Fort Ticonderoga’s trusted lesson plans are now housed on our exciting new platform: the Ticonderoga Institute — a one-stop hub for classroom-ready resources that connect your students to the real stories of the American Revolution. Our growing collection of free, downloadable lesson plans integrates history, geography, math, science, and language arts, all aligned to national standards. Designed by classroom teachers and museum educators, these resources support in-class and virtual learning, and are perfect for enhancing student visits to Fort Ticonderoga.
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The Capture of Fort Ticonderoga
Grades 4-5
Students read three accounts of the 1775 capture of Fort Ticonderoga, written by Ethan Allen, Benedict Arnold, and British Lieutenant Jocelyn Feltham, who was second in command at Fort Ticonderoga at the time, and analyze the differences in the three accounts.
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Telling Her Story: Women in the American Revolution (IDM)
Grades 4-5
Students will follow the Inquiry Design Model (IDM) to explore the experiences of women during the American Revolution. Students will reflect on the compelling question: Is there more than one side to a story? and three supporting questions about women’s roles during the American Revolution. For their final project, students will create a news segment of a special report that explains the important roles women played in the American Revolution.
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Historical Source of the Week
Grades 4-5
In 5 weeks, this lesson introduces students to the world of material culture. Each week, students examine a different source and complete a worksheet to better understand what objects, images, and artifacts reveal about history.
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Carrying the Weight of a Soldier
Grades 4-5
Students read and analyze a journal entry from a militiaman who listed what he packed in his knapsack when he was called up for service and ordered to Ticonderoga in July of 1776.
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Building A Soldier's Hut
Grades 4-5
This math activity features word problems related to measuring materials needed to build a soldiers’ hut. The included worksheet can be used to introduce or review converting feet into inches and using addition, multiplication, and simple division to determine the materials soldiers need for their hut.
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Introduction to Primary Sources
Grades 4-8
Students will create their own primary sources and analyze those of their classmates as though they are historians from the future wishing to learn about the early decades of the 21st Century. Without knowing the objective of the activity, students will write a log of the previous day’s activities. Students will be divided into groups A-E, each studying a different aspect of daily life. The logs students created will then be distributed as, ‘primary sources,’ to each group for analysis. Following the activity, the class will discuss their findings as well as the challenges of working with primary source documents.
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Feeding the Continental Army
Grades 5-7
Based on the list of rations allotted to Continental soldiers, students will perform various mathematical calculations to determine the amount of food needed to feed soldiers over various periods of time and under various circumstances. Students will read a brief excerpt from Continental Army General Orders as Ticonderoga, as recorded in Colonel Anthony Wayne’s 1776 Orderly Book for the 4th Pennsylvania Battalion explore when supplies of provisions ran short and compare the regulation amount of rations and the substituted amounts of rations.
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Women with the Continental Army at Ticonderoga: Reading Between the Lines
Grades 6-12
In this activity, students will read four excerpts from the orderly book of Colonel Anthony Wayne of the 4th Pennsylvania Battalion. Based on the information provided, students will answer questions about the roles of women in the army at Ticonderoga in 1776.
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Analyzing Persifor Frazer's Letter
Grades 6-8
Students will read a letter from Major Persifor Frazer to his wife Polly, written at Ticonderoga on September 21, 1776 then answer a series of questions. A map of Ticonderoga and Mount Independence is also provided for context.
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Character Trial of Benedict Arnold: Historical Memory and the Changing of the Past
Grades 7-8
Students will analyze differentiated primary and secondary documents that showcase the events, contributions, and character of Benedict Arnold. The documents include letters and videos from Arnold that cast him in both a positive and negative light. This lesson will show that the history and contributions of important figures in our past can and have been altered to change our understanding.
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A Comparison of the Seven Years' War and World War I
Grades 11-12
Students will examine various images and document excerpts to compare and contrast aspects of the Seven Years’ War to World War I. In eight parts, students will write reflective responses to each image or set of images and culminate by answering essay questions.
