Be honest...when you were a kid, how many of you thought it would be cool to be an astronaut?  If you didn't, you certainly had a friend who did.  The picture above was taken in the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History's gift shop while on an adventure with my nerdy history friend Jessica.         I couldn't resist.   My kids are going to love it, particularly as we have a year long space theme (among other themes) going on in class this upcoming school year.  I am busily researching STEAM projects we can explore in class.  

So much of my social studies instruction is based upon teaching timelines that having a focused theme on space exploration will be a timely touch.  I have to admit that I am a bit partial this year as I am celebrating the same number.  I am still searching for the perfect t-shirt to add to my collection for teaching history.  I'll keep you posted.

As always when teaching timelines, I LOVE finding new children's literature to support our studies.  Whenever there is a big anniversary celebration coming out, authors are quick to think ahead and write for the event.  Recently, I have become obsessed with the new line of Little Golden Books of historical events/characters.  I recently picked up the new Statue of Liberty on our last visit.  I was pleased to see a new one focusing on the first moon landing.  Additionally, if you are unfamiliar with Chris Gall, he published a book on America The Beautiful that has incredible illustrations to use with your students and I am excited to get my hands on Go For The Moon.  Admittedly, I don't have either book YET, but have added them to my Amazon cart.  Please click on the images below if you would like to order from Amazon as well.  I am Neil Armstrong is a new addition to Brad Meltzer's series.

As I mentioned earlier, almost all of my social studies teaching centers around teaching timelines.  I have discovered over the last many years that students find great success when given the ability to organize people and events via a master timeline.  I have many mini-timelines that merge into my GIANT anchor chart and the history makers from this mini timeline are then embedded into the larger.  Please enjoy the images below as a small sample of the MEGA pack that can be found on Teachers Pay Teachers if you are interested.

November is Native American Heritage Month and I wanted to post a few resources to help in teacher planning.  We were fortunate enough to visit the National Museum of the American Indian while in Washington, DC this past spring.  The museum is overwhelming with the artifacts that it contains.  Below is a link from the museum that will be helpful for planning for the month.
​

After years teaching about Owney, the National Railway Postal Dog, it was a treat to finally get to visit the National Postal Museum and finally see Owney in person!  The story of Owney is quite a delightful story for young children and a great way to integrate history and geography while analyzing primary sources.

The National Postal Museum has Owney on display and a fabulous railway exhibit demonstrating how mail was transported via train.  Online, take the time to explore the Smithsonian's online offerings on Owney, including the large digitized set of images of the tags he collected along the way.