New Curriculum Release--White House Holidays: Labor Day

Silverdale Press is thrilled to announce the release of White House Holidays: Labor Day! It is the first in our White House Holidays curriculum series. The curriculum is available now for purchase. 

Designed for students in grades K-12, this curriculum is a great way to kick off the school year. It is brimming with vivid illustrations, rich history, and meaningful activities. It is guaranteed to bring fun, learning, and lasting memories to your entire homeschool family. 





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In this unit study, students will learn about

• Eleanor Roosevelt and her fight against child labor.
• Sweatshops, tenements, and factories at the height of the Industrial Revolution.
• Why the first Labor Day parade was held in 1882 and what happened there.
• The controversy over the real father of Labor Day: Peter McGuire versus Matthew Maguire.
• George Pullman’s luxury railroad company and violent 1894 railroad strike in Chicago.
• President Grover Cleveland and why, against all odds, he made Labor Day a national holiday.

Studies will also complete enriching activities, rooted in primary source documents. 

Students in grades K-6 will 

• Analyze historical photographs of sweatshops and child labor in New York City.
• Recreate a poster marchers carried in the first Labor Day parade.
• Search historical databases for photographs and create a picture book telling the story of how we got the first national Labor Day holiday.

Students in grades 7-12 will

• Analyze an article on the child labor amendment that Eleanor Roosevelt wrote while she was first lady.
• Read and interpret three presidential speeches—by Grover Cleveland, Franklin Roosevelt, and Ronald Reagan—on labor issues.
• Investigate a contemporary labor issue and write to their member of Congress about that issue; listen to and evaluate the current president’s Labor Day message.

The curriculum is easy for parents to use. It features

• Teacher scripts/lesson narratives for parents to read to students.
• Lesson plans for teachers—with an introduction and overview for each lesson.
• Activities that only require supplies families probably already have around the house.
• An answer key.

Further details:

• White House Holidays: Labor Day comes in a downloadable PDF format. 
• The curriculum has a one set of lessons for grades K-6 and a separate set of lessons for grades 7-12. 
• There are three lessons for each grade level. 
• The lessons cover similar topics, but they are tailored to each age group. 
• Each lesson should take one to two hours to complete. 

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