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Activites to Help Strengthen Your Child's Knowledge of History
Below are some activities that can be used with your child to strengthen his/her history knowledge and build to strong positive attitudes toward history. And you don’t have to be a historian or have a college degree to do them -- Your time and interest and the pleasure that you share with your child as part of working together are what matter most. What’s far more important than being able to give your child a detailed explanation for the concepts underlying each activity is having the willingness to do the activity with him/her — to read, to ask questions, to search — and to make the learning enjoyable.
History as Story The essential elements of history as story are records, narration and evidence.
Records History is a permanent written record of the past. In more recent times, history is also recorded on film, video, audiotape and through digital technology. You might tell your child that the time before we had any way to record events is called prehistory. It was in prehistorical times that dinosaurs walked the Earth. She should also know that before written languages were invented, humans told stories as a way to preserve their identity and important events in their lives. Over time, however, the stories changed as details were forgotten or altered to fit a new situation. Written languages allowed people to keep more accurate records of who they were and what they did so this information could be passed down from generation to generation.
Narration Narration is storytelling, a way that people interpret events. History, with its facts and evidence, is also an interpretation of the past. George Washington, in his Farewell Address in 1796, said: "Though in reviewing the incidents of my administration I am unconscious of intentional error, I am nevertheless too sensible of my defects not to think it probable that I may have committed many errors." Your child needs to be aware that events can have more than one cause and can produce more than one effect, or outcome, and that there is more than one way to look at the relationship between cause and effect.
Evidence All good histories are based on evidence. Your child needs to learn the importance of evidence, and she needs the critical thinking skills to evaluate historical accounts and to determine whether the they are based on solid evidence or rely too heavily on personal interpretation and opinion.
Listen My Children: Preschool–Grade 1 A great way for young children to develop an interest in history is for parents to make books with history themes a part of their reading-aloud routines.
What You Need Picture and read-aloud books about historical people, places and events or with historical settings.
What to Do
1. Talk with your child about the book you’re going to read to her. Have her look at the pictures and notice costumes, types of transportation, houses and other things that show that the book isn’t about modern times. Talk with her about history—the story of past times.
- As you read, stop occasionally and ask your child to talk about a character or what is happening in the book. Encourage her to ask you questions if she doesn’t understand something. Explain words she may not know and point to objects that she may not recognize and tell her what they are.
- Show enthusiasm about reading. Read the book with expression. Make it more interesting by talking as the characters would talk, making sound effects and using facial expressions and gestures.
2. Help your child develop a "library habit." Begin making weekly trips to the library when she is very young. See that she gets her own library card as soon as possible. Many libraries issue cards to children as soon as they can print their names (you’ll also have to sign for your child). Regularly choose books with history themes to check out and read at home with her. And, when she is old enough, encourage her to continue this habit.
3. After reading a book with a historical theme, encourage your child to make up a play for the family based on the book. If possible, allow her to wear a costume or use props that are mentioned in the story.
Let’s Talk About It As you read a book to your child, stop occasionally to ask questions such as the following: How do you know this character lived long ago? How is this school different from our schools today? Do you know what game these children are playing? Why did the boy decide to join the Army? Can boys that young join the Army today?
What’s the Story? Preschool–Grade 5 Good history is a story well told. Through storytelling, children are introduced to what’s involved in writing the stories that make history. They begin to understand that different people may tell the same story in different ways.
What You Need Family members and friends; A book of fairy tales or folk tales.
What to Do
1. Gather your child and other family members in a circle and have a storytelling session. Choose a person that you all know well—a relative, friend or neighbor. Begin a group story about that person, explaining that nobody can interrupt the story. Say, for example, "Remember the time that Uncle Jack decided to help us by fixing that leaky faucet in our kitchen?" Then go clockwise around and have each person add to the story. Set a time limit, say three times around the circle so that you must end the story somewhere. Talk about the story. Are there any disagreements about what really happened and what was just opinion—or just added on for fun? If so, how can you settle any differences of opinion about what "really happened"?
2. Read aloud a fairy tale or folk tale. You might choose, for example, Little Red Riding Hood or The Story of Johnny Appleseed (for more titles, check the Resources section at the end of this booklet). Talk with your child about how the story begins and ends, who the characters are and what they feel and what happens in the story. Ask him how a "made-up" story is different from the story you told about the real person you know.
