Lesson Plans
Our mission is to advocate and build capacity for high-quality social studies by providing support to educators through lesson plans, teaching resources, and websites. Find a wealth of social studies resources below.
Choose your education level below
Download lessons in your required level using the links below
Additional Lesson Supports
Check out some great lessons from the following organizations:
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Facing the Future
This organization offers engaging, standards-aligned, interdisciplinary K-12 resources on global issues and sustainability. Activity-based lesson plans and action ideas on topics such as climate change, poverty, and equity are available to download for free.
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Foundation for Teaching Economics
Excellent lesson plans as well as some wonderful places to go to get training. Don’t miss out on going to one of their training sessions all over America. FTE pays for almost everything for you to go to one of them.
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The National Society of the Colonial Dames of America in the State of Washington
This organization has a grant program whereby teachers can receive funds to help them develop lesson plans, visit historical sites, or do other things for their classes. Here are the lessons developed by their teachers
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World Affairs Council in Seattle
Free materials, including resource packets and CBA-aligned curriculum materials. If you click on Global Classroom, and then look for CBA units, resource packets, etc.
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K-12 Study Canada
A primary gateway for learning about Canada. Access a wealth of free resources, including curriculum aligned to Washington State EALRs, teacher resource guides, classroom loan-kits and more.
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Tom Ladenburg
Tom Ladenburg has 68 excellent, and FREE, high school U.S. History lesson chapters that can be used as soon as you print them out. These lessons have assignments at the end of each one. These lesson chapters are intended and have been extensively used in high school U.S. History classes. He will send you 5 pdf lessons at a time. All you have to do is email him. Here is the list of lessons that he currently has available.
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Washington State History Museum Lesson Plans
The WSHM has a great collection of lesson plans and projects relating to Washington state. Materials are listed by content and grade level and many feature collections and exhibits that are housed at the museum.
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NCSS
Visit the NCSS Resources and Lesson Plan pages for a complete listing of their resources.
Social Studies Resources from PBS Find resources for your classroom by selecting a grade range and topic and then searching their collections.
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Search WebQuests
Search the WebQuest listings for activities related to any social studies topic
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Stanford History Education Group
SHEG has a great series of US and World history lessons, focusing on primary source documentation. Sign up for free to access their full collection of lessons