Special Features

• This is an idea to celebrate the end of the school year with a Juneteenth Presentation Celebration



• Not many here yet. If you have any Juneteenth lesson plans to share, please add them to our site!
• Check out the other Juneteenth resources we've compiled for you below, and you can also find some helpful lesson plans in our Black History Month collection.
  

Introduction to Juneteenth:

The best way to start your exploration of Juneteenth is with a visit to Juneteenth.com, a national and international registry of Juneteenth organizations and celebrations. Here are three other introductory websites:

• http://www.elecvillage.com/juneteen.htm
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juneteenth and
• http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/JJ/lkj1.html

Books and Poems:

Three must-read Juneteenth books include:

Ralph Ellison’s Juneteenth, Carolyn Meyer’s Jubilee Journey, and Ann Rinalidi’s Come Juneteeth along with Juneteenth by Mark Schroder and Juneteenth: A Day to Celebrate Freedom from Slavery by Angela Leeper.

Texts include June Preszler’s and Sandra Adell’s Juneteenth: Jubilee for Freedom, Juneteenth Jamboree by Carole BostonWeatherford and Juneteenth: A Celebration of Freedom by Charles Taylor (grades 4-7).

• A full and extensive study guide for Ralph Ellison’s Juneteenth can be found here: http://www.enotes.com/juneteenth.
• This Lee and Low site http://www.leeandlow.com/p/teachers-african_american.mhtml contains a (grade 2-3) reading guide for Juneteenth Jamboree by Carole Boston Weatherford. It also contains writing activities, ESL strategies, and interdisciplinary activities for this book as well as several other related African-American history books for grade levels 1-4.
• "When Freedom Came” is a poem you can read to your class written by Kenneth Burton especially for Juneteenth. It can be found at this AfricanaHeritage.com site: http://www.africanaheritage.com/juneteenth.asp

More Lesson Plans:

• You might also enjoy the Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt lesson plans and links including an Interdisciplinary Unit (grades 2-8), a geography and economics lesson (grade K-5), a language arts and social studies (grades 1-2) lesson plan and Teacher Cyber Guide (grade 3). This site also contains a Teacher’s Idea Bank that includes links to other lesson plans on African American history and culture:
• This is a Juneteenth celebration (grade 4) social studies lesson plan titled “Lift Every Voice and Sing”:
• In this research lesson plan (grade 4), students discover the Juneteenth celebrations in their community (Texas) and create an educational advertising campaign about the local activities and traditions. The ideas of ownership and the impact of slavery are also covered.
• Venn diagrams are used here to compare Juneteenth and 4th of July
  
• In this art lesson plan from Crayola, students make a replica of the Emancipation Proclamation.
• San Diego’s The Museum School offers many Juneteenth learning activity ideas. Here students make red lemonade and sweet potato pie, learn about quilting, make a newsletter, a video and a play.
• Here is another outstanding lesson plan (grade 3-5) for Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt: from readwritethink.org:
• In this PBS Kids civics lesson activity (grades 4-8), students research slavery and anti-slavery organizations that exist around the world today. They then develop an action plan to fight slavery and help current slaves gain their freedom. Although this is not a Juneteenth lesson plan, can you think of a more meaningful way to celebrate Juneteenth?
• For older students, try this lesson on “Before, during and after the Emancipation Proclamation” on the Slavery in America website.
• History Now has a middle school lesson plan that evaluates how different groups in American viewed the Emancipation Proclamation when it came out. It includes worksheets and character sheets to be filled out by each group.
• This EdSitement high school lesson plan explores the Emancipation Proclamation from an African American perspective and contains an extensive list of related materials.

Additional Juneteenth Resources:

• A Juneteenth word search (grade 3-5) can be found here.
• Here are free Juneteenth greeting cards your students can send to friends and family members.
• At this U.S. government archives site, you can see, hear and learn about the original Emancipation Proclamation.
• This site contains a timeline of the events leading up to the emancipation proclamation.
• This Northwestern University site contains links to abolition and emancipation resources including these next two Juneteenth resources:
• The Ethnic Resources Center lists selected Juneteenth titles, references and web links for children (K-6) and adults.
• The Urbanite Magazine lists several ideas for celebrating Juneteenth at work, in your neighborhood or at home.
• In this Rusk County (Texas) Depot Museum activity, students (grades 3-4) create an old-time poster proclaiming to the people of Texas that all slaves are now free.
• Finally, if you are still looking for more in-depth information, this Afro-American History site is an outstanding resource for the study of Black history and culture.