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Marian Anderson planned on singing at Constitution Hall in Washington, DC, which was owned by the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR). They refused to let her perform because she was African American. Eleanor Roosevelt, outraged by this show of prejudice, arranged for Anderson to sing at the Lincoln Memorial instead.
When Eleanor Roosevelt learned that Marian Anderson had been denied permission to sing at Constitution Hall in Washington, DC, she decided to resign her membership in the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR). Show your students her resignation letter, along with the letter from Mrs. Henry M. Robert, Jr., president general of the DAR, responding to Roosevelt's resignation (pages one and two). Students may have difficulty reading the handwritten text so, after viewing the original documents, you may want to transcribe them.
Ask your students to write a letter to a newspaper editor explaining their feelings about a present-day social injustice. Invite your students to compose their letters with the Letter Generator.
Read the transcript of this PBS report on Anderson's life, which includes comments by Anderson, her family, and her friends and colleagues.
This resource is from the Annenberg Rare Book and Manuscript Library. The site offers video and audio excerpts of Anderson's concerts and interviews.
These pages from the Library of Congress' America's Story site provide information about Anderson for elementary students.
This DAR press release paid tributeto Marian Anderson's memory and commemorated a pivotal event in the struggle for racial equality.
Hans Christian Andersen is often referred to as the "father of modern fantasy." More than 200 years after his birth, Andersen's tales are still enjoyed by both young and old alike.
Many of Hans Christian Andersen's stories have been adapted and abridged into animated movies. Begin the activity by asking students to write a brief summary of The Little Mermaid, The Nightingale, The Emperor's New Clothes, or another of Andersen's stories. Then read students the original story and ask them to create a Venn diagram that indicates the similarities and differences between the two versions of the tale. Have them use their diagrams to write essays that compare the two versions. Students could also be encouraged to explain which version they prefer and why. Students can also use the Fractured Fairy Tales interactive to write their own alternative versions of several well-known fairy tales.
From the Hans Christian Andersen Center at the University of Southern Denmark, students can link to texts, research material, and information about Andersen's life and works.
On this website, students can access and read 127 different stories by Andersen.
This website celebrates Andersen through the stamps that have been inspired by his work. Included are over 30 of Andersen's stories, accompanied by images of related stamps.
Scholastic invites students to explore fractured fairy tales with author Jon Scieszka. Classroom activities are provided, along with a place for students to publish their own tales and read those of other students.
As he was writing the script for the original Star Wars films in the 1970s, George Lucas spent a great deal of time reading and interviewing mythologist Joseph Campbell, whose ideas included a concept called "The Hero's Journey," the archetypal hero story that is found in cultures around the world. Lucas based much of his plot for the films on the stages of this journey, which, along with a relentlessly successful advertising campaign, might help explain the films' amazing popularity.
Use The Hero's Journey Interactive tool to describe how Luke Skywalker meets each stage of the journey:
- Call to Adventure
- Refusal of the Call
- Mentor Figure(s)/Supernatural Aid
- First Threshold
- Belly of the Whale
- Road of Trials
- Meeting with the Goddess/Temptress
- Atonement/Death of Mentor
- Apotheosis/Underworld
- Ultimate Boon
- Rescue from Without
- Crossing Back/Return
Then, brainstorm other works that use the formula, such as The Lord of the Rings.
This National Air and Space Museum exhibit highlights elements of myth and the Hero's Journey in the Star Wars films. Also included are image galleries and audio clips.
This post connects Star Wars and Campbell's Hero's Journey. References to the original films are included.
This page provides resources related to the series of books based on the Star Wars films.
Students can use this online tool to learn about the elements of the hero's journey, analyze a text that follows the hero's journey pattern, or start creating a hero story of their own.
Ralph Waldo Emerson- essayist, poet, and lecturer-was born in Boston in 1803. A founding figure of transcendentalism, Emerson believed that we need to trust ourselves and to live in harmony with nature. His influence on the major figures in American literature, such as Thoreau, Whitman, and Hawthorne, cannot be overstated. At Emerson's funeral in 1882, Whitman called him "a just man, poised on himself, all-loving, all-inclosing, and sane and clear as the sun."
Before sharing the quotation below, ask students to suggest definitions of success. Next, share this quotation which is often attributed to Emerson: "To laugh often and much, to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children, to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends, to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others, to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child or a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition, to know that even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded."
Then, identify and list the definitions of success that the author puts forward. Next, ask students to name people they know (not celebrities or politicians) who seem to fit these definitions of a successful person. Last, using the Postcard Creator, have students write a note to a person on the list, explaining why they believe he or she is a success.
