TeachersFirst's Juneteenth Resources
Juneteenth is a holiday celebrating the end of slavery in the United States. Dating back to June 19, 1865, it commemorates when Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas, to announce that the Civil War had ended and all enslaved people were now free. Inexcusably, this occurred over two years after President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. Juneteenth became an official federal holiday in 2021, though it had been celebrated informally, especially in African American communities, for over 150 years. For teachers, Juneteenth provides an opportunity to engage students in lessons about the history of slavery, the decades-long fight for emancipation, and the continual journey toward racial equality in America. Recognizing this day allows meaningful discussions about freedom, perseverance, and progress. Use this curated list to learn more about Juneteenth and find resources to share with your students. View our full collection of resources related to Juneteenth here.
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Juneteenth Resources - TeachersFirst
Grades
K to 12
tag(s): Juneteenth (22)
In the Classroom
Help your students to learn more about Juneteenth. Find resources on this list for students to use in cooperative learning groups. Read each resource's Classroom Use section to learn ways to incorporate the information in your lessons.You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
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The Historical Legacy of Juneteenth - National Museum of African American History & Culture
Grades
3 to 12tag(s): african american (110), black history (129), civil war (135), holidays (172), Juneteenth (22), slavery (77)
In the Classroom
Have students express their understanding of Juneteenth through creative art by exploring the different themes of Juneteenth. After students explore the toolkit, they can create artwork or digital posters representing what Juneteenth means to them, using multimedia software like Canva, reviewed here. They can use the shareable graphics as inspiration. Facilitate a class discussion or debate on the impact of Juneteenth today, using resources from the toolkit to start the conversation. Students can use digital platforms like Padlet, reviewed here, to share their thoughts and responses. To enhance your study on black history, have your students research the history of Juneteenth and its significance. They can then create a digital timeline using a tool like MyLens, reviewed here showing key events that led up to Juneteenth and what happened afterward.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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The Gilder Lehrman Collection - The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History
Grades
6 to 12tag(s): 1900s (73), 20th century (61), bill of rights (28), civil rights (197), civil war (135), cold war (31), constitution (87), elections (81), electoral college (22), Juneteenth (22), maps (208), native americans (92), presidents (125), primary sources (118), railroads (14), slavery (77), supreme court (27), war of 1812 (14), women (140), world war 1 (75), world war 2 (155)
In the Classroom
Teachers use the provided discussion questions to enhance your unit of study. Use the questions to activate knowledge or to assess students. Students can search the site for primary sources that can be downloaded and used in reports or presentations. Display maps on whiteboards to show students important places in history. Have students view the online exhibitions centered around historical figures and events. English teachers can use the primary source documents to discuss writing structures and illustrate how written English has changed over the years.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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America's Second Independence Day - Juneteenth - TeachersFirst
Grades
K to 12tag(s): black history (129), book lists (161), civil rights (197), emancipation proclamation (11), Juneteenth (22), slavery (77), texas (7)
In the Classroom
Use the suggested activities and book lists to find resources for teaching about Juneteenth in your classroom. Include these lessons as part of Black History Month and when teaching about United States history and civil rights. Engage students in learning about Juneteenth by asking them to create interactive presentations using Genially, reviewed here. Search for Juneteenth on Genially to find a template to use when presenting Juneteenth to students or for students to use to share their knowledge on this topic. Extend learning using Figjam, reviewed here, an online interactive whiteboard, to share additional resources, add polls, diagrams, sketches, and more using Figjam.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Lifting as We Climb Juneteenth Event - Penguin Classroom/Evette Dionne and Julia Torres
Grades
10 to 12tag(s): authors (104), civil rights (197), Juneteenth (22), professional development (404), women (140)
In the Classroom
