Program Ideas for Younger Audiences

Lincoln: The Constitution and the Civil War


Site Support Notebook

• Plan a program showing middle grades how to use primary sources in historical research.

• Hold story time sessions for young people using books about Lincoln and his contemporaries (see book list for younger readers for examples).

• Develop a teen poetry slam. Teens write and perform poems that creatively express thoughts and raise awareness of issues related to freedom.

• Engage young people in hands-on activities during their exhibition visit. For example, allow young people to touch and discuss reproductions of artifacts. Invite them to write a postcard to Abraham Lincoln—on the reverse side of the postcard, have young people draw or collage a historical event. With permission, put completed postcards on display in your library.

• Collaborate with a local debating team or public speaking organization to create policy debate opportunities for high school students.

• Enlist a Teen Advisory Board to help plan and promote "Lincoln" programs for young adults.

• Partner with a local children’s museum on programs about the Civil War and Lincoln.

• Create a documentary shorts contest. Teach youth video production software and invite them to explore exhibition themes via images and sound.

• Include a title for young people in the Forever Free “One Book, One Community” series.

• “Lincoln Loved Books, Too,” bedtime stories at the library for the younger set.

• Sponsor essay contests: “What Would Lincoln Think About the World Today?” “What Does Freedom of Speech Mean to Me?”

• Play children’s games from the Civil War era (see list of Web sites for ideas).

• Family activity night at the library with stories and songs about Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War