Labor Day: Union Education Resources

Share My Lesson has curated a collection of free lesson plans, activities, and resources to help teachers explore labor history with their K-12 students. Students will learn about the meaning of Labor Day, labor history, how Labor Day got its name, how labor unions work, and how labor unions have impacted the course of history.

Grades 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, K, 11, 1, 12, 2, 3, 4
State/Local Government
Lesson Plans

Rights of Farm Workers: Labor Leaders César Chávez and Dolores Huerta

March 31 is César Chávez Day and April 10 is Dolores Huerta Day. Use these K-12 lesson plans and resources to celebrate the life and legacy of these civil rights and labor activists. Topics span their co-founding of the United Farm Workers union, their use of nonviolent protests to fight for the rights of laborers and includes other change-makers like Lucas Benitez and Librada Paz.

Martin Luther King Lesson Plans and Resources: Understanding a Life and Legacy

K-12 Lessons on Martin Luther King Jr

Education was integral to Dr. King’s vision for a more just society, and working to ensure that dream comes true is integral to America’s educators today. Share the influential ideas of this towering figure of the civil rights movement who envisioned racial, economic and social justice for America by espousing non-violent, collective action that would change society forever. Share My Lesson’s updated collection features curated lesson plans, resources and activities to help your prek-12 students explore Dr. King’s commitment to the labor movement and the fight for justice and dignity.

Grades 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, K, 11, 1, 12, 2, 3, 4
Lesson Plans

Citizens United v. FEC (2010)

Does a law that limits the ability of corporations and labor unions to spend their own money to advocate the election or defeat of a candidate violate the First Amendment’s guarantee of free speech? The Supreme Court has held that donations and campaign spending are forms of speech.

Grades 7-12
Judicial Branch/Supreme Court
Primary Sources

The Thirteen Colonies (CKHG Unit)

The Thirteen Colonies

This unit explores the development of three regions of English colonies using primary source documents and imaginative narratives. Across 35 lessons, students explore Jamestown, labor by indentured servants, and the reliance on enslaved workers in the southern colonies, look at the motives influencing the Pilgrims and Puritans in New England and the financial and religious reasons for settling the Middle Colonies.

The Southern “Black Codes” of 1865-1866

Describes the development of Black Codes following Civil War and details sections of the South Carolina code on Civil Rights, labor contracts, vagrancy, apprenticeship, courts and punishment, and other restrictions. In small groups, students evaluate one of six sections of the South Carolina code through the lens of the 14th Amendment.