OurStory is designed to help children and adults enjoy exploring history together through children’s literature, everyday objects, and hands-on activities.  Each OurStory module examines a moment in American history through a work of historical fiction and related activities and includes a

Almost all Americans have family histories that trace back to other countries. By using this OurStory module, children and adults can enjoy exploring the experiences of immigrants who came to America and the ways that immigration has changed life in America through children's literature, museum o

Use this guide to actively read The Little Chapel that Stood, a picture book about September 11, 2001. Part of an OurStory module entitled September 11, 2001, this activity includes discussion prompts, a glossary, and background information. OurStory is designed to help children

Railroads have moved people and cargo around America for more than 180 years. By using this OurStory module, children and adults can enjoy exploring the history of trains in America. Focused on actively reading Jingle the Brass, a historical fiction picture book about a ride on a steam l

Jingle the Brass is a book about a young boy who learns words used by railroad workers of the steam-engine era while on an exciting train trip. Part of an OurStory module entitled All Aboard the Train!, this activity includes strategies that will help adults and children activel

This unit will introduce the first major clash in the Civil War--the Battle of Bull Run--and encourage students to consider the perspectives of ordinary citizens of the North and the South and the impact of this battle on their lives. The activities are based on the award-winning young adult nove

For more than a century, women in the United States struggled to obtain the right to vote. In 1920, the suffrage movement finally achieved victory with the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution. By using this OurStory module, children and adults can enjoy exploring

Mama Went to Jail for the Vote is a work of historical fiction about a girl whose mother joins the suffragists in working to win the vote for women during the early 1900s. Part of an OurStory module entitled Winning the Vote for Women, this activity includes strategies that will

This blog, published by the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Program, includes reviews of book written by or about Asian Pacific Americans. The books range from children's picture books to adult fiction and nonfiction to manga, and the reviewer makes special note of whether the book is presente

In this activity, students will examine an historical newspaper, a piece of historical fiction, and their social studies textbooks for accounts of the civil rights movement, and then define 'equality' and 'discrimination'. They will then use these definitions to look for instances of eq