For grades K – AP
Classroom edition.
Five lesson packets per election — K-2, 3-5, 6-8, 9-12, and AP — written for each band's reading level. From 20-minute K-2 read-alouds to 105-minute AP DBQ sessions. Every packet is free to download. Teacher supporters keep them free for everyone else.
60 cycles · 5 grade bands · 300 packets live (of 300when complete) · 1789–2024 · open access
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Help keep every packet free.
Every lesson packet on this site is a free download. No paywall, no signup, no ads on classroom pages. The corpus stays open because individuals, schools, and PTAs chip in to fund the curation, citation audit, and per-cycle revisions.
- One-time $99 contribution — no subscription, no recurring charge.
- Stripe-issued, branded receipt — usable as an invoice for school budgets and grants.
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Featured packets
First Party System
1789
George Washington
Only unanimous Electoral College vote in US history
All 5 bandsCivil War1860
Abraham Lincoln
Four-way race where Lincoln won with 39.65% popular vote; triggered Southern secession
All 5 bandsNew Deal Coalition1932
Franklin D. Roosevelt
FDR's landslide ushered in the New Deal era and Democratic dominance for a generation
All 5 bandsNew Deal Coalition1960
John F. Kennedy
First Catholic president; first televised debate transformed campaigning; won by just 112,827 popular votes
All 5 bandsModern Polarization2008
Barack Obama
First African American president; financial crisis collapsed McCain's lead in September
All 5 bandsModern Polarization2024
Donald Trump
Trump became second president to win non-consecutive terms (like Cleveland); first Republican to win popular vote since 2004
All 5 bandsBrowse all 60 cycles
Grouped by era. 300 packets currently shipping; 0 grade-band packets still being curated.
First Party System
Era of Good Feelings
Second Party System
Antebellum Crisis
Reconstruction
Gilded Age
Progressive Era
New Deal Coalition
Cold War Realignment
Modern Polarization
What every packet includes
- Cover page with cycle metadata + grade-band-specific eyebrow.
- Lesson plan with timing rows, materials list, and standards alignment.
- Reading sized to grade band — 250 words for K-2, up to 650 for AP.
- Background page on curated cycles: 5-7 vocabulary terms (cycle-specific) plus a 50-150 word verbatim primary-source excerpt.
- Printable student worksheet — 3 questions for K-2, scaling up to 8 for AP, mixed format.
- Instructor answer key with rationale on every item.
- Three discussion prompts tied to the era.
- AP packets add a long-essay question with a 5-point rubric and a DBQ second source (text or image).
Every primary source carries a public-domain or fair-use 17 USC §107 educational-excerpt basis. K-2 images sourced from the Library of Congress, Wikimedia Commons (PD-tag verified), or Met Open Access. Citation policy and the per-cycle audit log are maintained as a build-time artifact and refreshed on every content edit.