The Great Depression Teaching Resources

Bring the history of the Great Depression to life in your social studies classroom with printable worksheets, constructed response reading passages, Google Slide instructional decks and more teaching resources created by teachers for teachers!

This social studies collection is curriculum-aligned. Each resource has been carefully reviewed and chosen by an expert teacher on our teaching team to ensure it's ready for your classroom and lesson plans! That's our way of saving you time on planning so you can spend more time making "aha" moments happen in the classroom!

Choose from differentiated activities, word walls and more to introduce your students to the stories of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and wife Eleanor, the Roaring Twenties that led up to the stock market crash and more.

New to teaching this section of US history or just looking for fresh ways to engage your students? Read on for a primer from our teacher team!

What Was the Great Depression? A Kid-Friendly Explanation

How do you explain the Great Depression and its enormous impact on American society? Here's a helpful explanation from our teaching team to get started!

The Great Depression was a very tough time in American history that lasted for a long time, from 1929 to 1939.

It was a time when many people didn't have jobs, and they didn't have enough money to buy things they needed, like food, clothing, and a place to live.

When Was the Great Depression?

We already mentioned that the Great Depression was officially 10 years long in America, from 1929 to 1939, but when did the biggest events of the era happen?

Let's look at the timeline:

• October 29, 1929 — The stock market crashed and marked the beginning of the Great Depression, on this day often known as Black Tuesday.
• March 4, 1933 — In March of 1933 President Franklin D. Roosevelt was inaugurated. That year he would begin implementing the New Deal.
• 1935 — Social Security was established as part of the New Deal two years into FDR's presidency.
• 1939 — Ths is the year World War II began, which ultimately helped to bring the United States out of the Great Depression.

What Started the Great Depression?

So what started the Great Depression? There's a lot of history to unpack for your students! Here's a kid-friendly way to present the causes to your class:

The Great Depression started because of a number of complicated things that happened in the 1920s, but a few key things caused it.

One of the main reasons was that many people were buying stocks, which is like buying a small piece of a company in the hopes that the company would do well and the stock value would go up.

Many people were buying stocks on credit, meaning they borrowed money to buy them. This made the stock market go sky-high. However, people eventually realized that the stocks weren't worth as much as they thought, and they started to sell them.

This caused the stock market to crash, meaning stocks' value went down very quickly. When this happened, many people lost all their money and jobs and couldn't afford to buy the basic things they needed, like food and clothes. This made it hard for businesses to sell things, and the economy greatly slowed down. It was a tough time for many people, and it took a long time for things to get better.

Key Great Depression Vocabulary Terms

Here are some of the key vocabulary terms you might want to incorporate into lesson planning:

• Stock Market Crash — A sudden and severe drop in the value of stocks, which can lead to a widespread economic downturn
• Unemployment — The state of being without a job
• Dust Bowl — A severe environmental disaster that occurred in the Great Plains during the 1930s, causing widespread crop failure and mass migration
• New Deal — A series of programs and policies implemented by President Roosevelt to stimulate economic recovery and reform during the Great Depression
• Bank Failure — When a bank is unable to meet its financial obligations and is forced to close, causing widespread panic and economic instability
• Fireside Chats —A series of radio broadcasts made by President Franklin D. Roosevelt during the Great Depression and World War II

Key Great Depression Figures

And here's a look at some of the most important people to discuss in your history lessons!

• Franklin D. Roosevelt — The 32nd President of the United States, FDR was president through much of the Great Depression and implemented the New Deal to help revive the economy.
• Herbert Hoover — The 31st President of the United States, Hoover was the president in office when the Great Depression began and struggled to address the economic crisis.
• John Steinbeck — An American author, Steinbeck wrote "The Grapes of Wrath," a novel about a family's struggles during the Great Depression that is read in many schools throughout the US.
• Dorothea Lange — Lange was an American documentary photographer who captured powerful images of poverty and hardship during the Great Depression.
• Eleanor Roosevelt — The First Lady of the United States during the Great Depression, Roosevelt was known for advocating for social and economic justice.