Our Town, Our City: Local Studies Lessons for Massachusetts Teachers

The MSP invites classroom teachers and educators in all settings to take on the challenge of "going local" - using local themes and resources to teach concepts in language arts, social studies, mathematics, sciences and the arts.

The following lessons are a start. They were created with support from the
John H. and H. Naomi Tomfohrde Foundation

1. A Word Portrait of Our Community
2. Discovering My Neighborhood: A Personal Map

Exploring the Industrial Revolution Through Our Community
3. Manufacturing on the Rise: the local Industrial Revolution part 1
4. Working in the Factories: the local Industrial Revolution part 2
5. Farming in Decline: the local Industrial Revolution part 3
6. Immigrants for Hire: the local Industrial Revolution part 4

4. Home Sweet Home: Promoting My Neighborhood
7. My Neighborhood Then and Now
8. My Town / My City / My State (Card Game)
9. Water, Water, Everywhere?
10. What's in a Name?
11. What's Our Weather Like? Using Climographs
12. Who Was Who?
14. More Ideas to Spark Local Lessons

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More Exemplary Lessons by Exemplary Teachers

• Thomas Vaughn: Why are Places Located in Cape Cod that Way?
  
• Barbara White: African American Desegregation in Nantucket Unit
  
• Elaine Cawley Weintraub: School Integration Lesson
  African American Trail in Martha's Vineyard
  
• Cynthia Webb: African American Students in 19th c. Massachusetts
  
• Professor Thomas Malloy: Research Projects for Regional History
  Using the Burial Ground for Teaching
  North Central Mass. Town Origins
  
• Museum Kit Sample:
  Native American Moccasin Game from the Children's Museum
  
• Mildred Freyer: Multicultural Activities
  
• Dick Aieta: Geography Activities
  Mass. Geographic Alliance Climograph
  
• Marge Montgomery: Archiving the Past: What Really Happend on March 5, 1770? (Boston Massacre) 
  
• Local Studies Activities
  
• Watershed Teacher Lessons
  
• Mass. History, Geography & Government Teacher Lessons
  
• Mass. Bays & Boston Harbor Lessons:
  Mass. Bays Education Alliance: Who Dirtied the Water?
  Mass. Bays Education Alliance: Salt Water Wedge
  Boston Harbor Curriculum: National Park Service &Island Alliance Link
• Ronald G. Adams: Intergenerational Oral History Collection
  

Contributing Activities to the Database: we welcome lessons and activities related to Massachusetts Pease send your contributions in digitized form to k12.msp@umb.edu.