March is Women's History Month

Women’s History Month

In case you may have forgotten, March is National Women’s history month. For the classroom teacher there are ample opportunities at most grade levels to engage in a discussion of the role of women in the history of the United States. To that end there are also numerous web sites that will provide materials and suggestions for providing teachable moments for our children.

A wonderful site for elementary children is sponsored by Crayola. http://www.crayola.com/calendar/detail.cfm?event_id=215&year=2012#coloring. Here you will find coloring pages, craft ideas and lesson plans. For example there is a page of Queen Elizabeth II for students to color. You can tie that in with her Jubilee this year.

The National Women’s History Project has given a theme for this year’s activities.  It is “Women’s Education- Women’s Empowerment”. You can obtain a great deal about the work of this organization who material is more suitable for high school students, from http://www.nwhp.org/whm/index.php.

 One of this year’s honorees is Annie Sullivan, the brace and dedicated woman who taught Helen Keller. There are lots of opportunities for discussion about her and other prominent women on our history, many who do not get much attention in a classroom setting.

Even the United States Census Bureau has a site with facts and figures about women in this country. Topics such as earnings education and motherhood are discussed. According to the latest census fugues there are 157 million women in the United States, larger than the male population. There re over 200,000 women currently serving in the military. You can access this site by going to: http://www.census.gov/newsroom/releases/archives/facts_for_features_special_editions/cb12-ff05.html.

There is a National Women’s Hall of Fame located in Seneca Fall, New York. On their web site http://www.greatwomen.org/. This is a great site to navigate to see who has been elected to the Hall and what their accomplishments were. You will find Abigail Adams, Hillary Clinton, Lucille Ball, as well as Harriet Tubman and Ida Tarbell. This is an excellent resource.

Lesson Idea!

For many years the United States Postal Services has honored great American women by issuing commemorative postage stamps honoring their accomplishments. The efforts of American women in medicine, art, literature, music, and public service have all been acknowledged. You can ask your students to bring in stamps honoring women and share with the class what their achievements were. You can have your students create Women in American History stamp album.  Have the students make a poster with information about American women’s contribution to society.