Learning about the American Civil War through a project based approach can really help kids personalize history in a way that makes sense to them. They're more apt to remember historical events and figures and why they are so important.

American Civil War Projects for kids are also great ways to tackle a subject and event that can either be loved or hated, depending on the student. 

All three of our elementary aged Montessori kids absolutely loved their American Civil War projects!

American Civil War Projects for Kids

A Book about Civil War Weapons

Dinomite loves history, specifically the study of war and weapons. When given the opportunity to choose what project he wanted to do related to the American Civil War, he knew what he wanted to do immediately.

Dinomite created a book about Civil War weapons. He found pictures online and then wrote about the specifics of each weapon and how they differed, in a way that others could understand, which was a huge plus for me, who doesn't know much of anything about his topic.

Two aspects that he loved about his chosen Civil War project were the research and computer work. He thoroughly enjoyed researching photos to make sure he found the most accurate depiction of what he wanted to discuss. 

Before he looked for images, he visited an American Civil War museum where he could see hundreds of weapons up close.

The final product was absolutely gorgeous. Dinomite really put his all into this project, sharing something with others that is very interesting to him.

The Underground Railroad and Communicating Using Quilts

 

Princess is not a fan of history in general, but loves arts and crafts. After much research, that included reading the book, The Patchwork Path: A Quilt Map to Freedom, she decided to make a paper quilt with many of the different Underground Railroad communication symbols.

Princess worked incredibly hard designing her "quilt," making sure there was a enough space for each symbol along with an explanation. The detail she put into this project was unbelievable.

When it came time to present her "quilt" she was able to explain what every symbol meant in detail. Her quilt symbols were so incredibly colorful and well made. I was so impressed!

Abraham Lincoln Time Line of Life

Bulldozer tends to become overwhelmed when studying history because there are so many parts. To simplify things, he focused on one person, Abraham Lincoln, and how his choices influenced our world today, creating a time line of his life.

As Bulldozer researched, he quickly learned that there were MANY important dates in Abraham Lincoln's life, he felt needed to be included in his time line.

Instead of using a poster board, he made a large time line with index cards and string that took up half of our living room when set up.

Bulldozer was so proud of his work and was excited to share all of the facts of his time line with us. He has definitely decided that Abraham Lincoln is his favorite President of the United States of America.

Some may be wondering how I balanced learning about important aspects of the American Civil War with projects.

American History Writing Outline (FREE Printable)

Before the kids decided on and started projects, they were assigned the task of filling out an American History Writing Outline. 

I created this printable as a way for the kids to learn about special events in history, understanding all points of view, including those of women, Indigenous people, and Black people.

The kids receive their outline and then spent time researching information through multiple books to fill in the answers.

The American History Writing Outline is a great way to introduce so many different components to history lessons and provides great ideas for projects.

Studying the American Civil War was such an incredible experience as we combined the history outline, research (which included a few field trips), and projects.

For those who would like more Montessori ideas for the elementary learner as well as history resources for teaching kids, be sure to subscribe to our free newsletter by clicking the link below.

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Welcome to our minimalist Montessori homeschool classroom! I'm so excited to give you a tour of our preschool/elementary classroom set up.

This room is used to store work for three of our children and five co-op friends. 

I have absolutely LOVED this set up. The kids seem to enjoy it as well.

There's enough room for everyone's work and enough space to move around.

Let's get this tour started!

A Minimalist Montessori Homeschool Classroom Tour

The Room at a Glance

Our classroom is located near the center of our home. There are two windows and two doorways leading to other areas in the home.

Most often, two children will be working at the table in the classroom. The others spread out to the dining room, living room, and front entryway with their work. Each room provides another table and plenty of floor space to spread out.

The view of the classroom in the picture above is taken from our living room looking into our dining room through the window. (The dining room used to be a back porch.) You can see the corner of the dining room table in the picture.

The table is one of my favorite storage spaces in our classroom. There are two storage shelves. The top shelf is where I store extra trays not used on our shelves. The bottom shelf is home to all of the containers I use on work trays.

You can see the doorway into the living room in the picture above and where it is in relation to the table and chairs. 

One huge motivator in making sure our learning space is always clean and organized is that I can see it from the living room, kitchen, and dining room at all times.

The picture above is being taken from the second doorway, which leads to the kitchen. As you can see, we have multiple sets of shelves around the walls of the room.

