U.S. History Brain-Stretchers BUNDLE: 80 Journal Prompts

Get all my U.S. History Brain-Stretchers in one money-saving bundle! This collection will take you from colonization to contemporary America and works equally well as writing prompts, bell ringers, or discussion questions. These Brain-Stretchers get students thinking about topics that they will be exploring in class, finding relevance in the past, and reflecting on what they have learned. They are truly versatile and are an absolute lifesaver in the classroom!

The questions in each prompt are purely opinion based (no right or wrong answers) so they are accessible to all students. Each individual Brain-Stretcher is neatly spaced onto its own pdf page (that displays nicely in full screen mode) and is between two to five sentences long. To help students focus on the main idea of each prompt, one sentence is in bold font.

These Brain-Stretchers are organized into sections (such as “The Revolutionary War”) and can be used independently so you can use them in whatever order you like best. This makes it easy to “skip” a Brain-Stretcher on a day when your time is cut short.

There are 80 Brain-Stretchers in total and they are divided as follows:

• Exploration & Colonization: 6 prompts
• The Revolutionary War: 5 prompts
• The Constitution: 5 prompts
• The New Republic: 8 prompts
• Growth, Reform, & Division: 8 prompts
• The Civil War & Reconstruction: 8 prompts
• Settling the West, Industrialization & Immigration: 6 prompts
• Imperialism & The Progressive Era: 5 prompts
• World War I & The Roaring Twenties: 5 prompts
• The Great Depression & The New Deal: 4 prompts
• World War II: 5 prompts
• The Cold War: 5 prompts
• The Civil Rights Movement & The Vietnam War: 5 prompts
• Contemporary America: 5 prompts

In addition to the Brain-Stretcher prompts (in a 47-page PDF and 49-page PDF), your purchase also includes several helpful extras:

• detailed tips and suggestions for using Brain-Stretchers to establish an effective routine that will enhance your teaching and streamline your classroom management (4 pages)
• ideas on how to use each individual Brain-Stretcher prompt (8 pages)
• a fully editable rubric that makes it easy to grade your students' written responses (2 pages)

What Students Said About Brain-Stretchers (in an anonymous year-end survey):

• “It was a good way to start off the class and get us going. It helped start discussions and get our brains going.”
• “I think the journals were good because they made us apply our lives into the lesson we were going to learn that specific day.”
• “The questions made me think and opened my brain in the morning. They gave me a better perspective when learning about certain topics.”
• “I liked hearing about what other people had to say and how their opinion differed from mine.”
• “They were a good way to get the class to start thinking about the topic we would learn in class.”
• “I like that we get to have a class discussion about a topic that relates to the unit we are studying. I think it is a great way to start class.”
• “It was a good way to voice your opinion if you were passionate about a particular brain-stretcher. Also, it was a fun open-ended thing to do in the beginning of class.”

Whether you use these prompts to spark a lively debate, promote literacy in your classroom, or as bell-ringers, they are sure to make your classroom more engaging and purpose driven!

Interested in trying out a few Brain-Stretchers to get a better idea of what they’re all about? Click on the link below to get five sample prompts for free!

⭐U.S. History Brain-Stretchers Sample Prompts

Only need one of the sets included in this bundle? Click on the links below to view the them individually:

⭐U.S. History Brain-Stretchers: Colonization to 1865

⭐U.S. History Brain-Stretchers: 1865 to the Present

Still wondering why I call them “Brain-Stretchers”? I like the idea of having students warm up their minds before we fully embark on our journey through the past in much the same way that athletes stretch their muscles before more vigorous exercise. As you can see from the positive student feedback that I have received, they are an ideal way to spark interest and get students thinking!

Looking for more great resources for teaching U.S. History? Be sure to check these out:

⭐Heroes of the Civil Rights Movement Quotes Posters

⭐“Would They Rather” Activities to Analyze Any Historical Figure

⭐U.S. History: Unit Tests with Test Reviews BUNDLE (each test is also available individually)

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PS: The brain icon that I used was designed with resources from Freepik.com.