Elementary Poster Contest

university of colorado denver national history day in colorado a pre-collegiate social studies and literacy program

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The Elementary Poster Contest is the newest addition to the National History Day in Colorado program.Poster Contest

The Poster Contest is a scaled-down version of the standard History Day exhibit category, and is specifically designed to prepare students in the upper grades of elementary school to complete History Day projects in middle and high school. The contest is open to 4th and 5th graders, and must be done on a Colorado History topic.  Projects are completed based on the year’s theme (2023/24: Turning Points in History), as winning posters are displayed at museums around the state on Colorado Day, August 1, and served to kick-off each year's contest cycle.

Teachers usually complete posters with their students during the Spring semester, and then hold their own in-school contests, either independently or in conjunction with other building teachers. The top two posters from each grade will then be displayed on Colorado Day.

Completing a poster allows students to pursue topics that interest them, learn how to write thesis statements regarding those topics, and then demonstrate the significance of their topic in history and its relation to the theme through evidence. Students accomplish this by investigating primary sources of various formats (e.g. photos, interviews, newspaper articles, maps, quotations, etc., as well as secondary sources. Ultimately, when students construct their final posters, they should incorporate their evidence into their own words, while using meaningful quotations and other primary source text in order to support their thesis statement.

Posters are due to the NHDC State office by: June 30th, 2024!

Poster Contest 2It should be noted that the poster is not included in any of the middle and high school Denver National History Day in Colorado Contests.

Please contact Kelly Cvanciger (Kelly.Cvanciger@ucdenver.edu) directly with questions.