3. Pick a moment in history, for example the fall of the Berlin Wall, the storming of the Bastille in France, the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln or a current event in the news. Take your child to your local library and ask the children’s librarian to help you choose books and other materials about the event that are age-appropriate for your child. Read the book aloud with a young child; for an older child, have him read it aloud to you or read it on his own and then talk with him about the book.
Let’s Talk About It Ask your child: If you were a TV reporter when the event you read about happened, what would you tell your audience about it? What else would you include? Where would you get your information? How would you check its accuracy?
History Lives: Preschool–Grade 5 At living history museums children can see people doing the work of blacksmiths, tin workers, shoemakers, weavers and others. They can see how things used to be made and learn how work and daily life have changed over time.
What You Need Visitor brochures and museum maps; Sketch pad and pencils, or camera.
What to Do
1. Plan a visit to a living history museum with your child. Write or call the museum ahead of time to obtain information brochures and a map. Well-known living history museums are located in Williamsburg, Va., and Old Sturbridge Village, Mass., but smaller museums can be found in many other places across the country. If you can’t visit a museum, travel there by reading books or conducting "virtual" tours on the Internet.
2. Talk with your child about the information in the brochures and what he can expect to see at the museum. Make sure that he understands that what he will see is life the way it was once actually lived—not make-believe.
3. Help your child sketch something in the museum and put it in his history log. Tell him that drawings were the way events were visually recorded before there were cameras.
4. Use your camera to make a modern record of history and create a scrapbook with the photographs of what you saw.
5. When you get home, ask your child what his favorite object or activity is and why. Talk with your child about what it would have been like to live in that historical place in that period of time. Your family might pretend to be living in the historical place. Try spending an evening "long ago," without using electrical lights and other appliances such as TVs and microwave ovens. How is life without those luxuries different from your life today?
Let’s Talk About It Ask your child: How were days spent in the period of time you experienced? What kind of dress was common, or special? What kinds of food did people usually eat, and did they eat alone or in groups? What kind of work would you have chosen to do as an adult? If a living history museum were made of life today, what would people of the future see and learn there? Would you rather live long ago or now? Why?
Learning How to Learn: Grades 3–5 Local newspapers, phone books and other handy resources can serve as guides to local history. Teaching children how to use them gives them a great tool for finding many sources of information.
What You Need Phone books, both yellow and white pages; Local newspapers.
What to Do
1. Help your child make a list of her interests. Include the sports, hobbies, history topics, animals and music she likes.
2. With your child, look through your local newspapers for lists of things to do in the community. Look for parades, museum and art exhibits, music events, children’s theater, history talks, guided walks through historical districts or tours of historical homes. Choose an event in which you can both participate.
3. Sit with your child and show her how to use the phone book to find information. For example, in the yellow pages, look for the heading "Museums." Talk with your child about the places that you find listed there—What different kinds of museums are listed? Are they nearby? Look especially for history museums.
- Brainstorm with your child about what other headings you might look under to find information about local history. Try, for example, "Historical Societies." (If your phone book has a special section of information about community services and points of interest, look there as well.)
- Call the historical museums and societies that you find. Ask about their programs for children, their hours and upcoming special events. Also ask where else you should go to learn about your town’s history.
- Have your child listen to your phone conversation and model for her how to ask for information.
4. Have your child begin a list in her history log of local historical sites. Tell her to include phone numbers, addresses, hours of operation and other useful information for future visits.
Let’s Talk About It Ask your child: If you were asked to be a tour guide for visitors to our town, what would you show them? If you went to another town, how would you go about finding out about its past?
All About Our Town: Grades 3–5 A good place for children to begin to develop an interest in history is to find out the history of where they live.
What You Need Guides and histories of your town or city.
What to Do
1. With your child, research the history of the town, city or area in which you live. Begin by asking your child what he already knows, then ask him to make some predictions about what you will find out regarding when your area was first settled, who the first settlers were, where they came from, and why they chose to settle in the area. Help him to record these predictions in his history log.
- Go with your child to the local library, or sit with him at a computer, and look for historical reference materials—local histories and guidebooks, articles in regional historical magazines, and so forth (your librarian can direct you to good sources of information). As you work, talk with your child about what you’re finding.