Share this video with students after reading Lifting as We Climb or during your lessons on women's rights and civil rights. Use Vibby, reviewed here to highlight, annotate, or clip portions of the video to enhance learning. For example, when discussing Juneteenth, use Vibby to clip that portion of the discussion in the video to share with students. Extend learning by asking students to interview community members on their experience as Black women. Have students share the information learned modeled upon this video by creating and recording a discussion of Juneteenth, civil rights, or women's rights. Use Vmaker, reviewed here to create, edit, and share their video recordings.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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The Birth of Juneteenth; Voices of the Enslaved - Library of Congress and Neely Tucker
Grades
8 to 12tag(s): black history (129), civil rights (197), civil war (135), Juneteenth (22), primary sources (118), slavery (77)
In the Classroom
Bookmark and save this article to use when planning lessons on Juneteenth, slavery, or the Civil War, both as a resource of quality information and to access the many primary source links found in the article. Visit the Library of Congress: For Teachers, reviewed here to search and find many more Juneteenth-related documents. Engage students in learning more about Juneteenth by asking them to research information through different focus points. For example, this article discusses specific cities, people, and architecture. Ask students to share their learning by creating infographics using templates from Timeline Infographic Templates, reviewed here or Adobe Creative Cloud Express for Education, reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Teaching Juneteenth - Learning for Justice and Coshandra Dillard
Grades
8 to 12tag(s): black history (129), civil rights (197), civil war (135), Juneteenth (22), racism (78), slavery (77)
In the Classroom
Include this article with your other resources for teaching about Juneteenth, Civil Rights, and slavery to use as a guide for lesson planning. As you gather resources to teach about each focus topic, organize information using Padlet, reviewed here. Create a column within your Padlet for each topic, then add links to your teaching resources. Alternatively, use Wakelet, reviewed here to save and organize resources by creating a collection for each topic. Engage students in Juneteenth lessons using Curipod's lesson generators, reviewed here. For example, use the Did You Know generator to create slides with information about Juneteenth or the Lesson Hook Generator to build a set of slides with open-ended questions for students to discuss. Extend student learning by asking them to create and share podcasts exploring Juneteenth through the different lenses discussed in the article. Buzzsprout, reviewed here offers free tools for creating and sharing professional-looking podcasts.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Understanding & Celebrating Juneteenth - National Museum of African American History and Culture
Grades
K to 6tag(s): black history (129), civil rights (197), Juneteenth (22), slavery (77)
In the Classroom
Use this document as a resource for understanding Juneteenth while taking advantage of the suggestions for discussing slavery and civil rights in age-appropriate ways. Share this information with parents to help them understand the history of Juneteenth. As you talk about the questions found in this article, use Draw.Chat, reviewed here to add and share student comments and add images to enhance understanding. For example, ask students to describe "freedom" and then use text boxes to add their comments. During your discussion, upload images that depict freedom in several different forms. Extend learning by asking students to write and share stories using the prompt found in this document to tell about positive changes they would like to make in the world. Use PDFescape, reviewed here to write the stories, then, use PDF to Flipbook Converter, reviewed here to turn their PDFs into an online flippable book.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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What is Juneteenth, and Why is it Important? - Ted-Ed
Grades
2 to 8tag(s): black history (129), civil rights (197), Juneteenth (22), slavery (77), texas (7)
In the Classroom
Share this lesson with students to complete at school or as a flipped learning lesson. On their own or with a partner, have students answer the multiple-choice and open-answer questions by clicking on "Think." Then, consider having small student groups read the additional information inside the Dig Deeper section and investigate the links with the information. Following that, have groups share the information with other class members. For a mini project like this, consider using the tools available at Adobe Creative Cloud Express for Education, reviewed here for students to create presentations, infographics, and other visual media. Another project suggestion would be to have small groups of students investigate the story of Juneteenth further through different perspectives, such as that of a soldier, Texas citizens, or children. You could have them produce an animated video using a program like moovly, reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Juneteenth - The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History
Grades
8 to 12tag(s): civil rights (197), emancipation proclamation (11), Juneteenth (22), slavery (77)
In the Classroom
