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Lesson Plan - Get It!

Audio:

Can you imagine what it must have been like to ride the Apollo 11 mission to the moon? Take a look at this clip from that incredible moment in history: A History Of Spacewalks: First Walk On The Moon, July 21, 1969 | TIME:

Close your eyes and put yourself there. Imagine the intensity, the excitement of walking upon this shiny, mythical object in the sky that people gazed upon for many thousands of years.

What emotions do you feel as the spacecraft approaches the surface?
How does it feel as you descend the steps in your spacesuit?
What are you thinking or saying as your feet touch the ground, or when you look over your shoulder to see our beautiful Earth below?

Where did those images and feelings come from? Let's use your vivid imagination to rewrite history!

Authors of historical fiction are telling fictitious stories with characters who may or may not have really been there.

Sometimes they "play" with the events to make a point or develop a theme. But the basis of their stories is always real factual events.

If you could go back to a moment in time, which one would you choose and why? Are you stumped? Check out this LIFE magazine list of the Top 100 Events of the Last Millennium, courtesy of Alan Singer, to get some inspiration. Once you have made your selection, write down all that you know about that event, including:

location
date
people involved
sequence of events
causes
effects
other information

Discuss:

Do you have any relatives or trusted family friends who were alive to watch the moon landing or another major historical event actually happen?
Ask them what it was like to experience that historic time.
Ask them about other major historical moments they recall from their lifetime.

There is nothing like being there, of course, but with a little background research, we can fuel our raw imagination to place ourselves in the midst of history's most amazing moments!

Continue on to the Got It? section for a little time travel!