The purpose of this teaching guide is to provide a structured framework and planning tool for organizing and teaching WWII curriculum and content. This guide is intended for educators who are seeking support planning lessons for the specific number of days allotted for WWII history. These resources were created to be used as full lessons, broken down into segments or as needed as a support that promotes engagement, critical thinking, and diverse perspectives.
Full curricula and teaching media can be found at
Home | From the Collection to the Classroom (WW2CLASSROOM.ORG).
If you would like any more support on the use of these guides or recommendations on teaching World War II in the classroom, please email the Teacher Outreach Specialist at angelle.moncada@nationalww2museum.org.
How much time do you have to teach World War II?
The lessons below were intentionally selected to allow educators to maximize learning in the time they have allocated to teaching World War II. Whether it is one day or five, each recommendation is broken down into different themes covering the most information in the amount of time given.
One to Two Days
- Overview of the War Video (Play this video first before starting the lessons below)
- Who’s Who the War in Europe and Who’s Who the War in the Pacific (Pair with an analysis sheet of your choice)
- Picturing the War in Europe- A Visual Time Line
Three to Five Days
- Overview of the War Video (Play this video first before starting the lessons below)
- Who’s Who the War in Europe and Who’s Who the War in the Pacific (Pair with an analysis sheet of your choice)
- The War in Europe: Evaluating Historical Decisions
- The Great Debate
- Franklin D. Roosevelts’ Pearl Harbor Address, December 8, 1941 to be paired with Pearl Harbor Analyzing FDR’s Pearl Harbor Address
Building a WWII Unit?
Building a WWII Unit can be difficult to navigate. These lessons are from each of the four curriculum volumes The National WWII Museum has and can be used in any order to create the most meaningful unit for your class. The lessons below are paired with the videos and oral histories that are most recommended when creating a unit on World War II.
The War in Europe
- The War in Europe: Evaluating Historical Decisions
- How Did Hitler Happen?
- Eisenhower on D-Day: Comparing Primary and Secondary Sources
- Life in Auschwitz: Evaluating Primary Sources to be paired with The Holocaust
- D-Day Invasion Video and End of War Video
- Oral History Videos: Roland Chassion and Charlotte Weiss
The War in the Pacific
- Pearl Harbor: Analyzing FDR's Pearl Harbor Address
- Pacific Strategy Strategic Decision-Making in the Pacific
- Atomic Bombs: The Most Terrible Thing, but Possibly the Most Useful: Evaluating the US Decision to Drop the Atomic Bombs to be paired with Iwo Jima and Okinawa
- Japanese Expansion Video
- Oral History Videos: Harold Wald and William Lansford
The Home Front
Liberation & Legacy
Are you an English or Language Arts Educator?
These lessons can be paired with literature that may be required for both middle and high school teaching.
The Holocaust
relating to Night by Ellie Weisel, The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank, and I Survived the Nazi Invasion, 1944 (#9) by Lauren Tarshis
Civil Rights
relating to Half American: The Epic Story of African Americans Fighting World War II at Home and Abroad by Matthew F. Delmont, Double Victory: How African American Women Broke Race and Gender Barriers to Help Win World War II by Cheryl Mullenbach, and Baseball Saved Us by Ken Mochizuki
World War II
relating to Boy at War: A Novel of Pearl Harbor by Harry Mazer, The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, and The Fitz Osbornes at War by Michelle Cooper
Are you a STEM Educator?
These lessons are taken from the Real-World Science curriculum from The National WWII Museum. The lessons are built to connect STEM, history, and literature and provide support for educators.
How Big Was World War II?: This is an introduction into using numbers to tell the story of an event. Scientists use quantitative thinking all the time and graphs are a particularly important way to analyze and communicate information.
Production for Victory: This activity will give students experience using math to estimate the scale of manufacturing required for World War II.
Necessity Cards: This is a brainstorming activity to illustrate how engineers formulate specific problems and design solutions for them. The activity is designed to emphasize student critical thinking and diagrams.
What Will Float? Why Do Things Fly? What's in the Air? Formative Assessment Lessons: These are formative assessments that can be used with the activities around floating and flight. You can use it in your Engage, or in later stages of the lesson cycle. You can also use it repetitively, having students revise and improve their responses.
Building the Higgins LCVP, The Mother of Invention, Why Weather? Overview Essays: These essays can be used for support and evidence as extensions or introductions to the lessons above.