Veterans Day
Honor Veterans Day with our collection of free lessons and biographies. Engage your students with meaningful activities that celebrate and explore the contributions of our veterans.
- Free Lessons: Veterans Day Badge, Vietnam Veterans Memorial
- Biographies: Hector Garcia, Deborah Sampson, Cleto Rodríguez, 442nd Regimental Combat Team, Audie Murphy, Tuskegee Airmen
Fall Resources
Changing leaves, crunchy apples, and spooky season—fall is upon us. Connect the season to your classroom with these free lessons.
- Science Investigations: Munchy Crunchy Apples. Ooey Gooey Oobleck, Building a Human Body, Body Snatchers and Zombies
- Social Studies Lessons: Batty’s Friends, How Did October Get Its Name?, Salem Witch Trials Dot Game
Native American Heritage Month
Celebrate Native American Heritage Month by learning about the contributions and history of the Native American people. Resources include:
- Elementary Lessons: The First People in Your State, Making Communities Better—Billy Frank Jr., Documenting Famous Floridians—Osceola, Chief Seattle’s Treaty Oration
- Secondary Lessons: Indigenous Peoples of North America, Tecumseh, the Shooting Star, The American Indian Quest for Civil Rights, The Struggle for Civil Rights—Native Americans
- Biographies: Deb Haaland, Pocahontas, Sacagawea, Sitting Bull, Tisquantum
- Additional resources: Indian Country Today, the Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, the Autry Museum of the American West, and The Smithsonian National Museum of American Indians
Election Year
Cover voting, good citizenship, and the foundations of government with these free TCI lessons, including:
- Understanding the Electoral College: Explore the purpose and function of the Electoral College in the United States presidential election process. Create a map for the upcoming presidential election and analyze and predict who will win.
- Evaluating Candidates for Public Office: It’s important to consider various characteristics in evaluating candidates for public office. Use this tool to evaluate the candidates in a political race.
- Decision Making in Government: Learn how leaders make decisions through voting. Model the democratic process in the classroom through voting on new rules for the class.
Civics Resources
TCI’s ready-to-teach civics lessons prepare your students to become informed, civically engaged members of their communities. Resources in this collection include:
- The Road to the U.S. Constitution
- The Bill of Rights and Civil Liberties
- Do They Have the Right? Game
Current Events Toolkit
The Current Events Toolkit provides a structure for bringing current events into the curriculum. It includes strategies for navigating current events with your students. Resources include:
- Strategies: Guide students through identifying perspectives, analyzing new stories, and discussing current events.
- Graphic organizers: Main Idea /Detail, 5W’s, Evaluation Web
- Class discussions: Sentence starters, speaking and listening checklists, and more
Classroom Community Resources
Building a strong classroom community is key to student success, but it can be challenging. TCI’s Cooperative Classroom Toolkit offers four easy strategies to help foster classroom citizenship and build a supportive environment. The toolkit includes strategies for:
- Building relationships
- Developing classroom norms
- Icebreakers and team building
- Teaching cooperative skills