Choose an assignment:
 

🗺️ 1. Historic Site Postcard Project

Objective: Learn about Texas historic sites and practice descriptive writing.

Instructions:

• Students “visit” a historic site virtually.

• Then, they design a postcard on one side (drawing of the site), and on the other, write a note as if they’re sending it home:

“Dear Mom, Today I visited the Alamo! It was so cool to see where the famous battle took place…”

Skills: Writing, art, reading comprehension
Extension: Mail finished postcards to local officials or a partner class.

🎭 2. Living History Mini-Presentations

Objective: Teach students about important historical figures or places through dramatization.

Instructions:

• Assign students a site or person (e.g., Sam Houston, a Comanche leader, a Spanish settler).

• Students research and dress up as their character and present a 1–2 minute “speech” introducing themselves and their importance.

Skills: Research, public speaking, performance

🧠 3. “Time Traveler” Diary Entries

Objective: Build empathy and historical imagination.

Instructions:

• Students imagine they traveled back in time and visited a site like Fort Griffin or Washington-on-the-Brazos.

• They write a diary entry about their “experience,” using sensory details and historical facts.

“The dust blew across the fort as the cavalry marched in…”

Skills: Creative writing, critical thinking

🎨 4. Build-a-Site Model or Diorama

Objective: Explore architecture and hands-on design.

Instructions:

• Students pick a historic site and build a model using recycled materials, clay, or shoeboxes.

• They label key parts and present fun facts about the site.

Skills: Spatial awareness, design, research

📍 5. “Texas Then & Now” Comparison Collage

Objective: Understand changes over time.

Instructions:

• Students find or draw images of a historic site then and now (ex: San Jacinto battlefield, a historic courthouse).

• They glue them side-by-side and write a few sentences comparing what has changed and why.

Skills: Observation, sequencing, visual literacy

📚 6. Historic Site Comic Strip

Objective: Retell historical events in a creative format.

Instructions:

• Students choose a site and draw a comic strip (4–6 panels) showing an important event or what might happen during a visit.

• Example: A child visiting the Alamo and imagining the battle.

Skills: Storyboarding, summarizing, creative expression

📖 7. “Mystery Site” Clue Hunt

Objective: Practice inference and research.

Instructions:

• Prepare “clues” about various sites (e.g., “This place was once the capital of the Republic of Texas…”)

• Students work in pairs to solve which site it is based on clues and site listings on the Texas Time Travel site.

Skills: Critical thinking, collaboration, research