Give students a better understanding of our global society with these high school history lesson plan ideas and activities that focus on American and world history. Rewind the clock with free downloadable worksheets that cover monumental events and time periods that changed the world.
High School American History Activities
Looking for ways to help your students understand the September 11 terror attacks and their impact? Use these 9/11 activities and lesson plans designed for middle and high school classrooms.
Celebrate Juneteenth in the classroom. Explore Juneteenth activities and lesson plans for elementary, middle school, and high school students.
Inauguration Day is January 20. These presidential inauguration activities for students can be integrated into social studies or language arts lessons and used in remote or in-person classrooms.
Dr. Emma Humphries, Chief Education Officer at iCivics, shares how she believes educators can carefully and thoughtfully approach teaching impeachment in K–12 classrooms.
Introduce students to Black innovators with these Black History Month writing prompts and guide them into a particular type of text, such as personal narrative, informative, or persuasive.
Bring the experiences of U.S. military service members to life for your students with our high school Veterans Day activities and lesson plan ideas.
Here are Constitution Day activities to engage your students in learning about the historic document that defines how our government works.
Download a 1960 election lesson plan to teach your students about the first-ever televised presidential debates in 1960 and their long-term impact.
Use this history of political parties lesson plan and activity to teach your students about how the U.S. political system in time for the 2020 presidential election.
Download this Wisconsin v. Yoder lesson plan to have students answer the question: Do parents have the right to remove their children from school if attending goes against their religious beliefs?
Download a free Social Studies lesson plan and student activity about Native American Oral History on the Oregon Trail.
Students will learn from reading diary entries written on the Oregon Trail how such writings preserve history and bring the past to life.
Download this free Wallace v. Jaffree lesson plan to teach students about an important Supreme Court case regarding prayer in schools and the First Amendment.
Start a discussion with your students about the Eighth Amendment with this Miller v. Alabama lesson plan.
Use these 9 Presidents' Day lesson plans and activities for middle and high school classrooms to foster engaged and informed citizens.
Affirmative action in higher education gained national attention during the 1978 Supreme Court case University of California Regents v. Bakke.
Use this New Jersey v. T.L.O. lesson plan to teach your students about the Fourth Amendment and unreasonable search and seizure.
Use this Tinker v. Des Moines lesson plan to teach your students about the debate surrounding Freedom of Speech in public school settings.
The Miranda v. Arizona ruling stated that a detained criminal suspect has the right to an attorney and against self-incrimination.
Supreme Court cases pertaining to issues raised in these amendments hold relevance for students.
Several U.S. Supreme Court cases you can cover in class relate directly to schools and children. Here are eight examples.
High School World History Activities
Get tips for teaching fact versus opinion with these resources, insights, and activities from journalist and educator Esther Wojcicki.
Looking to include ELA instruction in your social studies classroom? This Mayan pyramids vs. Egyptian pyramids lesson plan idea has students discuss the similarities and differences between the two types of structures through writing an essay.
Use these Cold War lesson plans and activities for middle school and high school to teach students about the decades-long period of geopolitical tensions between the United States and Soviet Union.
Down these World War II lesson plans and activities to teach your students about the war in history that claimed at least 50 million lives worldwide.
Use this Age of Imperialism lesson plan to teach students about the actions taken by Europe and the U.S. in the late 19th and early 20th centuries to acquire new territories.
Download these Enlightenment and American Revolution lesson plans to teach your students about how the latter was influenced by an era defined by human reason and science.
Download this absolute monarchy lesson plan to teach your students about rulers including Frederick the Great and Louis XIV.
Download this Protestant Reformation lesson plan to teach your students about this period of upheaval in Europe. These Protestant Reformation activities for middle school and high school encourage critical thinking through writing and primary source analysis.
Use this Renaissance lesson plan and activities for middle school and high school to teach your students about this era of cultural "rebirth" in the 14th to 17th centuries.
Use these downloadable resources to teach students about Charlemagne and the Early Middle Ages.
Known for its architecture, democratic system of government, and impact on science and the arts, ancient Greece is an important topic often covered in middle and high school social studies.
Download these Code of Hammurabi activity and lesson plan resources to teach students the context surrounding the creation of the code of laws.
***
View more social studies activities for high schoolers. Or, you can check out our full list of free learning activities for all grades and all subjects.
