Favorite Civil War resources

[AdventuresinHomeschooling]

What are your favorite K-6 resources for studying the Civil War? Websites, activities, projects, books, etc.

[Saddlemomma]

At that age (6th grade) DD absolutely loved the book, Two Miserable Presidents.  She also enjoyed reading selections from Yesterday's Classics, American History Stories III (leading up to the Civil War)  & IV (the Civil War).  In the evenings, as a family, we watched The Civil War series by Ken Burns.  If you don't have Amazon Prime, you can also watch it through Netflix Streaming.  I'm also pretty sure you can watch all the episodes through YouTube.  DD also read Behind Rebel Lines, which she enjoyed.

 

DD has never really been a fan of hands-on projects.  She'd rather read and watch videos.  Therefore it was disappointing for me that we didn't use the History Pockets Civil War book that I had.  If your DC like "hands-on" they may enjoy that.  Another option would be to visit a Civil War museum in your state.  Here is a listing of such museums by state.

 

HTH

[creekland]

For us it was Gettysburg - the National Park.  It's within half an hour of us. Their museum does a super job of presenting the war (the whole thing) while also centering on Gettysburg. Then one can go out and see the real thing including bullet holes in at least one of the old buildings still in town. Antietam and Harper's Ferry aren't far either.  We'd occasionally supplement it with documentaries from the History Channel or PBS.

[Guest]

History on the move CDs

 

http://www.rainbowresource.com/product/sku/029053

[Lori D.]

I just have some book recommendations; DSs were not too big on projects / activities:

 

books for gr. 1-4

The Drinking Gourd (Monjo) -- Underground Railroad

Almost to Freedom (Nelson) -- Underground Railroad

 

books for gr. 2-5

Robert Smalls Sails to Freedom (Brown) -- escaping slave

Civil War Sub: Mystery of the Hunley (Jerome)

USS Monitor: Iron Warship That Changed the World (Thompson)

Just a Few Words, Mr. Lincoln: Story of Gettysburg (Fritz)

Willie McLean and the Civil War Surrender (Ransom)

Just a Few Words, Mr. Lincoln: Story of Gettysburg (AAR3) -- Jeanne Fritz

 

books for gr. 3-6

Escape North! Story of Harriet Tubman (Kulling) -- Underground Railroad

The Daring Escape of Ellen Craft (Moore) -- escaping slave

Cornerstones of Freedom: The Story of The Underground Railroad

Cornerstones of Freedom: The Story of Fort Sumter

Cornerstones of Freedom: The Story of The Gettysburg Address

Cornerstones of Freedom: The Story of The Surrender at Appomattox

 

books for gr. 4-8

Behind Rebel Lines (Reit) 

Bull Run (Fleischman)

 

books for gr. 5-8

The Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg (Philbrick)

The Boys War (Murphy) -- non-fiction

 

 

No personal experience with these, but they look good:

- A True Book: The Civil War (Benoit) -- gr. 2-4

- You Wouldn't Want to be a Civil War Soldier! (Ratliff) -- gr. 3-6

- The Civil War for Kids: A History with 21 Activities (Herbert) -- gr. 4-8

 

Websites:

- The Civil War Trust: Websites for Kids

- Brain Pop: The Civil War

- Ducksters: The Civil War

[AdventuresinHomeschooling]

Thank you! This is all great! Putting together a mini unit study.

 

Gettysburg is fantastic! I wish we could take the kids to more of the historic places we loved when we lived on the East Coast. Miss living in Virginia so much!

[AdventuresinHomeschooling]

For future readers who might see this post, www.civilwar.org has great free resources for educators including detailed classroom lesson plans that can be adapted. PBS has some to go along with the Ken Burns documentary as well.

[purduemeche]

Another vote here for the National Parks, National Battlefields, National Cemeteries and National Monuments. Many of them host Junior Ranger programs that can't be beat for memorable learning.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk