Welcome to ushistory.org’s Declaration of Independence website. This site provides a wealth of information about the signers of the Declaration, the history of the Declaration, and an online version of the Declaration for you to read.
The site also provides links to other Declaration-related biographies and histories and a guestbook where you are invited to add comments and ideas. This site is a good resource for anyone curious about the Declaration and its history, or for the student who needs resources for his or her research paper.
Each year, the Hannibal Jaycees sponsor National Tom Sawyer Days during the Fourth of July weekend to celebrate the town’s most well-known citizen, Mark Twain. The highlight of the event is the fence-painting contest, which begins on July 4 with local competition and advances to state and national contests over the next three days.
This lesson uses music and art in a vocabulary study of unfamiliar words from the song “America the Beautiful,” increasing students’ vocabulary while also increasing their knowledge of U.S. geography.A discussion to activate students’ prior knowledge about sights and scenery throughout the United States is followed by a read-aloud and introduction to the song “America the Beautiful,” which is then sung in each session of the lesson. Students learn the meanings of the song’s words through shared reading and the use of context clues and images. Students then use photographs, illustrations, and descriptive language to create a mural shaped like the United States. Finally, through pictures and words, students reflect on what they have learned. This lesson is appropriate and adaptable for any patriotic event or holiday, and many of the vocabulary strategies are adaptable for other texts or word lists, as well.
Most Americans think of the Fourth of July as Independence Day—but is it really the day the United States declared its independence? This lesson explores all the dates and stories associated with the Declaration of Independence, focusing on the reason there are so many different dates and signings of the document and why we celebrate the nation’s birthday on July 4th rather than one of the other dates. Students first freewrite and discuss questions about how to tell truth from fiction. They then listen to the Schoolhouse Rock song “Fireworks” and discuss how information in the lyrics compares with what they know about the Independence Day holiday. Finally, students research to find the truth behind common myths about Independence Day and the signing of the Declaration of Independence and present their findings to the class.
Many people celebrate the Fourth of July as the birthday of the United States, but the actual events on that day involved only a half dozen people. On July 4, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was approved and signed by the officers of the Continental Congress in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Most of the other members signed during a ceremony on August 2.
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