How do you teach historical thinking?
Teaching history involves showing students how to use clues from primary and secondary sources to ask and answer good questions.
Primary sources give us many clues about the past. They are the evidence—such as letters, newspapers, drawings, photographs, tools, or clothes—from the time period under investigation.
Secondary sources are written by historians who use available materials to interpret the past. They provide analysis, summary of historic moments, and change over time.
Use this poster with your elementary students to help them learn how to be history detectives.
How to Use This Interactive Poster
The poster is divided into four quadrants. Hover your mouse over a quadrant to highlight it and click. When the image of that quadrant appears, click on a bullet to learn about the image and find related learning and teaching resources.
Teaching Resources
Are you a secondary teacher?
Click here to visit our secondary poster!
Teaching the Civil War?
Click here to visit our Civil War poster!
Interactive Historical Thinking Poster (Elementary)
Doing History is Like Solving a Mystery!
an interactive poster
Hover your mouse over a section, click, and then click on a bullet to learn about the image and find teaching resources.
What toys did kids play with?
Primary and secondary sources can help you answer this question. Compare and contrast toys today with those from the past.
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Teaching Resources
What did kids do in the past?
Do historical research to discover how the lives of kids in the past were different from kids’ lives today.
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Teaching Resources
Examine primary sources carefully!
Primary sources are windows into the past, but you'll need to put on your historian’s hat to get the most from them.
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Teaching Resources
What did kids wear in the past?
Historical photographs and documents can help you answer this question.
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Teaching Resources
What were the lives of kids like in the past?
Just like today, children living at the same time could have different experiences. Primary and secondary sources can help you learn more about their differences.
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Teaching Resources
Keep looking for more clues!
Use reputable secondary sources to help you interpret what you find in primary sources.
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Teaching Resources
Primer, 1844
Ask questions of written sources. Who wrote this primer? Why? Who read it? Where was it discovered?
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Teaching Resources
Source: U.S. School Primer, 1844, University of California Libraries.
Child on a Rocking Horse, 1855
Ask questions of people in sources. Who is the child on the rocking horse?
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Teaching Resources
Source: “Child on a Rocking Horse,” Albert Bisbee, 1855, Smithsonian American Art Museum.
Boy’s Baby Shoes, 1851
Ask questions of objects. Who wore these shoes? When and why were they created?
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Teaching Resources
Source: Boy’s baby shoes (leather), 1851, Wisconsin Historical Society.
Sampler, 1850
Ask questions of objects. Who created this sampler? What was its purpose?
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Teaching Resources
Source: Alphabet Sampler, 1850, Wisconsin Historical Society.
Inuit Children, 1854
Ask questions of people shown in photographs. What did these children do all day?
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Teaching Resources
Source: “Group Portrait of Inuit Boys,” Edward Augustus Inglefield, 1854, National Maritime Museum.
Slave Children
Ask questions of people shown in photographs. What were these children's lives like?
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Teaching Resources
Source: Slaves, New York Public Library.
The Herbert Children, 1857
Ask questions of images. Who or what does this portrait show? Who created it? Who saw it?
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Teaching Resources
Source: The Herbert Children, Lambert Sachs, 1857, National Gallery of Art.
Museum
Look at clothing or toys used by children in the past and see what curators say about them.
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Teaching Resources
Computer
Search for objects and images from the past and for summaries written by historians.