Industrial Revolution Lessons

~ **A Social Studies Unit on the Industrial Revolution for Middle School Students & Their Teachers! Some of these activities may be done independently by students, others with a partner or small group. The teacher section contains an outline of events and suggestions for activities.
* Teacher Resources: Lesson Plans, Hands-On Activities, Bibliography, Unit Test
* Inventions: Mystery Inventors, What is a Revolution?, What Caused the Revolution?, Famous Inventors, Activity 1: Research & Speech, Activity2: Interview & Writing Activity
*Horrors of the Workplace: Causes & Effects, Revolution Comes to America, Child Labor, Working & Living Conditions, Connection to Today, Four Student Activities
* The Rise of Big Business: Start of Monopolies, The Players, Muckrakers, Connection to Today, Student Activities
* The Rise of Labor: Birth of the Union, Strike, Knights of Labor, AFL, Connections to Today, Student Research Activities
* Production & Manufacturing: Interchangeable Parts, Assembly Line, Scientific Management, Total Quality, Connection to Today, Student Activity

~ Age of Industrial Revolution & Political Change: Lesson Plans for Teachers: Links to Lesson Plans, Games, Videos, and More!

~ The Industrial Revolution by Joseph A. Montagna: A curriculum unit by Yale - New Haven Teachers Institute which contains a simple yet thorough summary of the revolution and gives suggestions for class work and discussion topics. This page would work well with the notebooking pages above.

~ Was There an Industrial Revolution? New Workplace, New Technology, New Customers: This complete lesson plan from EdSitement has information for teaching, activities, discussion topics, worksheets, research projects, and others to keep learners active!

~ The Topic: Industrial Revolution: A listing of resources, links, webquests, and quizzes for students to learn about industry. Don't miss the page of Biographies of the Industrial Revolution.

~ Industrial Revolution Project Guide: Wonderful project ideas labeled for 9th grade but could be adapted for other grades.

~ A Curriculum of United States Labor History for Teachers: A very thorough lesson with large articles, timeline, important people, bibliography, and handouts.

~ The Industrial Revolution from the History Channel.
* People and Groups: Andrew Carnegie, John Pierpont Morgan, United States Steel Corporation, Thomas Alva Edison, Henry Ford, Knights of Labor
* Themes: Lowell, Steam Engine, The Cotton Gin and Eli Whitney, Iron and Steel Industry, Child Labor, Assembly Line, Morse Code & the Telegraph
* Events: Homestead Strike, Pullman Strike
* Related Topics: American Civil War, Oil Industry

~ Making the Modern World: "Stories About the Lives We've Made" ~ Find learning modules, guided tours, timelines, stories, inventions and more in these interactive articles about the changes the industrial revolution has made to society.

~ The Enlightenment and The Industrial Revolution by the BBC: Find many interesting articles, pictures, and video clips to use for study.

~ Industrial Revolution Reference Answers from Answers.com: Summaries of the events of the revolution from various dictionaries and encyclopedias around the web - many to choose from and / or to compare facts.

~ Industrial Revolution from Kid Info: Many kid friendly links to use for research.

~ Industrial Revolution Inventors: Links to inventors and their stunning inventions which changed the world.

~ Andrew Carnegie

Power Point & More!
~ Industrial Revolution: Free Power Point Presentations, Fun Kid's Websites for Learning, and Teacher's Resources may be found at Mr. Donn's incredible list of materials!!!

~ Living History: Industrial Revolution Online Video Quiz: 1 minute video from How Stuff Works. Part of the following series.

~ Industrial Revolution Video Series: This series from How Stuff Works and the Discovery Channel has over 140 short videos about the Industrial Revolution. We will be watching some of these and taking notes on them this fall. Free Notebooking Pages that I have created for my children are located at Homeschool Launch to use for taking notes, research, and study. Below are some of the videos and topics we will be discussing and writing notes.

Living History: The Industrial Revolution ~ 200 years, Machine Work Replace Humans, Factories, Manufactured Goods, Regulated Lives, Rural to City Life, Pollution

Living History: Textile Revolution ~ 1760, Spinning Jenny, Water Frame, Hydraulic Power, Spinning Mule (1 person do work of 3000), Cottage Spinning Industries, Power Loom, Flying Shuttle, 1811 Luddites

Model of Eli Whitney's Cotton Gin

Living During the Industrial Revolution ~ 1900 Industrialization, Europe & Americas, Rapid Change, Rural to City, Electric Lights, Public Schools, Recorded Music, Motion Pictures, TV, Radios, Automobiles, Middle Class Workers

Life before the Industrial Revolution ~ 1760 Beginning, 9 out of 10 lived in rural areas, Large lower class, Small upper class, little middle class, Self Sufficient, No clocks, Quiet - No noise machines, Little travel, Poor nutrition & living conditions, Shorter life span

Textile Manufacturing before the Industrial Revolution ~ Domestic or Cottage Industries, Spinning Wheel, Hand Loom

Factories & the Growth of Industrial Cities ~ Late 1700 - Early 1800, New Housing, Cities Grew, Specific Work Times - Regulated Work Schedules

