Flashback Friday Lesson Two - The Hindenburg Disaster

 

My upper elementary students loved this lesson. Teaching catastrophic events has sparked their thinking and writing ideas more than anything else I have tried. I went into this school year with the determination to make writing FUN! Of course, we have to follow standards but essay after essay can get very monotonous for kids. 

They want to know about real life, true events, fires, explosions, deaths. Without sounding too morbid, life is beautiful but also full of compelling sorrow. It is a great thing that we have tragedy to balance out the joy. It is interesting to learn about drama and the mistakes of human beings from the past. It is also imperative. This Historical catastrophe lesson for 5th graders was a success. 

The War in Sudan - Home of the Brave

I teach 5th Grade ELA! In order to make our lessons more interesting I have implemented Flashback Friday! Each Friday, we take 25-35 minutes of our class time to learn about a Historical Event. (Think I Survived...). Most of the events we learn about are war-related or catastrophe-related, and the kids love it! These lessons also SPARK their writing ideas.

Some of my lessons connect to our class Read-Alouds for the year and others are completely unrelated but extremely thought-provoking! These are some of the most interesting upper elementary history lessons.

The most learning happens when students are ENGAGED in the content! My kids wait all week for our Flashback Friday lessons!

This is part of a growing bundle! Always *Editable*

Want to engage and inspire your students? Try teaching about historical catastrophes.

I use this particular product when we are in our 5th grade Lucy Calkins Unit 1 Reading Interpretation Book Clubs. Our Class read aloud is Home of the Brave by Katherine Applegate. My students are constantly asking me background questions about the Civil War in Sudan. This motivated me to create this product! It relates to our standards, provides background knowledge and fits perfectly into our Flashback Friday routine!

The War in Sudan