unSocialized Educated at Home; Engaging the World

To commemorate the 150th anniversary of the battle of Gettysburg in July, a new website called Gettysburg By The Numbers  presents information on the battle using eye-catching infographics and animations.

The site, designed for middle school students and up, is organized into a number of content areas, making it easy to locate interesting information. Here’s a sampling:

Demographics: The youngest recorded soldier was 12; women accompanied Union and Confederate armies; an estimated 1,000 African Americans participated in the battle.

Weapons: Besides cannons, muskets, and rifles, other arms used included swords and sabers, grenades and Gatling guns.

Casualties: The Civil War had the highest number of casualties per day of any US war in history (599 per day). 

Geography: Troops heading to Gettysburg marched long distances, sometimes 20 – 30 miles per day.

Costs: Military pay for a private in the Confederate army was $192 per month (in today’s dollars); for a Union soldier, it was $227.

Inside Packs and Haversacks:

Supplies: While on the move, soldiers ate salt pork or fresh meat, and hard bread.

There is additional information on the weather during the battle, soldier clothing, communication, monuments and the aftermath. Within each section are additional research questions for students to look up and answer. There are also lesson ideas and handouts, and links to more resources. 

This Illuminations Lesson provides printable mat, fish and clam figures for doing number comparisons using greater than, less than and equal symbols. 

ABCya Online Game for comparing numbers.

Worksheets for comparing numbers.

Anyone planning for the next school year yet? Although my school year is winding down (we take a break over the summer), and I haven’t started the heavy planning yet, I’m in the gathering phase, looking at this, checking out that, sampling the possibilities. I tell myself I have plenty of time, but deep down, I know that’s an illusion. Before I know it, September will be staring me in the face, so I’d much rather deal with things a little at a time than be bombarded with everything at the last minute.

One of the things I've been thinking about is adding some additional primary source examination to our history studies. We've studied the famous documents and speeches, but I'd like to add more ordinary stuff like old newspaper articles and letters, photos, maps and drawings, and see how that goes. To help with this, I've come across several sites that feature primary sources and ideas on how to use them:

Annenberg Learner's American History Course  looks like it has everything needed for a full year. It’s organized into 22 units, with videos, text, questions and activities. Each unit presents several broad themes that can be studied, and also includes associated primary documents, like old photographs and political cartoons, plus assignments to go along with them.

Archiving Early America: View important documents and ordinary writings, historical maps, rare images and portraits. You can also listen to music from various time periods.

Popular Songs in American History:  Another site with music from the 1700s to 1900s with lyrics and background information.

TeachingHistory.org: Ideas on how to turn your kids into history detectives.

Museum Box: Kids can "dig up" artifacts to build their own displays about historical people, places and perspectives.

Historical Thinking Matters: Explore four different questions of historical debate to draw your  own conclusions.