Lesson Plans

With Tenement Museum resources, students become historians. Using our teacher-designed, teacher-tested lesson plans, students engage in inquiry and learn to use critical thinking to interpret objects, oral histories, and primary sources, while making history relevant to today. Our classroom resources support multi-state History-Social Studies and English Language Arts curricula and can be used with or without a museum visit.

We currently offer four kinds of resources for teachers, including unit plans, lesson plans, and family stories. Whichever resource you select, you will find primary sources such as video stories, oral histories, documents, and photos in each. Educators can sort by grade level, unit plan, lesson plan, family stories, or primary source type below.

Be sure to check out our new comprehensive suite of virtual field trips and sign up for our monthly teacher’s newsletter for tips from other teachers, event and webinar information, new resources, and more!

Upper Elementary: 4-5th Grade, Middle School: 6-8th Grade, High School: 9-12th Grade

Interactive: Explore a 1910 Census

Interact with a primary source and explore the life of an early 20th-century Jewish...

Upper Elementary: 4-5th Grade, Middle School: 6-8th Grade, High School: 9-12th Grade

Interactive: Meet Bridget Moore

"Choose-your-own-adventure" style interactive video that explores the traditions and...

Upper Elementary: 4-5th Grade, Middle School: 6-8th Grade, High School: 9-12th Grade, Lower Elementary: 1-3rd Grade

Interactive Video: Bella Discusses Halo Shampoo

Interactive video interview that explores themes of American identity from the Epstein...

Upper Elementary: 4-5th Grade, Middle School: 6-8th Grade

Interactive: Saez Velez Family Story Crossword

Interactive crossword puzzle that reviews im/migrant vocabulary and facts from the Saez...

Lower Elementary: 1-3rd Grade, Upper Elementary: 4-5th Grade, Middle School: 6-8th Grade, High School: 9-12th Grade

Interactive: Passing Down Traditions

Interactive guided lesson for all grades exploring immigrant family traditions.

Upper Elementary: 4-5th Grade

Upper Elementary Im/migration Unit Plan

Full unit resource for studying immigration and migration in your classroom.

Tools for Educators

Visit our Teacher Resources page for more tools, programs and information that can enrich learning and understanding about immigration and migration.

Learn More

Educator Newsletter

Sign-up here to receive our monthly educator newsletter featuring teacher resources, classroom activities, information on upcoming workshops and school program opportunities, and more.

Sign-Up