Birthdays are a great time for looking at pictures from years past. Look at past images of the World Wide Web by taking your students to the WayBack Machine. The WayBack Machine indexes billions of webpages, showing how they have changed over the years. Have your students brainstorm a few websites to explore, and then look at how they have changed by viewing older versions. Students will enjoy comparing webpages and thinking about how they have changed over the years.

Let Ernest Thayer's famous poem inspire your students!

In small groups or individually, students can make baseball cards for the players in the poem. Read "Casey at the Bat" aloud to students and ask them to listen carefully for the details and characteristics about each of the players involved in the fictional baseball game. Ask students to choose one of the characters, and think about what should appear on the front and back of his baseball card. Have students look at some real baseball cards if possible to provide inspiration. Finally, students can use a word processor or the interactive Character Trading Cards to create their cards.

For more ideas on making trading cards, see the Character Trading Cards page.

Ask students to conduct research in the library and on the Web to find images and artifacts that suitably represent Mexico. Students can choose to research a piece of art, music, dance, literature, or food. Challenge students to think beyond stereotypical images of Mexico and Mexican-American culture (such as tacos, chihuahuas, and sombreros), and look for objects and icons with a deeper and more substantial meaning. Start your students' research with a brainstorming session which can include:

• Artists such as Diego Rivera
• Ancient Mexican peoples, such as the Aztecs
• The history of the Mexican state of Puebla

After students have completed their research, have them create a presentation that highlights something interesting, beautiful, significant, or amazing about their choice-and share the information with the class.

The Library of Congress (LOC) offers the perfect place to practice and refine research skills. Introduce students to the resources available at the Library of Congress website by conducting one of these research projects:

• Examine the September 11 attacks at the September 11, 2001 Documentary Project, filled with relevant resources.
• Explore Immigration in America with interviews, information on immigrants from all over the word, a timeline, and more.
• Students can investigate their own state's history or you could assign each student a different state to explore.
• This feature offers students many Amazing Americans to research. Select from presidents, reformers, explorers, musicians, authors, scientists, inventors, athletes, and more!
• StoryCorps offers ordinary people the opportunity to record their stories, which are then housed at the Library of Congress.

As you study Paul Revere, have students learn about primary source documents while researching their family histories.

Paul Revere's ancestry can be traced back to his great-great grandfather, Jean Rivoire, born in France in about 1610. Challenge your students to examine their own roots by investigating likely sources of information about their ancestors. First, discuss the differences between primary and secondary sources. Brainstorm some possible primary sources, and then have students research their family histories. Some possible sources include a family Bible, interviews with family members, a grandparent's diary or journal (with permission, of course), letters and other correspondence, or photographs.

Next, have students create a family tree from the information they have gathered. Have students compare their family trees and discuss some of these questions: How far back were students able to trace their ancestry? How many different countries of origin are represented in your students' family trees? Why might it be difficult to trace some family trees? How can students make a contribution to preserving their own family histories?

Soto's stories and poetry evoke memories and images of home, family, and community. Use one of his works, such as Too Many Tamales or Baseball in April as a basis for exploring these themes. Try one of these activities:

• Too Many Tamales is about a family preparing food for their Christmas celebration, and the children who share in the preparations. Invite students to share a story about their part in a special family event. Extend this idea using the lesson My Family Traditions: A Class Book and a Potluck Lunch, which asks students to share recipes and information about their own family traditions.
  
  
• The streets and neighborhoods of Fresno, California are an integral part of Soto's stories. Invite students to describe their street.
  
  
• Ask students to compose an acrostic poem that describes a person, place, or event they cherish using the Acrostic Poems interactive tool.

Celebrate this year's TeenTober by encouraging your middle or high school students to:

• Join a book discussion group at their school or public library.
  
  
• Read biographies of their favorite musicians, comedians, politicians, or sports figures.
  
  
• Read books about a hobby that interests them.
  
  
• Read books that approach a subject through humor.
  
  
• Read what they want to read, just for the fun of it.

Bill of Rights Day is a good opportunity for students to explore a variety of students' rights issues. Ask students to identify an issue that has come up in your school, such as dress codes, drug testing, zero tolerance, privacy, religion, or freedom of expression. Have them explore the ways in which the Bill of Rights protects and does not protect students, as well as some of the past and recent challenges to students' rights. Have students write position papers or debate individuals or teams of students with opposing points of view. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Student Rights page has information and articles about recent court cases focused on students' rights.

Students can continue to explore the Bill of Rights by examining the ways in which it applies to current events and issues such as homeland security, prisoners' rights, the death penalty, and more. Provide access to a daily newspaper. Then ask students to construct a scrapbook or bulletin board display of articles that address Bill of Rights issues.