- Afterwards, talk with your child about what you found out.
2. For this part of this activity, focus your child’s attention on your area’s geography as it played a part in its history. Was it settled because it’s on a waterway? Did it grow into a large town because of its location? Its climate? Did industry develop there because coal, oil or copper deposits were nearby?
Let’s Talk About It Ask your child: What is the most surprising thing you learned about our town’s history? What’s the most interesting old building that you found? Were there any historical markers or monuments that you discovered in our town? Who is your favorite person to talk to for stories about our town’s past?
In the Right Direction: Grades 3–5 In order to talk and learn about places, and to locate themselves and others in terms of place, children need to understand and be able to name geographic directions.
What You Need Maps of your state, a globe or atlas; blank paper and crayons or colored pencils.
What to Do
1. Sit with your younger child at a table or on the floor so that you can both see a map of your state. Point out where you live, explain the directional signs on the map: north, south, east and west. Mention several nearby towns or cities that your child has visited or knows about. Point to one of these and say, for example, "Granddad lives here, in Memphis. That’s north of our town." Have your child use her finger to trace the line from your location to that place. Continue by pointing out places that are south, east and west of your location. When your child catches on to directions, ask her to point to places that are north, south, east and west of where she lives.
2. For your older child, make the map activity into a game. When you have made sure that she understands directions, pick a place on the map and give clues about its location, for example, "I’m looking at a city that is west of St. Louis and east of Kansas City." (You can also name rivers, lakes, mountains or other geographic features that can be seen on the map.) When your child gets the right answer, have her choose a place and give directional clues for you to use to find it.
3. As part of your child’s study of national and world history, help her to use an atlas or globe to locate places mentioned in her textbook.
4. Help to make directional words a part of your child’s vocabulary by using them yourself in daily conversation. Rather than saying, "We’re turning right at the next corner," say, "We’re turning east at the next corner." Encourage her to use the words as well.
5. Give your child blank paper and crayons or colored pencils and ask her to draw a map of your neighborhood showing important buildings and landmarks (churches, schools, malls, statues, rivers, hills and so on). Remind her to include an indicator of direction on the map. After she’s finished, talk with her about what the map shows and have her give specific descriptions about the locations of various places on it.
Let’s Talk About It Ask your child: Why is it important to be able to read a map or use a globe? How can knowing something about locations help you in studying history?
What’s News? Grades 3–5 What’s new today really began in the past. Discussing the news is a way to help children gain a historical perspective on the events of the present.
What You Need Newspapers, weekly news magazine, a daily national TV news program, atlas or globe, highlighter.
What to Do This activity can be most useful to younger children if it’s done from time to time to get them used to the idea of "news." Older children benefit from doing it more often, at least once a week if possible.
1. Look through the daily newspaper or a recent news magazine with your child. Ask her to decide what pictures or headlines have some connection to history. For example, a news story about the signing of a peace treaty might also show pictures of similar events, such as the signing of the Yalta treaty, from the past. A story about the current Russian leader might give a historical overview and show pictures of Lenin, Stalin and Khrushchev. A story on a Supreme Court ruling that affects school integration might have a headline that mentions the Brown v. Board of Education decision. Use a highlighter to mark these references.
- With your child, read the articles you’ve chosen. Make a list (or have her do it) of any references to events that did not happen today or yesterday, or to people who died some time ago.
- Talk with your child about what these past events and people have to do with events happening today. Help her record these connections in her history log.
2. Watch the evening news or a morning news program with your child. Help her to write as many references as possible to past history. Discuss the links she finds between these references and the news story you heard. In an atlas or on a globe, help her point out where the stories she watched took place.
3. During another session of TV viewing, help your child focus on how the information was communicated: did the newscaster use interviews, books, historical records, written historical accounts, literature, paintings, photographs? Did the newscaster report "facts"? Did she express opinions?
4. Help your child compare several accounts of a major news story from different news shows, newspapers and news magazines.
Let’s Talk About It Ask your child: Did you find anything "new" in the news? What "same old stories" did you find? What’s the difference between "fact" and "opinion?"
History on the Go: Grades 3–5 Visiting the historical places that children read about in their history books reinforces for them that history is about real people, places and events.
What You Need Your child’s history book, maps, guidebooks.