Each set of shelves is home to a different subject in our classroom. Every space has a purpose.

In the picture above you can see our kitchen. Kids are often found participating in food prep or other projects using the counters, stove, sink, etc.

Learning is never confined to one room, but instead occurs throughout the entire downstairs of our home. Our classroom is where we store everything and organize our daily work.

Daily Tasks

When kids walk into our Montessori homeschool classroom from the kitchen, to the right of the door are clipboards color coded for each student. They are stored in our file organizer.

Clipboards hold Daily Task Checklists for kids to work through and have signed as they do their work. The Daily Task Checklists are fabulous for helping kids stay on task. 

Above the clipboards is a white board with "Problems of the Day" for elementary learners. Students answer one or two math problems and answer the question in their writing journals.

Plastic storage containers are home to my printables that are being prepared for the next rotation of work on the shelves.

Not seen in this picture, is our basket of Montessori mats. The basket is directly underneath the clip boards.

Montessori Language Shelves

Next to our daily tasks and work storage are our language shelves. 

The shelves in the picture above include work related to writing and reading. You'll notice our moveable alphabets in print and cursive are stored under the shelf for easy access.

This photo was taken at the beginning of the year when our beginning language work was available. As the year progresses, we will replace these activities with intermediate and advanced language work.

I most often have both print and cursive language and letter work on the shelves as I teach print to preschoolers and cursive to elementary learners.

Our second set of language shelves is home to grammar and word study materials presented in the elementary curriculum.

This work will rotate out and make room for mechanics and other language topics as the year progresses.

Because all of our students are at different levels, we tend to continue to use baskets and trays to store work. This makes it easy for anyone to use it.

The group of elementary learners are given lessons in the dining room, where their notebooks are stored. Their assignments may require the use of the materials on the shelves, and go a step further than what you see here.

History Shelves

Next to language shelves are our history shelves. Some of our students are learning American history, while others are working on the Timeline of Life, which includes the creation of the universe etc.

Older elementary learners are presented the lessons, and are often given a project and/or writing assignment to work on.

On the bottom shelf are bins for each one of our co-op friends. Each bin contains a complete outfit for all weather scenarios, in case kids are too warm or too cold. Sensory regulation is a huge deal in our home. We always want our students feeling comfortable while learning.

Next to the history shelves, you can see more storage for work prep as well our Montessori map puzzles. 

Under the puzzles you'll see kids' map work and time lines of life rolled up and stored. Next to the map cupboard are all of my glass beads used for markers in work activities.

Above the map puzzles is a book shelf where we store history books. 

There is also a pin board where our Practical Life clothing and weather supports are on display. Each day we check the weather and change the clothing and temperature cards so everyone knows what to wear.

Geography Shelves

Next to the Montessori map puzzles are our geography shelves. Flag and country activities are stored on the top shelf. Culture activities related to the continent of study are on the bottom shelf.

On the other side of our geography shelves you can find more book shelves related to our science studies. These books are provided for research and study for elementary learners who are working on project based tasks.

 Practical life activities are also on display. Right now preschool and some elementary students are working with dressing frames. We will rotate these out with other practical life tasks. Depending on what the task is will determine where it is stored.

Science Shelves

Our science shelves are located on the wall closest to the living room. The bottom shelf is home to more baskets for our co-op kids with clothes in them. 

Math Shelves

On the other side of the living room doorway, our math work is on display as well as more storage for future work and binders I use to store the kids' Daily Task Sheets as well as other checklists where I document progress.

On one set of shelves I keep our basic number and math operation work. Every student is at a different level.

Cards for elementary learners are stored in the baskets on the highest shelf. If they need to use Montessori materials they can. If they're ready to only use paper and pencil, they're able to do that.

The second set of math shelves is home to whatever math "unit" we're working on, whether it be telling time, fractions, decimals or something else.

In the picture above you can see all of our fraction materials. Drawers contain tasks that progress from easy to difficult.

And there you have it! Our minimalist Montessori homeschool classroom has worked for several years with our own kids and co-op friends. We hope it inspires you to design a room that works just as well for your children.

For those who are looking for more Montessori homeschool inspiration, be sure to subscribe to our free newsletter by clicking the link below.

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Telling time has been one of the hardest concepts for my kids to grasp. 

For this reason I created these Telling Time by the Hour Activities for Kids along with a bonus free printable.

