Freely browse our history curations on the Education Exchange to find history lesson plans that are in alignment with your curriculum and teaching goals. Whether it’s for elementary or high school students, we have creative, adaptable resources that will help you deliver a meaningful history education.
History activities
Selected by the Adobe for Education team
This collection of free history activities and lessons will spark your students’ creativity and empower you to make history class memorable and engaging.
Create a web page to share archival research
Students use Adobe Spark to present findings from research into primary-source documents.
Film an oral history video for future generations to find
Students use Adobe Spark to create an oral history document of the present moment.
Analyze and investigate online images to determine their origins
Students use Adobe Acrobat to share their research on the veracity of images.
Compile a historical-thinking portfolio
Students use Adobe Portfolio to collect and evaluate historical resources.
Create a web page reflecting on a historical document
Students use Adobe Spark to create web pages highlighting one of their human rights.
Create a social media post for a historical person
Students use Adobe Spark to mock up social media graphics for famous people from history.
Create a video tour of a historical era
Students use Adobe Spark to explore the key locations and moments of a past era.
Annotate a primary source to question the historical past
Students use Adobe Acrobat to annotate primary-source documents and interpret and question the past.
Design a poster to consider history "against the grain"
Students use Adobe Spark to reflect on how historians use inference to understand the past.
Design an infographic to show the history of a reform movement
Students use Adobe Spark to show how a reform movement achieved results.
Design a meme to comment on a historical event
Students use Adobe Spark to create and explain memes satirizing events from history.
Analyze a historical image from multiple perspectives
Students use Adobe Acrobat to analyze and add annotations to an image from the historical record.
Raise awareness of Juneteenth and emancipation on social media
Students use Adobe Spark to create posters highlighting the legacy of Juneteenth.
Discuss a historical article in a small group
Students use Adobe Acrobat to hold silent discussions with classmates via annotations.
Create historical pamphlets to foment social change
Students use Adobe Spark to create branded graphics about social causes or movements from history.
Design an image to encapsulate your past, present, and future
Students use Adobe Spark Post to share how they see their past, present, and future with classmates.
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Engage students with unique history activities
This collection of unique and exciting history activities was developed and selected by educators to help students explore the past and its connection to the present. Our history activities teach students about past societies, systems, ideologies, cultures, and technologies; how they developed and operated; and how they've changed. Using these history activities, you might ask your students to annotate a primary-source document, locate and analyze a historical artifact, or compare and contrast different historical perspectives. Each activity is designed to immerse students in history while also asking them to demonstrate their thinking.
Even more exciting, these are just a few of the many history activities, lessons, and projects found on the Adobe Education Exchange — all waiting to be integrated into your curriculum so you can challenge students to learn content more deeply through the use of different digital platforms and tools. The strategic implementation of digital media in our learning material will drive students to express complex ideas through presentations, podcasts, and videos. Our easy-to-use and flexible history lessons and projects fit any teaching style to create fun, engaging learning opportunities. Finally, each lesson is easily adaptable, making it a cinch to mix and match relevant content and exciting project structures to fit your specific classroom and student needs.
Inspire students of all grade levels with our history activities, lessons, and projects
Adobe’s commitment to creativity and innovation in education — for students and educators — is a cornerstone of our mission. And in today’s world, it's more clear than ever that developing digital literacy, critical thinking, and creative problem solving skills is critical for all students, whether through teaching history or any academic subject or skillset. Thus each of the resources in this collection is designed to bring high-level content mastery together with important 21st-century skills and competencies. From hands-on activities to digital applications of learning, our incorporation of digital media and tools will challenge your students to think outside the box.
Also, we know that as educators, your time is at a premium, and you want to spend more time working hands-on with students and less time implementing software. As such, we're proud to present this collection of completely free history activities, lessons, and projects, each of which can be adapted and adjusted to work with any of our free-for-educators tools like Adobe Spark as well as with more advanced tools like Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign. If you're teaching history to young learners, use our simple, adaptable history projects and lessons to introduce new topics. Our creative history activities, lessons, and projects are designed to make information digestible and memorable. Use a single history project as supplemental material or combine several to deliver a comprehensive history curriculum. Whether you’re introducing your students to something new or expanding on a previous topic, the Adobe Education Exchange has the resources you need.
Frequently asked questions
Projects are fun and engaging when you introduce the ability to share information digitally. Use our creative history activities to introduce digital literacy into the classroom and challenge students to think critically. To further increase engagement, encourage students to present their work to classmates and spark in-depth discussions. We also offer courses that can teach you how to make history courses fun and engaging — all with the use of creative digital tools.
Make your history lessons more creative by leveraging the Adobe Education Exchange’s suite of digital tools and platforms. Challenge your students to think creatively by visualizing information and motivate them to learn content more deeply. The clever incorporation of digital media in all of our learning resources is guaranteed to introduce excitement, critical thinking, and creativity into the classroom.
Challenge students to annotate or create presentations that help them dive deeper into a historical event, era, or prominent figures. For example, you can encourage students to create a visual representation of what life was like thousands of years ago. The Adobe Education Exchange has exciting history projects to create immersive and digital learning opportunities.