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Classroom-Ready Resources
Classroom-ready resources to support Minnesota's teachers and students. Browse lessons and activities featuring primary sources, for all grade levels.
Ready-to-go classroom activities
Elementary
NEW! State Flag and Seal Coloring Pages
Color the new state flag and state seal.
The Boston Massacre
Students explore why past events matter and are important today.
Boston Massacre Newspaper Articles
Students examine newspapers about this important event and connect with events today.
Places People Live
Engaging students to compare the places they live with those of the past.
Connecting to Our School Neighborhood
Exploring the neighborhood around your school helps students connect to community.
School Gardens to School Lunches
Students explore school lunches and how gardens impact them.
Kids in School, Past and Present
An extended version of the “How has school changed over time?” activity.
School Gardens
Students learn about school gardens in the past and present.
Where People Live
Students ask questions about places people live, now and in the past.
Primary v. Secondary Sources Activity
Students use objects in their home to examine the difference between primary and secondary sources.
Primary Source Analysis: Before and After Photo
Historic photos inspire students to create a comic of what happened before and after the photo was taken.
Primary Source Analysis: How has school changed over time?
Compare school experiences past, present, and future.
Downloadable activity & coloring pages
Check out how-to videos, coloring sheets, and more as you explore the history, people, and places that helped shape our state’s one-of-a-kind story.
Making Minnesota
Explore Minnesota’s history, people, landscapes, wildlife, and culture in this fun—and free—activity book!
Secondary
Experiences of People with Disabilities
Students look at primary sources to understand some experiences of people with disabilities in history.
Gender Identity in the Queer Rights Movements of the 1970s
Students examine primary sources about gender identity and connect to today's LGBTQIA+ movement.
Using Data to Make Change
Students examine primary sources to understand how more information can lead to social change in our communities.
Photographs of Native Americans
Students consider the stories that photographs tell about Native Americans.
Resisting Slavery and the Status Quo
Students learn about various ways that people, Black and White, resisted slavery in antebellum America.
Monuments and Memorials
Students learn about monuments and how our perspective can change over time.
Suffrage Banners
Students analyze banners from the woman suffrage movement, then make their own.
Analyzing Photographs for Bias
Students learn to examine photographs with an eye for bias.
Birdseye Maps
Students examine birdseye maps of Minnesota cities and compare them to modern maps.
Bohemian Flats
Students learn from a short video series about the Bohemian Flats neighborhood of Minneapolis.
Colonialism
Students analyze primary sources to broaden their understanding of colonialism.
Youth Movements
Students consider ways youth can effect change, past and present.
Primary Source Analysis: What is your story?
Collect objects to represent yourself then analyze someone else’s objects.
Primary Source Analysis: Women and World War I
Students analyze an antiwar banner from the woman suffrage movement, then make their own.
Primary Source Analysis: War Technology Comparison
Students compare World War I technology to today’s technology.
Primary Source Analysis: Post-World War I Soldier
Students examine primary sources to answer a question about life after World War I for some soldiers.
Virtual Field Trips
Videos & online resources
Afternoon Tea with Primary Sources
Brief primary source video instruction for students grades 1-6.
“Strongman” videos with author Kenneth C. Davis
Learn about 20th-century dictators, in five episodes.
Episode 1 Benito Mussolini
Episode 2 Adolf Hitler
Episode 3 Joseph Stalin
Episode 4 Mao Zedong
Episode 5 Saddam Hussein
Spanish flu videos with author Kenneth C. Davis
Learn about the 1918 pandemic in four episodes.
Episode 1
Episode 2
Episode 3
Episode 4
"In the Shadow of Liberty" videos with author Kenneth C. Davis
Learn about the enslaved people of four presidents, in five episodes.
Episode 1
Episode 2
Episode 3
Episode 4
Episode 5
Votes for Women
Dive into MNHS’s online exhibit about Minnesota women who fought for voting rights and related causes. Discover ways to integrate the stories of four of these women into your instruction.
Episode 1 Sabrie Akin
Episode 2 Nellie Francis
Episode 3 Bertha Moller
Episode 4 Marie Bottineau Baldwin
MNHS online resources
Tried and true digital content and skill-building resources, including:
Forests, Fields, and the Falls
Teaching with Curated Collections
MNHS YouTube channel
Videos that bring history to life.
“Storied” series
“Collections Up Close”
Our Home: Native Minnesota
Watch videos and find resources connected to MNHS’s permanent exhibit at the History Center.
Stay connected
History Education News
Subscribe to the monthly Education e-newsletter to receive updates about events and resources.
Please contact MNHS Teacher Educator Heidi Kloempken with questions or if you know of materials and resources worth sharing.