Firsthand History 19th Century
Grades: 3 - 5
Focus Area Description: Use the power of primary sources to travel back in time to 19th century America with historians and historical re-enactors guided by first person accounts and primary source text and images.
Our current library of 50 videos in this Focus Area are available in the subareas listed to the right; to view them click a thumbnail and become a member of Educate.Today.
To see sample videos in this area of the collection, click any of the titles below:
New January 2023! See a Ceremonial Sioux War Club
Other Samples:
New October 2022! Living on the American Frontier: Meet Joffrey Boyer
New November 2022! The Story of the Iron Riders: Buffalo Soldiers and Bicycles
Making Butter
Quick Ideas for Using our Firsthand History 19th Century Videos:
- Use the videos as a conversation starter for a class discussion on a topic, event, or person linked to your study of the American Frontier, Westward Expansion, Manifest Destiny, Slavery, and the Civil War.
- Use the videos with journal prompts for students to write about as they respond to/reflect on content included in the video.
- Use the videos in class to supplement student understanding of daily life and historic events in 19th century America.
- Use the videos with lesson plans you create that have students research a particular topic, person, or event related to your study of the American frontier, slavery, the Civil War, or other 19th century topics and use information from the videos in a first person re-creation/re-enactment they create to demonstrate their learning.
- Have students include insights gained through the videos as part of their projects, papers, and presentations on a history-related subject by:
- interpreting and/or summarizing what they saw and learned in the video.
- citing quotations from the expert in the video.
