Americans: Dawes Act, Wounded Knee, Little Bighorn: Notes, Worksheets, and Stations
• Chinese Immigration & Anti-Chinese Xenophobia in the American West
• Analyzing Imperialism: Stations on the Spanish-American War, U.S. Involvement in China, Philippines, Cuba, and more
• Roosevelt's Big Stick Diplomacy Stations
• The American Homefront During WWI Stations
• Great Depression Photo Analysis Gallery Walk
• Japanese American Internment Camps Stations
• Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima & Nagasaki Stations
• Cold War on the U.S. Home Front: Red Scare, Space Race, etc.
• 1960s Protest Gallery: Comparing the Anti-Vietnam War and Civil Rights Movements
• Protests Against the Vietnam War
• Latinx Civil Rights Movement Gallery Walk and Guided Notes
• Women’s Movement: Notes, Worksheet & Key, and Stations Activity on the ERA, Roe v. Wade, etc.

20+ Projects/Creative Activities

• French and Indian War Movie Poster Activity
• American Colonies Real Estate Agent Infomercials with Slides & Guided Notes
• American Patriots Business Cards Activity
• African Americans, Native Americans, Women, & Spies in the American Revolution Project
• Grade the Articles of Confederation Project (Assessing the Early U.S. Government)
• Constitutional Issues Presentations: Comparing the Convention to Today’s Issues
• Critical Period Editorial or Political Cartoon Activity
• Election of 1824: John Quincy Adams v Jackson Presidential Stump Speech Activity
• Sectionalism Rap Battle in the Antebellum: North vs. South vs. West in the 1800s
• Antebellum Presidents Campaign Activity: Harrison, Tyler, Polk, Taylor, etc.
• Abolitionist Propaganda Group Activity: Douglass, Garrison, Walker, Jacobs w/ NOTES
• Gold Rush Newspaper
• Antebellum Project: Essay, Newscast, Magazine, Timeline of the 1820s-1850s
• Ranking the Presidents: Research + Creative Activity for Presidential Legacies
• Robber Barons Social Media Influencers Project
• Life Under Jim Crow: Museum Exhibit About Segregation Project
• Progressive Era Project: Report Card for Reformers
• Progressive Era: Intro Worksheet, Notes, and Progressive Reformers Dialogue Project
• Great Depression, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and the New Deal Tic Tac Toe Project
• Korean War Photo Captions Activity (plus Notes & Primary Source Worksheet)
• 1980s Video Project: Reaganomics, Berlin Wall, Iran-Contra Affair, Chernobyl, & more!

4 Writing Assignments

• “How It Feels to Be Colored Me” by Zora Neale Hurston: Harlem Renaissance Creative Writing Activity
• Writing About Pearl Harbor Creative Writing Activity
• Cold War Research Paper: Compare and Contrast Conflict in Cuba, Berlin, Vietnam, and/or Korea
• History of the Vietnam War Reading + Analysis + Creative Writing Activity

5 Simulations/Collaborative Learning

• Make Your Own Mayflower Compact Reading + Activity
• Joint Stock Company Simulation
• Investigating the Burr v. Hamilton Duel
• Are You a Robber Baron? Personality Quiz (+ notes!)
• Civil Rights and Anti-Vietnam War Protest Groups: Era of Social Change Woodstock Reformers Simulation

9 Political Cartoon Analysis Activities

• Monroe Doctrine Political Cartoon Analysis & Era of Good Feelings NOTES
• Andrew Jackson: 8 Political Cartoons Analysis-Stations/Gallery Walk, Jigsaw
• Emancipation Proclamation Political Cartoon Analysis
• Reconstruction Era Political Cartoon Analysis
• Spanish-American War Political Cartoon Analysis
• Gilded Age Political Machines Cartoon Analysis (Boss Tweed, Tammany Hall)
• Nativism Political Cartoon Analysis: Anti-Immigrant Sentiment in the Gilded Age
• Women's Suffrage Movement Cartoon Analysis
• Vietnam War Political Cartoon Analysis

These activities are perfect for classes with a short, teacher-centered introduction of content before letting students dive into the material themselves. Use these student-centered activities in your American History classroom and save yourself lots of time!

Note: The majority of these resources are PDFs/Zip files unless otherwise noted with "Google Drive Folder" description.

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