Offers ways to use postcards as a tool to teach local history. Outlines steps for class projects involving field trips and student research. Incorporates innovative methods to teach a community's visual history in which students utilize a wide spectrum of community resources. Provides tips on how to obtain old postcards. (NL)

Questions how elementary teachers can expand their students' views of heroes and heroines. Includes nine activities designed to enhance students' definition of heroism. Includes a discussion of everyday heroism, political and social activity, and how students can be heroes themselves. (MJP)

Provides a lesson plan using historical photographs to teach local history in elementary school social studies classes. Suggests sources and copying procedures. Employs cooperative learning strategies in which students title photographs and describe what they see, then compare their findings with those of other groups and with historical…

Maintains that, although museums are visited by children and adults for their unique learning experiences, few people understand how museums and their exhibits are created. Discusses the Museum-in-Progress program. Describes four examples of elementary class projects in two states and includes a list of teacher resources. (CFR)

Discusses a cultural environment education curriculum that helps children appreciate their city, its buildings, and its history. The curriculum includes walking field trips, service projects, and collaborative efforts with other schools. Includes a table with educational objectives for the curriculum and the corresponding evaluation. (MJP)

Reports that students from fourth and fifth grades, along with middle and advanced history students acting as mentors, planned and executed a five-month historical research field project. Student research teams carried out at a local site a two-week archaeological dig uncovering artifacts and discovering how their predecessors lived. (NL)