Welcome to the Teacher's Idea Bank, where you will find links to free lesson plans for teaching African American history and culture, African history and culture, cultural diversity, slavery, and other aspects of the African American experience; past and present. We hope you enjoy this new resource!
Discrimination
Priscilla's Homecoming
African American History and Culture
African and African American Folk Tales
African History and Culture
Contemporary African-American Traditional & Folk Arts
Cultural Diversity
Genealogy for Kids
Holidays and Celebrations
Resources for Teachers
Slavery and Emancipation
Stereotyping
The Underground Railroad
| Way Back. It's Not Fair! PBS KIDS GO! |
| American Experience: Way Back. Uncover Discrimination in the Past and Today. A new web corner that invites kids to ponder discrimination. Written in kid-talk and very accesible. Highly recommended! |
| African American Folktales and Their Use in an Integrated Curriculum |
| Developed by Joyce Patton for the Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute, this unit uses African-American folktales to address the interest and reading levels of students in the elementary grades.
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| Avery Research Center - Auba's Story |
| Here is a family oral history told by a Gullah woman who was an ex-slave. Read the English version and listen to the Gullah version of this tale.
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| Bunce Island - Visit Sierra Leone |
| View pictures of Bunce Island and learn about its history as a slave trading outpost. |
| Bunce Island Slave Fortress, Sierra Leone |
| Read about the history of the Bunce Island slave fortress in Sierra Leone. |
| Create an Internet Greeting Card |
| Choose from a variety of options to custom-make an Internet greeting card with African scenery!
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| Digital History |
| Digital History is a cooperative effort of the University of Houston, the Chicago Historical Society and the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. Here you will find many fine lesson plans, documents, multi-media resources and more, from all periods in American History.
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| Documentary Film: Family Across the Sea |
| This powerful film documents the first Gullah Homecoming to Sierra Leone. |
| Documentary Film: The Language You Cry In |
| This documentary tells the story of finding the Sierra Leone roots to a Gullah burial song, and documents the second Gullah Homecoming to Sierra Leone. |
| Excerpt: Edward Ball's Slaves in the Family |
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| Gullah People of the Sea Islands |
| This unit demonstrates that even though the Gullahs had been separated from Africa for hundreds of years, there are many examples of African retentions in the culture. The targeted participants are fourth and fifth graders, but for some of the activities, such as the chants, songs, and stories, the kindergartners through third graders may also be involved.
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| Gullah Tradition |
| A special section of the Island Packet Online, where you can learn more about Gullah history and traditions.
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| Old Slave Mart in Charleston |
| Learn more about the history of the only known extant building used as a slave auction gallery in South Carolina.
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| Religious Music: The African Roots |
| Listen to African call-and-response songs, view a short video of a ring shout, and listen to We Shall Overcome.
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| Sierra Leone and the United States: An Historical Connection |
| Here is yet another great lesson plan that examines the connection between the United States and Sierra Leone.
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| Slavery Connects the North and the South |
| A lesson plan developed by the Choices Education Program at
Brown University's Watson Institute for International
Studies that addresses the voyage of the slave ship Hare. Students will trace the route of a Newport slave ship and examine connections the slave trade created between the North and the South.
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| South Carolina and the Gullah |
| Designed for students in grades 9-12 with average or above average abilities, this lesson plan from the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center takes students back into the past-to slave ships crossing the Atlantic, to antebellum rice plantations-and returns them to the present-to examine the impact of modern land developments on regions saturated with this history.
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| South Carolina State Museum: Gullah Language |
| Listen to a Gullah story entitled "He Might Overrun the Law!"
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| The Adventures of Brer Rabbit |
| Brer Rabbit is a typical character in Gullah folklore. Here are fourteen tales of this trickster's exploits!
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| The Congo Cookbook |
| Compare Gullah recipes to traditional recipes from Sierra Leone!
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| The Gullah: Rice, Slavery, and the Sierra Leone-American Connection |
| Here anthropologist Joseph A. Opala examines the link between the Gullah of the southeastern United States, and the West African country of Sierra Leone.
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| Gullah Net |
| What a Wonderland for children this site is.
Gullah Net was designed to introduce Gullah culture and language to children on the Web, although people of all ages may enjoy the site.
The site currently features interactive content where kids of all ages can learn about Gullah culture, folktales and music. Design your own Gullah ring shout, listen to Gullah words, and view maps and videos that document the West Africa/Gullah connection!
This must-visit site features classroom activities designed for implementing Gullah Net's information and resources into a variety of K-8 classrom curricula. |
| Sierra Leone Web |
| This engaging site is the only one you will need for bringing Sierra Leone's history, government and popular culture into your classroom. Here you will find photographs, news stories, Sierra Leonean proverbs, poetry, short stories, articles on Sierra Leone's laws and government and much more.
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| A Glossary of Gullah Words Taken from The Black Border by Ambrose E. Gonzales |
| Here is a Gullah dictionary that your students will find way cool!
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| Frogmore Stew and Other Lowcountry Recipes |
| Make and sample some recipes from Gullah country that have their roots in Sierra Leone! |
| Lesson Plan: When Rice Was King |
| This top-notch, resource-packed lesson unit was written by Fay Metcalf, education consultant, and edited by the Teaching with Historic Places staff at the National Park Service. This unit is designed to meet the United States History Standards for grades 5-12, and is one of the many free lesson plans that the NPS offers online. |
| South Carolina – African American Culture, Heritage |
| As always, SCIway is your definitive source for all things South Carolina. This webpage is an extensive list of links to resources both on and off of SCIway. |
| From Africa to America |
| The teachers at Brown Middle School in Atlanta have designed this thematic unit for gifted sixth graders who may or may not have experience with technology. These lesson plans examine the West Africa/United States connection.
