Month: December 2020

This lesson is designed to help students develop a mental picture of Arkansas’ location in relation to the states that surround it by associating the outline of Arkansas with a familiar object—the face of a clock.

Lesson Plan

Courtesy of CALS Butler Center for Arkansas Studies

Grade Level: K-4 Elementary School

Time period: Modern Era 1968 to Present

Arkansas Academic Standards are subject to revision every six years by the Arkansas Department of Education.

Students will analyze primary source documents to understand the Jim Crow south and the role it played in Arkansas education. Students will take this information and see how it connects with the teachings of Martin Luther King Jr. and the influence he had on individuals, such as Ernest Green.

Lesson Plan

Courtesy of CALS Butler Center for Arkansas Studies

Grade Level: 9-12 High School

Time period: World War II Through the Civil Rights Era 1941-1967

Arkansas Academic Standards are subject to revision every six years by the Arkansas Department of Education.

The goal of the lesson plan is to provide students with background knowledge of the segregation/desegregation issues in Arkansas during the World War II through the Faubus Era (1967).

Lesson Plan

Courtesy of CALS Butler Center for Arkansas Studies

Grade Level: 5-8 Middle School

Time period: World War II Through the Civil Rights Era 1941-1967

Arkansas Academic Standards are subject to revision every six years by the Arkansas Department of Education.

The lesson plan utilizes A Pryor Commitment: The Autobiography of David Pryor, published by the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies and distributed by the University of Arkansas Press. The lesson plan also utilizes a timeline poster, David Pryor in Arkansas History: A Life of Service to His State and Country, which is available free to Arkansas educators from the Butler Center through a Taylor Foundation Grant.

Students will examine how art can reflect the history and culture of a family, a community, or the state of Arkansas.

Lesson Plan

Courtesy of CALS Butler Center for Arkansas Studies

Grade Level: K-4 Elementary School; 5-8 Middle School; 9-12 High School

Time period: Modern Era 1968 to Present

Arkansas Academic Standards are subject to revision every six years by the Arkansas Department of Education.

Educators may wish to utilize Across Five Aprils by Irene Hunt, a novel of historical fiction about the experiences of a farm family living in Illinois during the time of the Civil War. This fictionalized account could have been written about an Arkansas farm family of the time. Copyrighted in 1964, this book has been reissued several times and is available in public and school libraries and can be used as a classroom set for instructional purposes.

Students will observe and reflect on the personal experiences of Arkansans as they study the Korean War.

Lesson Plan

Courtesy of CALS Butler Center for Arkansas Studies

Grade Level: 9-12 High School

Time period: World War II Through the Civil Rights Era 1941-1967

Arkansas Academic Standards are subject to revision every six years by the Arkansas Department of Education.

Students will examine and research the rise of the timber business in Arkansas, as described in “Timber: Living and Working in an Arkansas Forest”, Chapter IX of Bandits, Bears, and Backaches.

Lesson Plan

Courtesy of CALS Butler Center for Arkansas Studies

Grade Level: 5-8 Middle School

Time period: Modern Era 1968 to Present

Arkansas Academic Standards are subject to revision every six years by the Arkansas Department of Education.

Students will assume the role of a newspaper reporter from the Civil War period. After appropriate research utilizing print, non-print or electronic resources, students will write a newspaper article about the exodus of slaves during the Civil War period in Arkansas History.

Lesson Plan

Courtesy of CALS Butler Center for Arkansas Studies

Grade Level: 5-8 Middle School

Time period: Civil War Through the Gilded Age 1861-1900

Arkansas Academic Standards are subject to revision every six years by the Arkansas Department of Education.

In this short lesson students will learn about the geology and hydrology of Arkansas’ “hot springs” and how the environment of the Ouachita Mountains Natural Division relates to the development of the city of Hot Springs. They will become aware of the role the U.S. Government played in the preservation of the hot springs and will work in class to create their own advertisements for the city and the therapeutic effects of its waters.