Maine State Museum educators and contractors design lesson plans and resources to connect students with our exhibits and collections. Take a look through the materials below to see what you can share in your classroom!

*Note: Many of these materials were designed for temporary exhibits that are no longer on view. We work to ensure there is enough digital content for the lessons to be meaningful without seeing the exhibit in person.

To learn how to use these materials (in particular with distance learning), click here for a 2020 Maine Department of Education training webinar with our education staff.

Lesson Plans

• Maine Bicentennial Teaching Materials
  • Defining Maine – Explore Maine woods and waters through an interactive digital map and journal from Joseph Treat and John Neptune’s 1820 journey to survey the new state. Designed for Grades 8-12. 
  • Primary Source Sets – Themed packets of primary sources with background information and analysis worksheets. Explore Maine-based documents, images, and artifacts. Designed for Grades K-12. 
• 100 Years to the Vote Lesson Plans
  • Women’s Long Road: 100 Years to the Vote explores the women’s suffrage movement in Maine.The introduction and a series of three lesson plans encourage students to explore the topic through maps, political cartoons, and a recreated debate. Designed for Grades 4-12. 
• Reading Art – Mainers and World War I Teaching Guide
  • Over There and Down Home: Mainers and World War I features the efforts of Maine industries, communities, and individuals in support of the Allied Forces as the United States struggled to define her place in the increasingly global conflict. Designed for Grades 6-12.
    • Teaching Guide
    • Teaching Guide Posters
• Malaga Island, Fragmented Lives – Educational Materials
  •  These lesson plans encourage a comparison of fiction and non-fiction materials about the historic events that occurred on Malaga Island, Maine, encourage skill-building in critical thinking and source evaluation, explore Malaga’s place in a complex ecosystem, and strengthen understanding of the scientific process. Designed for Grades 6-12. 
    • Explore Malaga Island
    • Learn About Malaga Island
    • The History
    • Malaga Island’s Archaeological Record

Resources:

• Indigenous Peoples’ Day in Maine
• Maine Voices from the Civil War 

Primary Source Sets 

These packets include everything your school or homeschool needs to lead students through the process of learning with Maine-based primary sources. Students closely analyze documents, artifacts, images and sound recordings to discover different themes in Maine history. 

• Pandemic Primary Source Sets – how did past generations of Mainers deal with pandemics?
• Freedom & Captivity Primary Source Sets – what is the history of incarceration in Maine?
• Bicentennial Primary Source Sets – what was going on at the time of Maine’s statehood?