What to Do
1. Find out what historical events your child is studying in school. Then check to see if a place related to those events is nearby and arrange to visit it with your child. If such a place isn’t nearby, arrange for a "virtual" visit by looking for age-appropriate Web sites. See the list of helpful Web sites in the Resources section at the end of this booklet. Many of them contain links that provide "tours" of battlegrounds, homes, museums and other places of historical interest.
- Whether your visit is real or virtual, work with your child to prepare for it together. You might, for example, ask your local librarian to help you and your child find books, DVDs and videotapes about the history of the place you plan to visit or about the historical figures who lived there.
- Call the visitor information centers for the area and ask to be sent maps and specially prepared guidebooks (you can usually find such centers through Internet searches or by consulting travel books in your local library).
- Study maps or the area with your child. Talk with her about the best way to get from your home to the site. As you travel, have her follow the route on the map.
- Help your child make a list of questions to ask on your trip.
- Talk with her about the place you’re visiting.
- After the visit, have your child make up a quiz for you, or a game, that is based on what she learned during the trip.
- Encourage your child to read more about the place you visited and the people who were part of its history. Especially encourage your older child to find historical documents that are associated with the site. For example, if you visit the site of the Ohio Women’s Rights Convention in 1851, which is in Akron, Ohio, you might have him read—or read to him—Sojourner Truth’s address, known also as "And ain’t I a Woman?"
2. Ask your child to identify any geographical features of the site you visited that played a part in the historical event she studied. If, for example, you visit a Civil War battlefield, you might point out its name and tell your child that the two sides in the war often gave battles different names. The Union side usually chose names that referred to a nearby body of water, such as a river, while the Confederate side named the battle by the nearest town. So, the battle called "Antietam" by the Union side (referring to a creek of that name) was called "Sharpsburg" by the Confederate side (referring to the Maryland town that was nearby).
Let’s Talk About It Ask your child: What was historical about the place you visited? What kinds of things communicated the history of the place? Did the visit make you see our town in a new way? Even though the place we visited was not in our town, did it make you think of something historical from where we live?
History as Time The essential elements of history as time are chronology, empathy and context.
Chronology Although our children need the opportunity to study historical events in depth to get an understanding of them, they also need to know the time sequence of those events as well as the names of the people and places associated with them. When we are able to locate events in time, we are better able to learn the relationships among them. What came first? What was cause, and what was effect? Without a sense of chronological order, events seem like a big jumble, and we can’t understand what happened in the past. It’s important that children be able to identify causes of events such as economic depressions and to understand the effects of those events. These are skills that are crucial to critical thinking and to being productive and informed citizens.
Empathy Empathy is the ability to imagine ourselves in the place of other people and times. To accurately imagine ourselves in the place of people who lived long ago, we must have an idea of what it was like "to be there." This requires learning about both the world in which a person lived and that person’s reactions to the world. For example, in studying the westward expansion across our country, children need to be aware of how very difficult travel was in that time. They may ask why people didn’t just take airplanes to avoid the dangers they faced on the wagon trails. When parents explain that people then couldn’t fly because airplanes hadn’t yet been invented, children may ask why not. They need an understanding of how technology develops and of the technology that was available at the time of a historical event. Just knowing the physical surroundings of a person at a point in time, however, doesn’t allow children to develop empathy. Stories and documents that tell us about people’s feelings and reactions to events in their lives allow us to recognize the human feelings we share with people across space and time. Helping children find and use original source documents from the past, such as diaries, journals and speeches, gives them a way to learn to see events through the eyes of people who were there.
Context Context is related to empathy. Context means "weave together," and refers to the set of circumstances in several areas that surround an event. To understand any historical period or event children should know how to weave together politics (how a society was governed), sociology (what groups of people formed the society), economics (how people worked and what they produced), place (where the events happened) and religion, literature, the arts and philosophy (what people valued and believed at the time). When children try to understand the American Civil Rights movement, for example, they will uncover a complex set of events. And they will find that these events draw their meaning from their context.
History means having a grand old time with new stories. So, as you and your child do the following activities, help him to think about the relationship between history and time.
School Days: Kindergarten–Grade 3 A good way to introduce children to history is to let them know how school—a main focus of their lives—has changed over the years.
What You Need Map of the United States, crayons or colored pencils.
