As your summer gets seriously underway, are you looking for something illuminating to read, to spur your classroom planning, or to share with your students during the summer break? How about digging into these recent blog posts from the Library?
Recently, in a post in the Library’s Unfolding History blog, Michelle Krowl of the Manuscript Division asked the question, “What’s In Their Wallets?” about a pair of presidents and several other individuals from history. This post reminded us of our learning activity “Leaving Evidence of Our Lives,” in which participants are asked to think about what primary source evidence they might leave behind after a typical day, and we think the post would make a good starting point for that activity.
Want to help students build observation skills? Melissa Lindberg’s Views of Mulberry Street in Little Italy from the Picture This blog encourages readers to look closely at details in the photograph and to ask themselves what can be seen in different versions of the photo. Want to expand this activity further? Take a peek at Cheryl Lederle’s Hide and Seek on Mulberry Street post from our own blog for suggestions on how to bring this image into the classroom.
Your students may be spending time this summer playing their favorite games. Engage them in looking at games from the past using this blog post from Minerva’s Kaleidoscope. For days when the weather drives them indoors, explore the puzzle pages highlighted in the Library’s Headlines and Heroes blog featuring mazes, word games, and pictures to color. Want to take the joys of puzzles a bit further? Learn more about a cipher made by Thomas Jefferson to communicate with Lewis and Clark. Plus you can learn more about ciphers and their impact through history in blog posts featuring Jefferson and the female codebreakers of World War II. Want to see other ciphers from Jefferson? This search will lead you to several others Jefferson created.
And just to look ahead at good times to come, don’t forget to take a moment and see who is coming to the National Book Festival on August 24th. It’s going to be a wonderful day.
We hope you enjoy your summer break and enjoy catching up on some of our blog posts.
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