Civil War Lesson Plans

Gettysburg was one of the most important battles of the Civil War. These Civil War lesson plans will help your students understand its significance and relate to the history.

Free Lesson Plans
The Gettysburg Foundation offers an annual satellite broadcast with plans. It's a virtual field trip to Gettysburg that follows an interesting story about a fictional real estate agent with her teenage son. It introduces many historical sites and Civil War facts. The program aired live on February 12, 2010 and will be available on DVD after the air date to those registered. It's designed to be shown in three 20 minute segments with specified discussions and activities. The lessons were designed in accordance with the curriculum standards of the National Council for Social Studies.

There are also free history lesson plans available from the National Park Service (opens in a new window). They're listed by the social studies standards with which they correspond, so lessons that meet more than one standard are listed more than once. The lesson on Choices and Commitments: The Soldiers at Gettysburg is excellent! You can find lessons related to other battles of the Civil War, too.

For more fun civil war lesson plans, take a look at the online scavenger hunts I put together.

Other Gettysburg Lesson Plans
The Eisenhower National Historic Site is also featured in one of the lessons from the National Park Service. Thaw in the Cold War: Eisenhower and Khrushchev at Gettysburg examines issues of the Cold War.

If you are actually planning a Gettysburg field trip to Pennsylvania, here's a .pdf file from the National Park Service that includes fun activities and field trip planner help.

Kids Discover Your six-to-12-year-old kids will be entertained immeasurably by the fact-filled, educational, full-color Kids Discover Magazine. Each issue covers a single topic in nature, science, geography, history or man-made wonders.

Civil War Times Illustrated Are you fascinated by the war between the states? Enthralled by the struggles and battles that made our country what it is today? Civil War Times Illustrated brings the brave people, interesting places and monumental battles of yesteryear to life in every feature-filled issue.