What to Do
1. Talk with your child about what school was like when you were a child. Include how schools looked physically; the equipment teachers used; what subjects you studied; what choices you faced; and your favorite teachers and activities. If possible, show family photographs of yourself or other family members participating in school activities—playing a sport, cheerleading, giving a speech, winning an award, talking with classmates, working in a science lab and so forth. Have your child notice such things as clothing and hair styles, the way the school building or classroom looked, the equipment being used. Have her compare the school’s characteristics with that of her own.
2. Join your child in exploring what school was like 50 or 100 years ago. Ask your librarian for help in looking this up, talk to older relatives and neighbors and use the Internet. Again, include photographs when possible.
- With your older child talk about some of the history of work in America and explain how it affects schooling. Tell her, for example, that many years ago, when America was a largely agricultural society, children were needed at home to help plant and harvest crops. Because of this, children often didn’t go to school every day, or at all in the summer. In addition, the school year was more or less matched to the time of year that was less busy on farms—the late fall and winter months.
- Next explain that when America was switching from an agricultural to a manufacturing society, some children worked long days in factories, doing hard, dangerous jobs. Eventually, laws were passed to keep factories from using children to do dangerous work. Along with these child labor laws, other laws were passed that officially required children to go to school until a certain age.
3. Ask your child to imagine what school will be like in the future. Your younger child may want to use blocks to build a future schoolhouse, and your older child may want to draw or write about theirs.
Let’s Talk About It Ask your child: What has remained the same about school from the past to the present? What has changed? If you could be the head of a school 20 years from now, what would you keep and what would you change based on your current school? How would you go about making these changes?
Put Time in a Bottle: Kindergarten–Grade 3 Collecting things from their lifetimes and putting them in a time capsule is a history lesson that children will never forget.
What You Need Magazines or newspapers, sealable container, camera, tape or other sealant.
What to Do
1. Talk with your child about time capsules. Explain that when buildings such as schools, courthouses and churches are built, people often include a time capsule—a special container into which they place items that can tell about their lives and times to future.
2. Generations who open the container.
- Tell your child that you want to help him make his own personal time capsule. Talk with him about what he might want to put in it. Ask, for example, what things he might include to give people of the distant future a good idea of what he was like and what the time he lives in was like.
- Have him use a simple camera to take pictures of a few important objects in his life—a favorite CD, poster or pair of shoes; a baseball bat, football jersey or basketball; his computer, music player or cell phone. Have him locate and add magazine pictures of games and toys; cars, airplanes and other types of transportation; different kinds of sporting events; and clothes. Next have him locate examples of slang, ads for movies and TV shows, and selections from important speeches, poetry and stories or novels. Also help him find stories about current heroes and local, national and world events; and accounts of current issues and crises. Finally have him write a letter to someone in the future that describes life today.
- Call the family together and have your child do a "show and tell" of the items he’s collected.
- Once everyone is satisfied with the collection, help your child label the items with his name and with any other information that will help those who find them understand how they are significant to the history of our time.
- Have him place the items in a container, seal the container and find a place to store it.
- Have him write in his history log a short description of what he has done and record the date. Encourage him to draw a map that shows the location of the time capsule and to use the correct directional words to label it.
3. Try to find news stories (your local newspaper, library or local historical society or museum can often direct you to such stories) about the opening of such a capsule in your area and what was in it. If possible, take your child to look at the contents of an opened time capsule—perhaps at your local historical society or museum. Also try to locate buildings in your area that contain unopened time capsules. Take your child to see the buildings and point out the cornerstones—the places in which most capsules are placed. Talk with him about the information on the cornerstone.
Let’s Talk About It Ask your child: What did the collection of items tell you about the period in which we live? Did the items tend to be of a certain type?
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Click here to read other articles by the U.S. Department of Education.
Copyright © U.S. Department of Education, Office of Intergovernmental and Interagency Affairs, Helping Your Child Learn History, Washington, D.C., Sections of this article were adapted. Reprinted with permission.
1Ballen, J. and Oliver Moles, O. (1994). Strong Families, Strong Schools. Washington, D.C.: U. S. Department of Education; Henderson, A. T. and Berla, N. (eds.) (1994). A New Generation of Evidence: The Family Is Critical to Student Achievement. Washington, D.C.: Center for Law and Education.
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