Lesson Plans

This activity is designed to question students' assumptions on how labor was divided at Mount Vernon. Students will look at an artifact (the grub hoe) and then analyze primary and secondary sources to reinterpret that artifact. They will learn that enslaved women primary worked in the fields, while enslaved men usually did "skilled" tasks. This is an activity that will illustrate how gender binaries are constructed and have changed throughout history. It also reinforces students' STEM skills, such as percentages and ratios. 

This lesson highlights the global economy of the 18th century by tracing one of Washington's ale glasses through production to consumption. Students will create a story on all the different people that they think would have touched the ale glass throughout this process. This activity will make them realize the many hidden hands behind a common object.  

This activity sheet focuses students' attention on historical artifacts in the Archaeology collection to learn more about the enslaved population's lives at Mount Vernon. Students will learn how to use artifacts as a primary source, which is especially important in such cases where artifacts are some of the only primary sources left from enslaved communities. 

This activity connects students to George Washington's meticulous record keeping by equating it with modern day bullet journaling. Students will look at a 1793 Farm Report that was made by one of Washington's overseers and sent to Washington while he was President. Students will then keep a bullet journal for a week to experiment recording their own information. By reflecting on their experience, they will be able to get a better understanding of Washington.

This DBQ style lesson asks students to use multiple primary source objects from Mount Vernon’s collection to explore the concept of ownership and what it can tell them about enslaved people in the 18th century. This lesson was created by 2016-2017 Life Guard Teacher Fellow Michael Ellis.

This activity allows students to analyze a primary source and convey that information in the form of an infographic. Students will examine George Washington's List of Enslaved People, 1799 and create their own infographic to visually represent that data to convey a message. This will increase their media literary skills by analyzing the sources of infographics, while also learning more about the enslaved population at Mount Vernon in 1799.

A lesson plan that encourages students to analyze and use evidence from diverse sources to act as curators and create an interpretation plan for the Greenhouse Slave Quarters at Mount Vernon. 

This activity helps students understand the enslaved workers' housing conditions on George Washington's outlying farms. Students will measure out the dimensions of the size of a enslaved worker's cabin to think about how space was apart of the mental restrictions of slavery as well as the physical limitations.

This DBQ style lesson asks students to use multiple primary and secondary sources to evaluate if the Southern secession movement in the 19th century was an extension of the ideals of the American Revolution. This lesson was created by 2016-2017 Life Guard Teacher Fellow Michael Ellis.

A lesson that uses George Washington’s list of enslaved people from 1799 to understand enslavement at Mount Vernon. Students will explore information related to the institution of slavery in the 18th century.

Four seasonal magazines use inquiry, cross-curricular connections, and coloring pages to explore color through the landscape George Washington loved, the home he built, the army he led, and more. Students learn how Washington’s world encompassed the full spectrum of colors by examining 18th-century life and material culture. This resource was created by 2016-2017 Life Guard Teacher Fellow Lynn Miller.

A lesson that asks students to examine document-based evidence related to George Washington and slavery. Students are asked to use evidence to write an essay that answers the essential question: What were George Washington’s views on slavery?

This learning resource connects the concept of informed civic agency to George Washington’s significance as a national symbol in rhetoric. Two leading 19th-century African-American orators provide different perspectives on George Washington’s legacy in the century after his death. Through the analysis of primary sources and a creative civics activity, this learning resource empowers students to see themselves as citizens whose voices matter and who have agency to collaboratively confront problems in our world today.

This lesson shows how recipes are one way women documented their lives in the 18th century. Students will closely examine a recipe for hoecakes and focus on the people involved in that recipe. They will then hypothesize on the lives and interactions of those people based on the recipe. 

This set of five lesson plans use Martha Washington as a case study to integrate women's history into the events of the American Revolution and the New Nation historical eras. This lesson was created by 2017-2018 Life Guard Teacher Fellow Bonnie Belshe. 

