The American Civil War: Primary Source Activity Pack for Social Studies Classrooms

The activities in this packet provide students with a range of projects that will enhance their skills and knowledge. Ranging from simple crossword puzzles to higher-level research presentations, the activities will provide many options for you and your class to approach the American Civil War. The activities have been designed to meet the National Standards for History in the following areas:

Standard 1: Chronological Thinking
Standard 2: Historical Comprehension
Standard 3: Historical Analysis and Interpretation
Standard 4: Historical Research Capabilities
Standard 5: Historical Issues-–Analysis and Decision-Making

The materials use a hands-on approach, which may be used in conjunction with your students’ texts or as a stand-alone set of activities. In those cases where the student work will be purely subjective, we have included models to illustrate what the student is asked to produce. Reproducible activity sheets are provided.

We have included a CD of this Activity Pack for your use. The file on the CD is in Adobe Acrobat Format (PDF). This electronic version of the Activity Pack has various benefits and uses:

1. You can have a permanent, electronic copy of this Activity Pack, which could then be loaded onto your desktop for easy access.

2. Each section of the Activity Pack has been bookmarked to enable you to find particular sections quickly.

3. You will be able to print selected pages from the Activity Pack directly from your computer.

4. The large format images at the end of the Activity Pack can be printed onto transparency sheets that can be run through your printer for use on an overhead projector.

5. You are now able to project the images directly from your computer onto a screen with a multimedia projector.