Note: There is some question as to whether the above quote in fact can be attributed to Emerson. This might make an interesting research question for students to explore and debate.
American Transcendentalism Web from Virginia Commonwealth University offers this page on Emerson. The Web contains hundreds of articles on Emerson and other transcendentalists.
Poets.org offers this page on Ralph Waldo Emerson. It includes biographical information, a selected bibliography, and links to selected writings and related Internet resources.
This resources from PBS includes a biography of Emerson, information about his role in the transcendentalist movement, and excerpts of his work.
Ice cream has been around since long before 1786. Emperor Nero of Rome had his slaves get snow from mountains then had it mixed with nectar, fruit pulp, and honey. Marco Polo brought recipes for water ices to Europe from the Far East. Ice cream first appeared in Italy when it was discovered that ice and salt could cause freezing.
During the warm month of June in the northern hemisphere, the topic of ice cream can be quite refreshing. The weather was probably hot in 1786 when Mr. Hall of 76 Chatham Street advertised the first commercially made ice cream. How has advertising changed over the years? Find some advertisements in newspapers, magazines, or on the Internet, or share these vintage ice cream advertisements. Evaluate the ads you have chosen with the ReadWriteThink Advertisement Dissection and Analysis printable activity sheet.
Invite students to think of a new flavor of ice cream and create an advertisement for their product. They can create an advertisement for television, radio, magazine, newspaper or the Internet. Students can add music to their ads or create a short video. After all the advertisements are completed, students can present them to a neighboring class who will vote on the most convincing ad. The winner can choose the flavor for a class ice cream party.
Extend students' learning by sharing this activity with their families or afterschool providers. The activity reinforces procedural writing by having students write a recipe for an ice cream sundae.
This site from PBS Kids Go! encourages young people to think critically about media and become smart consumers. Activities on the site are designed to provide users with some of the skills and knowledge needed to question, analyze, interpret, and evaluate media messages.
On May 20, 1927, Charles Lindbergh began the first non-stop flight from New York to Paris and the first solo flight across the Atlantic, taking off from Roosevelt Field in New York in his plane The Spirit of St. Louis. Thirty-three and a half hours later, "Lucky Lindy" landed safely in Paris, France, becoming the first person to fly solo across the Atlantic.
Charles A. Lindbergh: A Human Hero, a biography for younger readers, has a subtitle that might appear to be an oxymoron by contemporary standards. Often, society portrays heroes as superhuman, forgetting that heroes are ordinary people who manage to face extraordinary challenges successfully.
Write the words HUMAN HERO on the board and ask students to consider what might be meant by this phrase. Next, ask groups of students to think of people, alive or dead (or fictional), who fit the category "human hero." Then place all names students have mentioned on the board. Ask students to brainstorm a list of attributes or qualities these people share. Can this list of attributes and/or qualities lead to a definition of heroism? Students can finish by reading a biography of a selected hero and summarizing it using the Bio-Cube interactive.
The Lindbergh homepage includes links to a great collection of resources. Included are flight plans, biographical information, a timeline, video clips, and more.
Part of the PBS American Experience series, this website features information about the film Lindbergh. Also included are a timeline of aviation milestones, maps of Lindbergh's transatlantic flight, and a teacher's guide.
View an exact replica of The Spirit of St. Louis in flight!
This Smithsonian online exhibit includes technical specifications and pictures of Lindbergh's famous plane. The page features a timeline of the milestones of flight.
On May 26, 1951, Sally Kristen Ride was born in Encino, California. In 1983, Ride became the first American woman in space as member of the space shuttle Challenger crew STS-7. She was a member of the panels investigating the Challenger explosion and the space shuttle Columbia disaster.
The StarKids Who's Who collection includes background information about Sally Ride's career.
After exploring the information about Dr. Ride on the site, write a letter to her foundation, Sally Ride Science. Have students brainstorm, as a class, things that they would like to ask about Dr. Ride's life and legacy. Narrow the list down to the questions that they're most curious about, and then have students compose a class letter, asking one or two of these questions, using the Letter Generator.
Send the students' letter to:
Sally Ride Science
9191 Towne Centre Drive
Suite L101
San Diego, CA 92122
Include a self-addressed, stamped envelope, and have students ask for a reply. More tips are available for the Letter Generator.
NASA offers this biography with details on Ride's educational background and career. It follows her progression from astronaut school to the first American woman in space to her career as a professor at the University of California, San Diego.