This activity sheet is designed to get students to look closely at a primary source document so that they can extract and analyze the information with in it. Students will use the source to learn about what happened to the enslaved people at Mount Vernon after George Washington's death. 

In this activity students will use objects from the Lives Bound Together exhibition to create their own exhibit. Students will learn to use primary sources as evidence to convey a message. 

An infograph created by the staff at the Washington Library that visually represents loyalists in America during the Revolutionary War, and where they migrated to following the war.  

This DBQ style lesson asks students to use multiple primary and secondary sources to evaluate the statement: Ideals and moral concerns regarding human equality and the evils of slavery espoused over the course of the Founding Era were impossible to carry out and enforce due to the economic necessity and racial dynamics of slavery. This lesson was created by 2016-2017 Life Guard Teacher Fellow Michael Ellis.

This DBQ style lesson asks students to use multiple primary and secondary sources to evaluate the statement:  Non-violent opposition proved to be the most productive method of effecting change during the Revolutionary Era in America. This lesson was created by 2016-2017 Life Guard Teacher Fellow Michael Ellis.

A primary source worksheet for students focused on using place as a primary source. Students will explore Samuel Vaughan's 1787 map of Mount Vernon to gain a better understanding of George Washington and the 18th-century world in which he lived. 

This activity uses the Slave Quarters at Mount Vernon to better understand the lives of the enslaved population who lived and worked on Mansion House Farm. Students will learn how to use place to examine American values and culture in the late 18th century. 

An infograph created by the staff at the Washington Library that visually represents information from George Washington's List of Enslaved People, 1799. 

This activity compares two containers of tobacco- one on the production side and the other on the consumption side to show how tobacco was made and sold in the Colonies and in England. Students will analyze a snuff box and hogshead as well as British advertisements for tobacco and snuff to understand the importance of tobacco to the 18th century. It also shines a light on how slavery was the foundation of Colonial and English economy, government, and lifestyle. 

This activity highlights the global economy that Mount Vernon was a part of in the 18th century. Students will use primary and secondary source to follow the process of how fish from Mount Vernon could become Solomon Gundy, a fish paste that was traditional in Jamaica. It also shows how George Washington was an active member of the slave trade and profiting off of the institution of slavery independent of him owning enslaved people. 

A lesson challenging students to analyze primary and secondary sources to answer the question How many enslaved individuals named Grace, Isaac, and Suckey were there at Mount Vernon from 1750-1799? Using information available to researchers and scholars at the Washington Library, students become historians as they work to answer a question that has no definitive answer. As an optional extension, students can create a biography about one of the individuals identified in their research. 

A lesson plan to help students gain an understanding of the lives of the enslaved people on Mount Vernon.  The students will use a primary source document, entitled the French’s Slave Census 1799, to research an enslaved individual in order to answer questions and write an introduction about the person. This lesson was created by 2017-2018 Life Guard Teacher Fellow Donella Smither.

In this post- distance learning program activity, students will use primary source objects, places, and documents to investigate different ways members of the enslaved community took agency over their lives while living in bondage. Students will learn about enslaved life at Mount Vernon, explore multiple perspectives, and contextualize history within a larger narrative. 

An inquiry-based module that provides primary and secondary sources to help students answer the question: Why was ice cream an exclusive treat at Mount Vernon long ago? Using a familiar sweet treat as an entry point, students research and analyze the lives of enslaved individuals, as well as the specialized skills and objects that went into serving a single dish of ice cream. Source materials include farm reports, material culture objects, rooms, maps, and biographies. This project was developed in partnership with McGraw Hill Education. 

This integrated lesson connects the civic concepts of A People with Contemporary Debates & Possibilities and We the People to the life of George Washington and his varying views on enslavement.  It allows teachers to support students’ ability to engage in the difficult conversations that are necessary to support a diverse democratic society and reflect critical understanding of how our shared history and experiences contribute to contemporary society