Civil War: A Dear America Activity

Scholastic’s “Dear America: Civil War” project educates students on how the issue of slavery divided America a mere 85 years after it declared its independence. Engaging reading and interactive activities include:  

• About the Era, an article that explains how the North and South disagreed about slavery and other issues, President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, how the war was resolved in 1865, and the aftermath. A timeline offers a chronological frame of reference.
•  Explore the Scrapbooks shares the interactive fictional scrapbooks of four young girls from the era, including two white girls and two African-American girls (one, a slave; the other, freed). The scrapbooks offer personal views of what life was like during the war.
• Related student activities include:
  • 30 Recipes for students to try, including Hard Gingerbread and Biscuits and Gravy of this era
  • 22 Arts and Crafts, from Sewing a Hem to Rosewater
  •  “A Room In Time” interactive activity lets students play house by clicking and dragging objects to create a typical room from the Civil War in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania