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For Teachers

Free Lesson Plan Library 

Every free History Cat lesson in one place, with full classroom activities you can run tomorrow and a printable, editable scratch pad for each free article. It’s worth bookmarking, because new lessons show up here as they’re released.

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U.S. History 

Grades 7-12 Social Studies

Scratch Pads

Each scratch pad goes with one of our free articles, and students fill it in as they read. No two are alike, so depending on the article, students might build vocabulary, answer comprehension questions, design a T-shirt, plan a menu, compare and contrast, or work through a short primary source.

Unit 6: Westward Expansion 

 Discover More Pairs with Oregon Trail CSI, a $5 investigation →

The Oregon Trail Scratch Pad

Pairs with our free article on the Oregon Trail

Skill Builders 

Scratch Pads are our solution to helping students with reading comprehension.  Each scratch pad is unique and designed to get students engaged with the reading through vocabulary building, comprehension questions, T shirt design, planning a menu, compare and contrast, or quick primary source analysis questions. 

General Skills

How to Write a Solid CER

Walks students through making a claim, choosing evidence and explaining their reasoning, and works with any writing prompt.

Walks students through making a claim, choosing evidence and explaining their reasoning, and works with any writing prompt.

General Skills

Primary vs Secondary Sources

Students classify 15 WWI excerpts as primary or secondary sources and explain why, tricky cases included.

General Skills

Longitude & Latitude Battleship

A Battleship-style game where students sink ships by calling out latitude and longitude coordinates.

Holiday Themed

Who says fun activities also can't be educational?

Halloween

The Vampire of Rhode Island

Students examine five pieces of evidence from the 1790s Sarah Tillinghast case and decide what really caused the deaths.

St. Patrick's Day

Design a St. Patty's Day Parade Float

Students read the real story behind St. Patrick’s Day, then design a parade float that shows what they learned.

I’m currently in the process of turning The History Cat into a full U.S. History curriculum, one unit at a time. Every lesson is aligned to state standards and built around historical thinking, so students spend class investigating sources, weighing evidence and seeing history from multiple perspectives. I've found with my own students that this kind of learning sticks with them far longer than memorizing names and dates. If the unit you’re teaching isn’t here yet, it’s on the way.

NOTE: As a teacher with 15 years of classroom experience, I have learned that some students will always find clever ways to beat the system (they're going to make great lawyers). To preserve the integrity of our lessons we do not include answer keys for publicly accessible downloads. All paid lessons plans come with teacher instructions and answer keys.   

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