Include the resources found on this site with your current Juneteenth resources. Consider organizing and curating your resources using Wakelet, reviewed here. Create a Wakelet collection for your professional use and a collection to share and collaborate with students. Engage students in learning using Perusall, reviewed here, to digitally annotate and discuss the primary source documents shared on the Juneteenth site. Use Perusall to create a flipped learning activity and have students view shared documents and provide comments and questions about the information. As students learn more about emancipation and Juneteenth, encourage them to learn about and share the stories of those featured in these lessons and their research. Enhance learning by having students produce podcasts that bring the stories of enslaved people to life using a free podcasting tool such as Buzzsprout, reviewed here. Buzzsprout includes many features that support easy use by students and educators, such as the ability to schedule the release of episodes on your choice of date and time and the option to add links to show notes.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Juneteenth Activities and Lesson Plans for Students - Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Shaped Staff
Grades
K to 12tag(s): 1800s (74), civil rights (197), emancipation proclamation (11), Juneteenth (22), slavery (77)
In the Classroom
Include the teaching ideas and activities provided on this site with your other lessons on Juneteenth, Emancipation, or slavery. Engage students in learning about Juneteenth by sharing a timeline of events leading up to Emancipation and beyond, including the recognition of Juneteenth nationally. Create your timeline using the timeline creator Wikipedia Timeline Generator, reviewed here, provided by Class tools. Extend learning by asking students to share their understanding of Juneteenth using a presentation tool such as Genially, reviewed here, to create interactive images and presentations. Once you are signed in, members can search Genially's Inspiration area to find a reproducible template for a Juneteenth interactive image.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Change Begins at School - Morningside Center for Teaching Social Responsibility
Grades
K to 12tag(s): bullying (50), climate change (90), conflict resolution (9), disasters (36), diversity (37), elections (81), holidays (172), Juneteenth (22), politics (111), racism (78), religions (79), social and emotional learning (94), women (140)
In the Classroom
Engage students in any of the provided lessons by starting with a simple poll using Slido, reviewed here. For example, ask students if they are familiar with the topic discussed, have experienced a similar emotion, or display an image on your whiteboard and ask students if they know what it represents. Enhance learning throughout any of the lessons by sharing additional resources using a curation tool such as Padlet, reviewed here. Add links to videos, articles, or online activities related to the lesson's content. As you complete lesson activities, extend learning by asking students to share their understanding by creating digital books using Book Creator, reviewed here, flyers made with Adobe Express for Education, reviewed here, or infographics created with Canva Infographic Maker, reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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All About the Holidays - PBS Learning Media
Grades
K to 12tag(s): 100thday (8), back to school (63), chinese new year (5), christmas (36), cinco de mayo (10), easter (10), elections (81), fathers day (11), fire prevention (16), flag day (5), halloween (31), hanukkah (12), hispanic (31), holidays (172), july 4th (12), Juneteenth (22), kwanzaa (12), labor day (5), martin luther king (41), mothers day (13), new years (5), pi (25), presidents (125), rosh hashanah (9), st patricks day (11), thanksgiving (24), valentines day (12), veterans (25), womens suffrage (44), yom kippur (9)
In the Classroom
Bookmark this site to use as a resource for teaching material during holidays throughout the year. For each holiday use a bookmarking site such as Wakelet, reviewed here, to organize and share lesson materials, videos, and game sites for your students. Instead of worksheets or written reports, enhance student learning by asking them to create infographics sharing information about any holiday. Canva Infographic Maker, reviewed here, is a very easy to use tool that includes pre-made templates. Don't keep student learning to yourself, share their knowledge through holiday podcasts for your entire school and community to hear. Spotify for Podcastors (was Anchor), reviewed here, features many kid-friendly tools to get you started with creating and sharing podcasts.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Woo! Kids Activities - woojr.com
Grades
K to 6This site includes advertising.
tag(s): holidays (172), Juneteenth (22), poetry (190), preK (261), substitutes (26), worksheets (70)
In the Classroom
Use Woo! as a starting point for lesson ideas and activities, then go beyond worksheets to challenge your students. Ask your students to create their own templates and review materials using Google Documents. Incorporate game-play into your lessons using Bamboozle, reviewed here. Baamboozle is a quick and easy game creation tool that creates multiple types of games for two teams. Incorporate questions into videos using playposit, reviewed here. Students and teachers can comment and add responses directly into this video resource.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Kid World Citizen - Becky Morales
Grades
K to 6This site includes advertising.
