America's 250th Anniversary Time Capsule Contest

Make your America at 250 lessons personal and local. Connect history to students’ families or communities. Use projects that invite students to investigate local history, do community interviews, or reflect on what America means to them.

For hyper-local history lessons, try one of Newsela’s Virtual Vacations. Visit landmarks from all 50 state capitals and Washington, D.C., without leaving your classroom!

Don’t just teach the founding of our country in 1776, but the full 250-year story. With the right materials, you can cover themes like liberty and equality, change over time, and diverse perspectives and voices.

You can try a three-part framework that covers “Then,” “Now,” and “Next” to get students thinking about founding ideals, how they show up today, and what they think the future of our country should look like.

Absolutely! Focus on inquiry and frame your lessons around questions that aren’t explicitly political. You can evaluate the purposes of primary sources, such as the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution.

Another option is to study inventions, inventors, and innovations of the last 250 years to focus on progress rather than politics. Plus, you can always teach fun pop culture moments!

Much of what you already plan to teach in your social studies classes will lend itself to teaching about America at 250. And in addition, Newsela has a ton of ready-to-go content and activities to help you cover this event in your classroom.

Aside from our time capsule activity and Virtual Vacations, Newsela Social Studies users can check back with our Celebrating 250 Years of America collection for even more great lessons.

Or, for all Newsela users, search for texts, topics, videos, and other resources on any topic you want to cover to teach about America at 250.