The American Industrial Revolution ~ Industrial Spying / Espionage; 1780's Samuel Slater - memorized machinery from England to create a spinning machine for Slater's Mill; 1814 English Power Looms

The Impact of Interchangeable Parts ~ Blacksmiths Created Unique Parts, Eli Whitney, Hand Made Replicable Parts, 1798 Identical Rifles to Replace Parts Easier, Interchangeable Parts in Many Machines

New England's Industrial Revolution ~ South - Slave Based Agricultural Economy
North - Industrial Economy, Water Power, Poor / Rocky Soil, Good Seaports for Import & Export, Large Investors

Steam Power ~ Water to Steam Power, Changes in manufacturing, farming, and transportation, Railroads & Steam Boats, Travel long distances in short time, Increase food production, Smoke Stacks & Pollution, Coal & Iron, Environmental Damage

Steam Power 2 (man) ~ Coal for Fuel, Factories Away from Water Source, Mechanics of Steam Engine

Series of 15 Coal Minor Videos from How Stuff Works / Discovery Videos.

~ Student Worksheets for The Industrial Revolution: The Growth of America's Production System for Grades 6 - 8: This is a free 12 page PDF for middle school aged children which contain readings, activities, and research ideas.

~ Printable Industrial Revolution Worksheets from Teachnology: Some of these are free and easy to download for your students, others require a membership to the site ~ writing suggestions, comprehension activities, puzzles, vocabulary, teacher theme units, bulletin board materials, and more.

~ Industrial Revolution Worksheets at School History UK: I used some excellent worksheets from this site last year when we studied the French Revolution. The worksheets are submitted by various teachers, but I found many that will be beneficial to students.

~ The Growth of Industry Lesson from Social Studies School Service contains 25 fill in the blank questions, a map exercise, a word search, and industry graphing exercises.

~ industrial Revolution Activity Pages at School Express: Coloring pages, crossword puzzles, cryptograms, mazes, and other word puzzles.

~ Living During the Industrial Revolution: These 8 pages contain a timeline, vocabulary list, crossword puzzle and more to coordinate with a Discovery Education video series but may be used independently, also.

~ Discovery Education Puzzlemaker: I love this resource. I usually forget to list it on pages because it is one I just take for granted as being awesome! This free puzzlemaker allows you to create personal puzzle worksheets for your students: Word Search, Criss-Cross, Double Puzzles, Fallen Phrases, Math Squares, Mazes, Letter Tiles, Cryptograms, Number Blocks, and Hidden Messages!

~ Industrial Revolution Webquest for 13 lessons for 10th graders!

~ Of Men and Machines by ThinkQuest: Find over 100 pages of information on various aspects of the industrial revolution. It is divided into four main sections: Industries, Causes, Effects, and World. Resources for learning include reference links, music, worksheets, tests, glossary, and more.

~ Industrial Revolution at Think Quest: Information Page, Word Puzzles, Cartoon, Online Quiz, Links, and Books.

Notebooks
Industrial Revolution Notebooking Pages: 13 free notebooking pages that I created for my son and another 4 we will be using with the above video series.

Mini Books
~ Inventors and Inventions: Enchanted Learning has a huge A - Z glossary of inventors and inventions. You may also search by time period, location, or type of invention. Some of the items lead to larger sections on the site which include a multitude of materials. Pages may be printed out and folded into mini books, glued into notebooks, made into flashcards and games, or used as part of a timeline. Use your creativity to make learning and remembering fun! We have made some really cool hands - on learning manipulatives with Enchanted Learning / Zoom resources over the years. The children are usually the ones who come up with cool ideas to document what they learned!

~ Science & Technology Timeline: These dates and events could be written on pages of a mini book for a lapbook. Homeschool Share has many blank Lapbook Templates in all sorts of shapes and designs. We also like to make timeline cards by drawing or gluing a picture on the front of a an index card, and writing the date and description on the other side. We make a game of it by mixing a chunk of the cards up and trying to put back in the correct order or to sort them according to certain characteristics that you choose. You could also make a matching game by putting info on one card and the date on another card and matching them in a type of "concentration" type game.

Literature Based Unit Studies from Homeschool Share (Some include lapbook materials!)
~ The Bobbin Girl: This unit based around the book The Bobbin Girl by Emily Arnold McCully contains lessons and activities for history, social studies, science, language arts, speech, math, art, and character. The story revolves around a ten year old girl working in a textile factory in the early 1800's who is considering joining a worker strike.

~ Little Toot on the Mississippi: Learn about geography, Robert Fulton and the steamboat, family traditions, language arts skills, art, music, math, science of steam and animals, Bible, and other activities.

~ Little Kit, or The Industrious Flea Circus Girl by Emily Arnold McCully: Homeschool share has created a lapbook and study materials for Bible, history, science, language arts, math, art, and more for this story about a young English girl in the 1800's and the difficulties she has in this industrial age.

Clip Art
~ Industrial Revolution Clipart free from Classroom Clipart.