The Old North Church: School Programs

The following classroom lessons can be used in advance of a visit to the Old North Church to help prepare your students for what they will see and learn. We strongly encourage you to complete at least one of these lessons before your visit.

Or, if you cannot make the trip into Boston to visit us here at the Old North, any of these lessons can be integrated into your American Revolution curriculum.

Each lesson includes a lesson plan in PDF format outlining how to present the activity to your class and a second PDF that contains any handouts, worksheets, or other resources used in the lesson.

NOTE: You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader 6.0 to read these documents. You can download it here.

Revolution Mix & Match Timeline
This lesson provides students with context in understanding where the Old North and its role in the Revolution fall in relation to other import events leading up to the war.

Look & Listen: Boston Then & Now
This lesson orients students in time and place so they can consider how the geography, architecture, and living conditions of 1770s Boston influenced the events of Revolution at the Old North and beyond.

Bell Ringer’s Agreement: Reading a Historic Document
This lesson provides students with experience reading and deciphering a primary source document and guides them through the unique issues these sources raise.

The following classroom lesson can be used after a visit to the Old North Church to help your students reflect upon their visit and reinforce what they learned.

Solving the Mystery: Identifying Reliable Sources
This lesson serves as a wrap-up of the on-site experience, allowing students to put their understanding of how to “source” a historical document into practice and to consider what types of sources would be helpful in solving the mystery of the lanterns once and for all.