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The Park has been digital resources that educators can use in the classroom. Local schools can also reserve an in-person classroom visit from a Park Ranger, or if further away, a digital visit. Please see the links below for more information about reserving a classroom visit, lesson plans, and other digital resources. Video Resources:The Park's YouTube page provides dozens of videos that investigate the history of the Blackstone River Valley.
Lesson PlansThe Rhode Island Historical Society, in partnership with NPS, created lesson plans designed to meet the curriculum standards for fourth grade students in Rhode Island and across the country. Please see the tabs below to access the lesson plans:
Alice (Hadfield) Timperley and Oral His
Oral histories are excellent ways to preserve the past. Students will learn the story of Alice Hadfield, a resident of Ashton.
Conflicting Values: Brown and Ballou
This lesson plan invites students to consider the conflicting views of leading abolitionists in the years leading to the Civil War.
Culture and Community
This lesson highlights the importance of recognizing and celebrating the diversity of those who lived in the Valley.
History Detective: First Strike
In this lesson, students will analyze primary source documents about America's First Strike in 1824 in Pawtucket, RI
Innovation in Transportation
This lesson will have students identify various modes of transportation used from the 1800s into the 1900s.
Learning about Mill Workers
This lesson will have students use primary sources to learn about some of the mill workers and their jobs at the Lonsdale Company in RI.
The Life of Captain Wilbur Kelly
This lesson will have students practice using primary and secondary sources in order to learn about the past.
Looming and Learning
This lesson plan is intended to make students think critically about how clothing is manufactured today and why.
Manufacturing with Marbles at Ashton
This lesson will have students examine several products manufactured by Owens-Corning at the Ashton Mill in Rhode Island from 1941 to 1983.
Peace Picnics and Community in Hopedale
This speech-focused lesson highlights the importance of community events and networks of communication among abolitionists in Hopedale, MA.
Project ZAP! Blackstone River Cleanup
This lesson will have students use historical thinking skills by analyzing two primary sources related to the Blackstone cleanup in 1972.
The Rhode Island System of Mill Villages
This lesson gives students the opportunity to learn more about the community of Ashton and discover their own community's history.
Samuel Slater: Hero or Traitor
Samuel Slater is regarded as a traitor in his hometown of Belper, England but a hero in the US. This lesson plan focuses on Slater's story.
Slave Cloth and the Slater Fund
Learn about the connections between Slavery and the textile system and the steps of one industrialist to right historic wrongs
Women and Children in the Mill Village
In this lesson, students will practice examining a set of images where women or children are the main subjects of the photographs. Classroom Visit RequestsThe Park offers ranger-led classroom visits for schools in Rhode Island. If you are interested in having a staff member come to your class, please email Park Ranger Allison Horrocks, call at 401-318-4883, or fill out the form below. NPS Form 10-1750 (Rev. 04/2021) OMB Control No. 1024-0228 NoticesPrivacy Act StatementAuthority: Public Law 114-289 National Park Service Centennial Act and 54 U.S.C. 100701 Protection, interpretation, and research in System. Purpose: To administer education programs for education audiences including but not limited to school groups, scouting groups, extracurricular groups, and home school groups. Routine Uses: To effectively manage requests for education received by the NPS, the Education Reservation Request Form is used to collect basic education reservation information to facilitate operational aspects of scheduling groups for park education programs, including in-park education programs, ranger in classroom programs, and/or online distance learning programs. Disclosure: Voluntary, however, failure to provide the requested information may impede the ability to grant your education reservation request. Paperwork Reduction Act StatementWe are collecting this information subject to the Paperwork Reduction Act (44 U.S.C. 3501) to provide park managers and educators the information needed to schedule and conduct education program activities. All applicable parts of the form must be completed in order for your request to be considered. You are not required to respond to this or any other Federal agency-sponsored information collection unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number. OMB has approved this collection of information and assigned control number 1024-0288. Estimated Burden StatementPublic reporting for this collection of information is estimated to average 5 minutes per response, including the time for reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing the collection of information. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden, to the Information Collection Clearance Officer, National Park Service, 1201 Oakridge Drive, Fort Collins, CO 80525. Do not send your completed form to this address. |
Last updated: April 3, 2026