K – 12 Classroom Resources

We’re building a collection of lesson plans, classroom activities, research guides, and supplemental curricular materials to help K-12 teachers and students learn about the New Deal and its place in American history.  Please contact us if you’d like to contribute to the collection.

A New Deal in California – Teacher Resources was created by the California Historical Society, for which the Living New Deal team provided input (back when we focused solely on California). It contains material that would be useful for others states, as well.

The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History (GLI) is the leading nonprofit organization dedicated to K–12 history education. Its mission is to promote the knowledge and understanding of American history through educational programs and resources.

GLI’s website offers a trove of free, downloadable resources about the Great Depression and the New Deal for educators and students; Lesson Plans; Classroom Resources; Primary Sources; Research Guides; Teacher Professional Development; a weekly interview series with authors, Book Breaks; and much more.

A GLI recorded program of special relevance for teachers and students from August 4, 2022 is Inside the Vault: The New Deal and FDR’s Presidential Campaigns.

Other Resources and Ideas for Educational Use of the Site

We have two extensive bibliographies on our Resources Page.

Teachers may want to consult our New Deal sites map to show students where local New Deal projects are located.  We would urge teachers to organize class projects where students can search out New Deal sites and submit the documentation to us for inclusion in our national inventory & map (we give credit to anyone who submits such data). Students also love to interview their parents, grandparents and other elders about their recollections for our New Deal stories page.

Guidelines for volunteering, seeking out New Deal sites, and submitting information are provided on our Get Involved pages.

We also hope to develop a New Deal Maps gallery soon.