LESHP's K-5 level programming adheres to state-wide educational standards and utilizes unique multimedia props, primary source documents, maps, and experiential techniques to provide a hands-on, interactive, and fun approach to learning.
Our professional educators have decades of experience in the NYC school system, and were public school students themselves -- an invaluable advantage, we believe, in relating history authentically to local students.
We can provide teachers with proven grade-appropriate lesson plans or work to customize a program which best fits your curriculum.
Philosophy K-5 students are taught community awareness in most schools by the 2nd or 3rd grade. Starting in our own backyard, LESHP helps students learn about the past, present and future of their own neighborhood.
Starting off with simple things like understanding the shapes of buildings, and moving on to changes in landscape, populations and culture, we will help your students understand "what makes a community" and their own role in the bigger picture.
Applications LESHP uses original printed materials, role-playing exercises, multimedia (images, movies), and more to create a truly interactive experience.
Examples Depending on grade-level, students will get to build their own community, "experience" living in 1900, take a tour of their neighborhood, and even go behind the scenes of a local museum, theater, or landmark.
Lesson Samples
Using line art images (.pdf) in various exercises, students will become familiar with local building shapes and land uses.
Students engage in scavenger hunt (.pdf) exercises, intended to help them identify various items on a building.
After viewing a topic-relative movie clip, students will discuss certain things they saw using sample stills (.pdf) on a handout sheet.
LESHP can research a school's immediate surroundings and customize a series of "then and now" images (.pdf) to show how the community has changed over time.
Using symbols (.pdf), students engage in community building exercises and learn to identify different types of businesses and services.
Role-playing is a fun yet important tool in helping your students understand history; for example, they may experience what it is like to be a 19th century student, to live in a tenement, or to be processed at Ellis Island as a young immigrant.
LESHP can make recommendations for neighborhood study in children's literature and help prepare follow-up Q&A and discussion exercises.