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| African American History and Culture |
| African American Lives, for Educators |
| Designed for immediate use in middle and high school classrooms, these lessons -- which adhere to national learning standards -- contain comprehensive instructions for classroom implementation, downloadable student handouts, links to relevant and dynamic online resources, and suggestions for cross-curricular extensions. Feel free to adapt the lesson plans to meet your students' needs and your own curricular goals. Developed to accompany the four-part PBS series African American Lives.
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| Footsteps Magazine Online |
| FOOTSTEPS is a magazine designed for young people, their parents, and other individuals interested in discovering the scope, substance, and many often unheralded facts of African American heritage. It is an excellent classroom resource for teachers, a valuable research tool for students, and an important vehicle for bringing this rich heritage to people of all backgrounds. A must-see! |
| History Matters: The U.S. Survey Course on the Web |
| Designed for high school and college teachers and students,
History Matters serves as a gateway to web resources and offers other useful materials for teaching U.S. history. The website was created by the American Social History Project / Center for Media and Learning (Graduate Center, CUNY)
and the Center for History and New Media (George Mason University). |
| Kulture Kidz: Learn About African American Culture |
| A rich and info-packed website dedicated to teaching African American culture! |
| Stamp on Black History: Games and Activity Zone |
| Word search puzzles, coloring book, write your own "I Have a Dream" speech, and more. |
| A to Z Teacher Stuff ~ Teacher Resources, Lesson Plans, Themes, Tips, Printables, and More |
| Many excellent lesson plans concerning African American history and culture! |
| African and African American Folk Tales |
| African History and Culture |
| Contemporary African-American Traditional & Folk Arts |
| African American Art |
| From The Art Institute of Chicago, lesson plans for grades 5-12. |
| Artifacts We Don't Dig Up--Quilting--History |
| As part of a lesson plan, this site has images of quilts made by: Phyllis, a slave imported from the Congo in 1818; Francis and Evelyn, two slaves belonging to Cynthia Evelyn Bush; "Yellow Bill", a male slave belonging to William Dean of New Orleans; Johanna Davis between 1845 and 1853, she may have been an artisan and not a slave; Hanna, a crazy quilt she began before the Civil War and finished by her daughter, Emma, in 1895. |
| My Family Traditions Scrapbook |
| Creating a family scrapbook provides an excellent lesson in multicultural education by showing how all people are different yet alike. |
| One World Mural Project: Art Ideas: Grades K-3 |
| Your students can help create the largest anti-bias mural on the Web! |
| The Street |
| Brought to you by The World on Your Street from BBC, The Street is where kids can learn about the geography, music, food and religion of Nigeria, India, Ireland, Brazil and Turkey. All we can say is WOW. A must-visit site! |
| Using Multicultural Picture Books for Understanding |
| Relating to the characters in the book, students will learn about traditions and find similarities/differences to challenge stereotypes. |
| Homes - Multicultural Lesson Plans |
| Students will learn that they live in many different kinds of homes, but that they live in the same neighborhood. This lesson develops the concept of every community having a culture.
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| Holidays and Celebrations |
| Juneteenth Greeting to Give or Send |
| Our animated Juneteenth greeting to email, or printable version to give. Written especially for you by Kenneth Burton! |
| Juneteenth: About.com |
| From About.com: History and traditions of Juneteenth celebration. |
| Kwanzaa: About.com |
| Lesson plans, information, activities, recipes and craft ideas to bring Kwanzaa alive for your students! |
| Kwanzaa: Free Holiday Lesson Plans for Kids & Teachers |
| Info-packed, engaging and fun holiday lesson plans. A must-see! |
| Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Activities |
| From the Holiday Zone, activities for all ages for celebrating MLK, Jr. Day. |
| MLK, Jr. Mini-Unit: Celebrating Martin Luther King, Jr. Day |
| Rachel Cook's 4-5 class period unit contains a variety of activities to engage young minds. For 4th or 5th grade. |
| Africans in America |
| From PBS, America's journey through slavery is presented in four parts. For each era, you'll find a historical Narrative, a Resource Bank of images, documents, stories, biographies, and commentaries, and a Teacher's Guide for using the content of the Web site and television series in U.S. history courses. |
| Experiencing Slavery and Imagining Freedom |
| From Education World, for grades 3-12. |
| Maryland Slavery Legislation |
| This site, from the Maryland State Archives, includes an extensive list of primary documents on slavery in Maryland. The documents were chosen to meet National History Standards for grades K-4, 3-4 and 5-12. |
| Race & Slavery Petitions Project |
| In the summer of 1991, Loren Schweninger, a professor of history, began traveling the South visiting courthouses and state archives in search of legal petitions related to race and slavery. He expected to find dry facts buried in legal terminology. What he actually found was a wealth of new information about peoples' lives and circumstances between the American Revolution and the Civil War. The petitions portray, in vivid and personal terms, the contrasts, ambivalence, contradictions, ironies, and ambiguities that comprise southern history. He began a project that became a journey. You can follow in his footsteps.
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| Economy vs. Humanity: Exploring the Triangle Trade and The Middle Passage, by Adrienne J. Kupper |
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| Understanding Stereotypes |
| From Discovery.com, a very engaging set of activities that encourage introspection! |
| It Ain't Necessarily So |
| From Thirteen Ed Online: Grade 7-12 This lesson encourages students to examine the issues surrounding the characterization of African-Americans in books, film, and theater over the last century. |
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