We are dedicated to serving as the state-wide hub for the teaching of Virginia history through providing engaging learning resources, educational online tools, and meaningful multimedia content for educators, students, and history lovers of all ages.

Fun & Games | ONLINE EXHIBITS & VIRTUAL TOURS

Student Activities & Primary Sources | Student Webinars

FUN AND GAMES

• Color Our Collections: Download coloring pages created from the VMHC collections and unleash your creativity!

• Games of the Past: Our new video series, Games of the Past, explores how kids played throughout history! Each video provides a quick history of a game and provides instructions to create the game at home. 

• Pieces of History Online Puzzles: Enjoy these online puzzles from the collections of the VMHC. Keep checking back for more!

• I Spy: Virginia's Hidden History: Explore the history of espionage in the Commonwealth and train to become one of Virginia's top secret agents with this activity. This packet includes instructions for spies-in-training to practice breaking codes and send hidden messages with homemade invisible ink! 
   

Online Exhibitions & Virtual Tours

• Explore the VMHC digitally by taking a 360-degree tour of the exhibitions and reading the online exhibition text or narrative. The following exhibits are available online: 

  • The Story of Virginia:

    • 360-Degree Tour | Online Exhibition Narrative |Recommended student activity: VMHC Virtual Visit Find & Sketch

  • Determined: The 400-Year Struggle for Black Equality: 

    • 360-Degree Tour | Recommended student activity: Determined Pre- and Post-Worksheet

  • Agents of Change: Female Activism in Virginia from Women's Suffrage to Today

    • 360-Degree Tour | Recommended student activity: Equal Suffrage League Membership Card
       

Student Activities and Primary Sources

• Student Activities

  • Museum of You: This activity allows visitors to curate an exhibition about themselves! Download the Museum of You packet to find examples created by staff at the VMHC and an activity guide for both elementary and secondary students. 

    • Museum of You Activity Packet

  • You Be the Curator!: This activity is designed for students to explore the role of a museum curator and learn about the role objects play in storytelling in museum exhibitions. Using a pre-curated packet of collections objects, students are asked to curate a mini-exhibition about the chosen topic. This activity works well for grades 4 - 12. Secondary students can go beyond simple object selection by creating exhibit labels and titles using the worksheets in the instruction packet.

    • You Be the Curator Instructions & Worksheet Packet | You Be the Curator Object Image Packet | You Be the Curator Example Student Exhibit

  • Teaching with Photographs: Teaching with Photographs is a primary source tool designed to be used by both teachers and students, inside and outside the classroom.

  • Linking to our Past: Linking to our Past is designed to help students analyze and explore specific items related to African American history from the VMHC collections.

• Primary Sources & Videos

  • The Story of Virginia Digital Timeline: Explore Virginia's history through an interactive timeline of primary sources from the Virginia Museum of History & Culture and Library of Congress. 

  • Educational Videos: Our educational videos are designed for a K-12 Audience. These videos are based on the Standards of Learning (SOL) and include animated primary source documents. 

  • Notable Dates in Virginia History: Turn back the pages of the calendar and learn about notable dates in Virginia history.

  • Virginia History Explorer: The Virginia History Explorer is full of illustrated articles about Virginia history including primary soruces, secondary sources, past exhibitions, and hidden treasures from the collections. 

FREE Student WEBINARS

Webinar Archive For Students

• Making Broadway History: An Interview with the Actors (All Ages)

• The Powhatan Indians (Early Elementary)

• From Jamestown to Revolution: Virginia in the Colonial Era (Upper Elementary & Above) 

• Letters from a '49er (Upper Elementary & Above)

• The Civil War: An American Turning Point (Upper Elementary & Above)

• Abraham Lincoln, African Americans, and the Emancipation Proclamation (Upper Elementary & Above)

• Rebuilding America: Reconstruction to Jim Crow (Upper Elementary & Above)

• Picture This: Virginia in the 20th Century (Upper Elementary & Above)

• Women's Suffrage Starter Pack (Upper Elementary)

• Sign of the Times: Activism in the Suffrage Movement (Middle & High School)

• Fresh Paint: Murals Inspired by the Story of Virginia (Upper Elementary & Above)

  • Use this workbook to create your own mural inspired by Virginia history!

• Barbara Johns Day: The Legacy of Student Activism in the Civil Rights Movement 

Webinar Archive for Adults

• What's Your Sign? Ephemera & Women's Activism

• Eye of the Storm: A Civil War Odyssey

• Fresh Paint: Murals Inspired by the Story of Virginia

• Humor with Edge: Exploring Political Cartoons

• Tobacco: The Crop that Created the Commonwealth

Have questions? Contact Hailey Fenner, Manager of Digital Learning, at hfenner@VirginiaHistory.org or 804.342.9689.