COMMUNITY

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Ideas for Community Unit Studies:

Research local history:
Find out what dinosaurs lived in your backyard.
Make a unit study of a local Native tribe.
What is the local geology?
What is your family history in the community-where did you come from? Use your personal family time-line as a starting point for what came before and after.

Kids like to be the main characters in any situation, so do a timeline with them as the main date and list things that happened before and after their birth.

Find more recent past:
You can use lots of resources:
cemeteries
businesses
church and census records
books on local history
older residents
old maps
explore local legends and ghost stories

Find an old phone book and look at the businesses listed. This can lead to a great discussion about changes over time.

Are there any man-made (dammed) lakes in your area? These make great research projects. If not, look up information about the 'Road to Nowhere' and talk about what happened, or other similar situations where people were moved from long-held family land.

When did phone and electric services first become available in your town?

Pick a local building and research its history.

Field Trips:

archeological sites
archives
art museum
bank
battlefields
cemetery
church
court house
farm
folk art festival
genealogical library
history museum
historical play
historic districts
horse-drawn carriage/sleigh ride
local manufacturing plant
one-room school house
Renaissance Faire
steam locomotive trip
storytelling festival
town meeting
walking tour