Category: Lesson Plans

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.

The goal of the unit is to help students define events surrounding the Elaine Massacre in the time period of Arkansas History in the early part of the 20th century.

Lesson Plan

Courtesy of CALS Butler Center for Arkansas Studies

Grade Level: 5-8 Middle School

Time period: Early 20th Century 1901-1940

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

Students will utilize the online encyclopedia about Arkansas history and culture to complete timeline or geography activities. Where possible,educators should guide students in locating resources regarding Arkansas’s diverse cultural past.

Lesson Plan

Courtesy of CALS Butler Center for Arkansas Studies

Grade Level: K-4 Elementary School;

The lesson plan utilizes The Broken Vase by Phillip H. McMath and Emily Matson Lewis. The Broken Vase is a roman à clef (“novel with a key,” or novel based on real life) written in close collaboration with Holocaust survivor Penina Krupitsky, who appears in the novel as the fictional Miriam Kellerman. Penina Krupitsky currently resides in Little Rock,

In this short lesson students will learn about the Caddo salt industry at the Hardman Settlement east of Arkadelphia. As well as learning how salt deposits formed in the West Gulf Coastal Plain of Arkansas, students will study the process of Caddo salt production and the uses and trade value of salt.

Lesson Plan

Courtesy of CALS Butler Center for Arkansas Studies

Grade Level: 5-8 Middle School;