May Curriculum Calendar - Lesson Plan Ideas by Date

Enhance your current curriculum with this fun reference calendar. Whether you want to highlight historic events, honor birthdays of significant people, or celebrate holidays, this is a valuable tool for every teacher. Click on any event to find a breadth of related teaching resources that will spark new ideas to spice up your daily lessons. There's something worth celebrating every day!

Curriculum Calendar

<< May 2024 >>

Sun	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thur	Fri	Sat
28 James Monroe born (1758) Also try: Founding Fathers, US presidents Harper Lee born (1926) Also try: To Kill a Mockingbird	29 International Dance Day Also try: choreography, ballet William Randolph Hearst born (1863) Also try: newspapers, yellow journalism	30 International Jazz Day Also try: Louis Armstrong, Bessie Smith Louisiana Purchase (1803) Also try: US expansion	1 Asian American and Pacific Island Heritage Month begins Also try: Asian culture, multiculturalism Mental Health Awareness Month begins Also try: emotional health, wellness Physical Fitness and Sports Month begins Also try: sports, physical education National Mother Goose Day Also try: nursery rhymes	2 King Charles II gives royal charter to Hudson's Bay Company (1670) Also try: fur trade, Canadian history William Herschel discovers first binary star (1780) Also try: William Herschel, astronomers	3 World Press Freedom Day Also try: First Amendment Niccolò Machiavelli born (1469) Also try: Italian Renaissance Washington DC incorporated as a city (1802) Also try: capital cities	4 International Firefighters Day Also try: careers, jobs, public service Margaret Thatcher becomes first female Prime Minister of the UK (1979) Also try: prime minister, parliamentary system Four student protesters killed at Kent State (1970) Also try: anti-war protests, Vietnam War
5 Cinco de Mayo Also try: Battle of Puebla National Cartoonist Day Also try: political cartoons, comic strips	6 AP Testing begins Also try: test taking strategies Sigmund Freud born (1856) Also try: psychology Hindenburg Disaster (1937) Also try: hydrogen, airship	7 National Teacher Appreciation Day Also try: teacher gifts The RMS Lusitania sinks (1915) Also try: U-boat, submarine warfare Tchaikovsky born (1840) Also try: Classical period, composers	8 Harry S. Truman born (1884) Also try: US presidents German surrender: Victory in Europe Day (1945) Also try: World War II	9 John Brown born (1800) Also try: Harpers Ferry, abolitionists MIT researchers bounce a laser off the Moon for the first time (1962) Also try: lasers, speed of light	10 Jefferson Davis captured by Union troops (1865) Also try: American Civil War US transcontinental railroad completed (1869) Also try: Central Pacific Railroad, Union Pacific Railroad Nelson Mandela becomes president of South Africa (1994) Also try: apartheid, South Africa	11 Salvador Dali born (1904) Also try: surrealism, famous artists Richard Feynman born (1918) Also try: physicists, nobel prize
12 Mother's Day Also try: mothers, families International Nurses Day Also try: medical careers Florence Nightingale born (1820) Also try: nursing, Crimean War	13 US declares war with Mexico: Mexican-American War begins (1846) Also try: Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo Student hunger strike in Tiananmen Square (1989) Also try: hunger strike	14 Lewis and Clark begin expedition (1804) Also try: Corp of Discovery First US Space Station launched (1973) Also try: Skylab, space exploration	15 Johannes Kepler discovers his Harmonic Law (1618) Also try: Johannes Keplar, planetary motion US Department of Agriculture created (1862) Also try: farming, forestry	16 Mississippi River steamboat service begins (1817) Also try: Mississippi River US Bureau of Mines founded (1910) Also try: mining industry, mineral resources	17 Gary Paulson born (1939) Also try: Hatchet Supreme Court rules on Brown v. Board of Education (1954) Also try: separate but equal, desegregation	18 Spring Astronomy Day Also try: space exploration, solar system John Winthrop elected first Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony (1631) Also try: Massachusetts Bay Colony, colonial America Mount St. Helens erupts (1980) Also try: volcanoes
19 Anne Boleyn, wife of King Henry VIII, beheaded (1536) Also try: King Henry VIII The Empire State Building is designated a New York City landmark (1981) Also try: New York City, historic landmarks	20 Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis patent the first blue jeans (1873) Also try: blue jeans, clothing, fashion Charles Lindbergh begins first solo transatlantic flight (1927) Also try: transatlantic flight	21 American Red Cross founded by Clara Barton (1881) Also try: Clara Barton, emergency preparedness	22 First major wagon train heading for the Pacific Northwest sets out on the Oregon Trail (1843) Also try: westward movement Lassen Peak erupts (1915) Also try: volcanoes	23 World Turtle Day Also try: reptiles Carolus Linnaeus born (1707) Also try: biological classification, taxonomy Scott O'Dell born (1898) Also try: Island of the Blue Dolphins	24 Mary Had a Little Lamb published (1830) Also try: nursery rhyme Brooklyn Bridge opens (1883) Also try: bridges, civil engineering	25 The Consitutional Convention begins in Philadelphia (1787) Also try: US Constitution, US government Jesse Owens breaks six world records in one hour (1935) Also try: track and field
26 National Paper Airplane Day Also try: flight, engineering design Sally Ride born (1951) Also try: NASA, astronauts William and Frederick Langenheim take first photos of a solar eclipse in US (1854) Also try: photography, astronomy	27 Memorial Day Also try: US military, war heroes The Queen Mary takes maiden voyage (1936) Also try: passenger ships Golden Gate Bridge opens (1937) Also try: suspension bridges, San Fransisco	28 Amnesty International Day Also try: human rights, justice Jim Thorpe born (1888) Also try: athletes	29 Learn About Composting Day Also try: soil, gardening John F. Kennedy born (1917) Also try: US presidents Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay reach Mount Everest summit (1953) Also try: Everest expedition, mountains	30 National Creativity Day Also try: imagination, inventions Lincoln Memorial dedicated (1922) Also try: Abraham Lincoln	31 World No Tobacco Day Also try: cigarettes, healthy habits Walt Whitman born (1819) Also try: poetry	1 Audiobook Month Begins Also try: listening skills, literature National Pen Pal Day Also try: friendly letters, friendship

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