These activities provide multiple ways for children to break down all of the concepts related to telling time, so they can master the skill.

For children who have specific learning preferences, these activities are sure to provide an option.

Let's take a look at all of the activity options!

Telling Time by the Hour Activities for Kids with Free Printable

Telling Time by the Hour Writing Strips

Telling time comes with a whole new set of vocabulary words for children. These writing strips provide opportunities for children to practice writing out time, including numbers words.

Older children will select the blank writing strips, writing out the time on each card and checking it with the control.

Younger learners will use the tracing cards, reciting what they are tracing as they go.

Source: The printable for this activity is part of the Montessori-inspired Telling Time: On the Hour Printable Pack. This is a paid printable.

Telling Time by the Hour Picture Schedule Clip Cards

In this activity children will set up the visual schedule picture cards and then use them to identify the correct answer on the clip cards provided. True-to-life images are the same on both sets of cards to provide an extra control.

This activity requires children to read digital time only.

Source: The printable for this activity is part of the Montessori-inspired Telling Time: On the Hour Printable Pack. This is a paid printable.

Telling Time by the Hour with Real Clocks Clip Cards

It's one thing to know how to tell time using clock diagrams, but yet another to tell time on actual clocks. This activity helps to generalize telling time skills to all situations using the clip cards provided.

Children will use the glass beads provided to mark the answer on each clip card.

Nomenclature style cards with these clocks are also included in the printable pack for a variety of learning options.

Source: The printable for this activity is part of the Montessori-inspired Telling Time: On the Hour Printable Pack. This is a paid printable.

Telling Time by the Hour Matching Cards

When it comes to introducing time, whether with digital numbers or with words, these nomenclature style cards work great. 

In our classroom we used them for a match up game, matching up digital number cards and word cards to ensure that children understand numbers and letters mean the same thing.

Source: The printable for this activity is part of the Montessori-inspired Telling Time: On the Hour Printable Pack. This is a paid printable.

Telling Time by the Hour Clip Cards

The clip cards in this activity work beautifully as children are just starting to understand how to tell time by the hour. 

Children will use the glass beads to mark the correct answer on the clip cards, using the control cards to check their answers, or for help and assistance if necessary.

Source: The printable for this activity is part of the Montessori-inspired Telling Time: On the Hour Printable Pack. This is a paid printable.

Telling Time by the Hour: Drawing the Clock Hands Activity

It's one thing to be able to tell time reading the hands of a clock, but yet another to draw the hands on a clock to reflect the time on the card.

In our classroom I laminate these cards and provide dry erase markers for repeated practice. Some children prefer hands being the same color. Others use blue and red dry erase markers.

Source: The printable for this activity is part of the Montessori-inspired Telling Time: On the Hour Printable Pack. This is a paid printable.

Telling Time by the Hour Word and Number Match Up

There are times when children aren't faced with an actual clock, but just digital time, and asked to state what the time is.

These cards were designed to help children in these situations, matching digital time to words.

Source: The printable for this activity is part of the Montessori-inspired Telling Time: On the Hour Printable Pack. This is a paid printable.

FREE Telling Time: On the Hour Number Strips

The only thing missing from the Montessori-inspired Telling Time: On the Hour Printable Pack is an opportunity to practice writing digital time.

The FREE Telling Time: On the Hour Number Strips are exactly that! Depending on the abilities of the children, they can write in the digital time on blank cards, using the control to check their answers, or they can trace the digital times.

Either way, these cards are a great way to match up telling time on a traditional clock and digital time.

Source: The FREE Telling Time: On the Hour Writing Strips are a Subscriber's Only Freebie. For your copy, follow the directions below.

Directions on How to Obtain Subscriber Only Freebies

1. Click on the Subscriber's link at the bottom of this post.

2. Subscribe to our free newsletter.

3. Open the thank you message you receive in your e-mail, after subscribing. (Be sure to check your spam folder, as sometimes it ends up there.)

4. Click the confirmation link in the thank you message.

5. Once the confirmation is complete, you will receive another e-mail message with the Subscriber Only Freebies.

6. Click on link.

7. Find the printable pack you are looking for listed in alphabetical order, click on it, and voila!

We hope you enjoy your free printable.

Note: If you are already a newsletter subscriber, open your most recent newsletter. At the bottom you will find a link to the Subscriber Only Freebies page, along with the password in case you forgot it.

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