For years now, we at Thinking Nation have been thinking about how to make historical thinking accessible for all learners. After all, if the new minimum standard for history education is rooted in historical thinking, then anywhere history education is happening, historical thinking should be there. That includes elementary classrooms.
While we are not quite able to fully dive into the elementary school space just yet, we are excited by our new collaboration with Cubles that allows us to at least dip our feet in the elementary waters. As you have may have seen at the end of last year, we launched a partnership with Cubles to create historical figures paired with historical thinking lessons made for the elementary school classroom.
In June, I was fortunate enough to finally pilot out these fun buildables myself! At the beginning of the month, I went into my own daughter’s 3rd grade classroom and taught a lesson on the Statue of Liberty. With a room full of nine year olds, we talked about why we should contextualize, how we can evaluate evidence, and why practicing historical empathy matters.
Of course, each student also got to build their own Statue of Liberty, too! It was such a fun time and the students had such fun questions! From “What is the statue made of?” to “how might immigrants have felt when seeing the Statue of Liberty when they came to the United States?” The students were fully engaged for the 90-minute activity that combined the kinesthetic building process with rich historical thinking.
Then, last week, our Director of Curriculum, Annie Jenson, and I headed to Jacksonville State University in Alabama to work with over 100 Alabama elementary school teachers. Each day of their weeklong institute focused on different constitutional principles, and the day we joined them was focused on civil rights and civil liberties. The day before, we embarked on a Civil Rights bus tour, which set such an important foundation for the rich conversations around our constitutional rights.
After participants engaged with primary sources from Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, Susan B. Anthony, Booker T. Washington, W.e.b. Du Bois, and Malcolm X, we introduced another critical figure to our nation’s long history of pursuing civil rights: Sojourner Truth. With an auditorium full of elementary educators, we discussed Sojourner Truth’s life, legacy, and engaged with her famous speech, “Ain’t I a Woman?” We talked about the importance of making the implicit historical thinking skills of the lesson explicit for the students in the classroom and we brainstormed ways to scaffold the lesson for diverse learners. It was such a fun experience!
The day only got more exciting at the end of our session, when we got to announce that Jacksonville State University was able to provide every teacher with a class set of every historical figure we currently offer with Cubles. That means that thousands of Alabama students will be able to engage with the rich histories of Sojourner Truth, the Statue of Liberty, Abraham Lincoln, and Eleanor Roosevelt while learning how to think historically!
At Thinking Nation, we believe in the power of social studies education to strengthen our constitutional democracy. Working with both young students and many of their teachers this month reminded me that this vision is attainable! I am excited to continue and expand this work.
P.S. Yes, you can buy class sets of Cubles here! Each comes with a teacher guide and lesson plan, a brochure for students to create alongside their figure, and extension opportunities rooted in historical thinking.