Sally Ride was inducted into the Hall in 1988. This page provides information about Ride and her work.
The website for Sally Ride's company includes information on space and science-related topics, resource links with an emphasis on girls in science, and information about Ride's science programs and products.
This page from the NASA site for students offers information about the space shuttle appropriate for elementary students. Older students can also explore the main Space Shuttle site.
On a series of three artificial islands and in the surrounding ponds, visitors to the 1854 World's Fair at the Crystal Palace in London saw the first life-size replicas of dinosaurs such as the Iguanodon, the Megalosaurus, and Pterodactyls, all created by sculptor Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins.
Waterhouse Hawkins' dinosaur replicas offer a great opportunity for an inquiry-based project. Some of Hawkins' models are known for their minor errors or incomplete detail. Consider the horn on the Iguanodon or the submerged Mosasaur (with body obscured since only fossils of the head had been discovered). The replicas are in fact more of a historical artifact than an accurate scientific model.
After learning about Hawkins' replicas, do a study of what we know about these same dinosaurs today-what did Hawkins get right and where did he draw the wrong conclusions? Students could work individually or in small groups to investigate a dinosaur of their choice, comparing Hawkins' versions to current knowledge about the prehistoric animals. The ReadWriteThink Venn Diagram is a nice tool to help students organize and present their findings.
This page from Smithsonian.com lists some dinosaur books appropriate for kids, along with brief descriptions.
Nyder's site includes photos of all the remaining dinosaurs in their original location on artificial islands outside the site of the original Crystal Palace building at Sydenham.
This Brooklyn College page details not only Hawkins' work on the Crystal Palace dinosaur replicas but also the ill-fated plans to build similar replicas in New York City.
Scientists out on a dig have found parts from six different dinosaurs. Put the parts together to create a dinosaur that really existed, OR create an imaginary dinosaur of your own!
On the morning of July 1, 1874, the first zoo in the United States, the Philadelphia Zoo, opened its doors to visitors who, for a quarter or less, could visit and view the 813 animals that lived there. Today, the Philadelphia Zoo has more than twice as many animals and four times as many visitors as it had during its first year of operation.
Much more has changed in the zoo than the number of animals and visitors. Visit the Philadelphia Zoo's History Overview to learn more about the first zoo in the United States. Then have your class compare features and aspects of the first zoo with a modern zoo, using the interactive Venn Diagram tool. Ask your students to think in particular about the differences in how animals are cared for and the habitats where they live.
Once your students have considered how zoos have changed over the past century, invite them to imagine the zoo of the future. How will animals be cared for? What will the zoo look like? Who will visit the zoo? What will be the primary mission of the zoo? In small groups, students can explore these questions and then design their own zoo of the future using drawings, posters, dioramas, or a similar display technique.
National Geographic Education’s encyclopedia entry on zoos includes information on zoo history, types of zoos, zoo specialization, and conservation efforts. Related terms are defined in a Vocabulary tab. The website includes related reading suggestions, illustrations, and links to related National Geographic Education resources.
This site highlights the traveling Robot Zoo exhibit. This online exhibit explains how the robots work and how they relate to the real animals that they are modeled after. Students can even pet the animals online!
If you don't have a zoo nearby, you can use this site to find pictures and information about animals and their habitats. This site also features Classroom Resources, such as free curriculum guides and information about outreach programs.
Each year, the Hannibal Jaycees sponsor National Tom Sawyer Days during the Fourth of July weekend to celebrate the town's most well-known citizen, Mark Twain. The highlight of the event is the fence-painting contest, which begins on July 4 with local competition and advances to state and national contests over the next three days.
Mark Twain uses great detail to capture the locations of his tales. Readers feel as if they have actually traveled with Twain to the settings of his stories and novels. Choose a particular scene in one of Twain's works and do a close examination of the setting. First, have students map the story setting, using the interactive Story Map. Then discuss the setting using these prompts:
- How does Twain use extended description, background information, and specific detail to make the setting come alive for readers?
- How do the main characters fit into the setting-do they seem at home or out of place?
- How do their reactions and interactions with the setting affect the realism of the location?
Discuss the techniques that Twain uses to make the settings in his stories vivid and real to the readers and the extent to which these techniques are effective.
Visit this PBS site to learn about Twain through his writing and view his scrapbook.
Visit Hannibal, Missouri, where Sam Clemens and other children who influenced characters in Tom Sawyer grew up.
Visit this archive, produced by the Electronic Text Center at the University of Virginia, to find pictures, transcriptions, and analysis of Twain's writing, and information about the marketing of his books.