Distance Learning Activities and Tips from the Archives

Whether you have a little downtime or you wish you remembered what downtime was like before you were home with the kids, the Archives is here for you with a few distance learning activities and organization tips.

Need a few extra activities to keep the kiddos learning and busy? Teach them about primary sources using our collections.

• Learn about the Civil War through the eyes of Mary Henry, the daughter of Smithsonian Secretary Joseph Henry, who lived at the Smithsonian Castle. Through activities that focus on working with primary sources, students will learn about the Confederate March on Washington, D.C., the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, and journal writing. (Grades 4-8)

• Dive into activities that offer a much different perspective of the Civil War from Solomon Brown, Smithsonian’s first African American employee. Brown was a self-educated natural history expert and talented poet and worked for the Smithsonian for fifty-four years. Students can compare Henry and Brown’s perspective of the Confederate March on Washington, D.C., learn about Brown’s life in Washington, and participate in a letter writing activity. (Grades 4-8)

• Students can learn to identify the differences between primary and secondary sources by exploring the snowflakes photographed by Wilson A. Bentley in our collections. (Grades 4-6)

• Older learners can get a brief introduction to architecture by studying the work of James Renwick Jr., who designed the Smithsonian Castle and the Renwick Gallery. (Grades 9-12)

• Dive into the fun with Smithsonian’s Transcription Center, where you might join a group of volunpeers to make our collections more discoverable to researchers. Every week, we add more projects that include diaries, curators’ reports, meeting minutes, field books, and more.

• The Smithsonian Learning Lab also has some great distance learning resources, some which feature our collections, for teachers and their students.

• You might also find creative inspiration in the collections you can now download, transform, and reuse with the newly-launched Smithsonian Open Access portal.

Pause, take a deep breath, and relax with some coloring activities. These could be for children and/or their grown ups.

• Learn your way around the Smithsonian Institution Building, also known as "The Castle," in the nineteenth century by coloring in each room. The library and reading room are obviously our favorites!

• Even though we’re embracing the spring weather, let it snow with a fun coloring activity featuring a couple of Wilson A. Bentley’s snowflake photographs in our collections.

And if you have a little downtime and are looking to get organized, we have a few ideas.

• Make time to preserve some of your family treasures. Our preservation coordinator shared tips about what to keep, where to keep it, and how to arrange it.

• Sometimes, those family treasures might look like digital photos on old cameras or your phone. Get pointers from a digital archivist about how to organize, name, and preserve those memories.

• And other times, they are physical photographs trapped in scrapbooks that need a little TLC. Conservator Nora Lockshin shared a brief guide about how you might organize and document your family photos.

• There’s no time like the present to save your family memories from the sources themselves. Smithsonian’s historian shared advice about conducting oral history interviews.

• If you’re striving to reach inbox zero, check out these tips about taking control of your email account.

• And get prepared for when we’re back in action in the reading room with these tips from a reference archivist about the best ways to reach out to us so that you can help us help you.

We miss you, and we wish you and your families health and safety. If you have any questions for us at the Archives, please leave a comment below

*The Archives will continue to add any new activities to this post.*