tag(s): back to school (63), chinese new year (5), christmas (36), cross cultural understanding (160), earth day (60), hanukkah (12), hispanic (31), holidays (172), italy (16), Juneteenth (22), mexico (30), native americans (92), ramadan (10), thanksgiving (24)
In the Classroom
Bookmark this site for use throughout the year when teaching about countries, holidays, and for cross-cultural literature resources. Choose a country to explore each month using resources found on the site. Learn about your students' backgrounds to find countries and regions to explore using activities on the site. Use an online tool such as Interactive Two Circle Venn Diagram, reviewed here, to compare and contrast your culture with that of a different country.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Barat Primary Source Nexus - Barat Education Foundation
Grades
2 to 12tag(s): advertising (24), black history (129), cross cultural understanding (160), history day (39), immigration (65), journalism (72), Juneteenth (22), lincoln (62), martin luther king (41), poetry (190), presidents (125), primary sources (118), professional development (404), roosevelt (12), slavery (77), writing prompts (58)
In the Classroom
Take a look at the free professional development for using primary sources for teachers. Search for Connecting to the Common Core, where there are writing prompts for K-5 plus a link to the triangle activity. Download and use the PDF for the Thinking Triangle. Have older students research an interest and report to the class using a tool like Slides, reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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American Battlefield Trust - American Battlefield Trust
Grades
6 to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): battles (18), civil war (135), emancipation proclamation (11), gettysburg (15), gettysburg address (11), Juneteenth (22), lincoln (62), slavery (77)
In the Classroom
Bookmark and save this site as an excellent resource for Civil War materials. Display different battle information on an interactive whiteboard or with a projector to discuss as a class. Share this site with students to use as a resource for class projects. Ask them to collect facts and resources using a bookmarking tool such as Wakelet, reviewed here. Have students use a mapping tool such as Google Earth, reviewed here, to create an audio (and visual) tour of pertinent battle sites. Challenge your students to use a site such as Sutori, reviewed here, to create an interactive timeline of important battles. With Sutori you can include text, images and collaboration. Have students make a multimedia presentation using Genial.ly, reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Edsitement - EdSitement
Grades
K to 12tag(s): art history (86), cultures (131), Juneteenth (22), literacy (110)
In the Classroom
Use Edsitement for lesson ideas in language, history, literature, and cultures. Find multiple sources to give a deeper comprehension on the subject matter. In history classes, keep the ongoing calendar in your favorites to celebrate an important historical day every day. Lesson plans cover multiple grade levels in many different subject areas. Resources can enrich, or even to give further explanation to current topics of study.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Watch Know Learn - Community Foundation of Northwest Mississippi
Grades
K to 12tag(s): computers (109), crafts (53), decimals (84), environment (237), ethics (21), fractions (158), holidays (172), Juneteenth (22), scientific method (45), video (260), vocabulary development (87), writing (318)
In the Classroom
Search for videos relevant to your upcoming units or share the link with older students to search on their own. Use clips as engaging openings to units or as a review at the end. Have students identify the main points in the video and relate it back to class information. Students can use the examples on the site to create their own videos about a topic they have studied that could be beneficial to others.If you do join the site to submit videos (for more adventurous technology users), we recommend uploading, commenting, and participating in the project (the creation and growth of WatchKnow) as a whole-class collaborative activity. If your students create videos, critique them locally before submitting them to the site as the "bests" from your class.
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DocsTeach - Digital Vaults - National Archives
Grades
3 to 12tag(s): civil rights (197), congress (39), courts (19), first ladies (4), immigration (65), inventors and inventions (71), Juneteenth (22), lewis and clark (14), presidents (125), primary sources (118), slavery (77), womens suffrage (44), world war 1 (75), world war 2 (155)
In the Classroom
Use this site as an anticipatory set for a unit in history or on inventions. Share a collection of images or invention drawings on a projector or whiteboard and ask what the invention will do. Or use the site as the starting point for individual or group projects. After demonstrating on an interactive whiteboard or projector, have students use laptops or lab computers to "collect" resources related to their assigned inventor, decade, or era in American history. Check your school policy regarding accessing student email. If students cannot have their own email accounts, consider using a "class set" of GMail subaccounts (managed by you), explained here. This tells how to set up GMail subaccounts to use for any online membership service. This would provide anonymous interaction within your class. Students can use their log-ins to collect resources.Since the documents are in the public domain (are not copyrighted), students may also download and use the files as part of other projects, such as video compilations, Powerpoint presentations, or multimedia of any sort. To access the resources in non-Flash format, click the small link to "research this record in ARC" in the detailed view of the item. You can then view and Save As for use elsewhere. Be sure you teach students about copying the URL and relevant information from this ARC page to cite the source and give credit in any presentation they make. This site is excellent for enrichment or projects for the gifted, as well. Include it on your teacher web page for students to access both in and out of class for students who are working in History Day projects or other assignments for your class.
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