Who made the traffic signal on the corner, and how do we know? This ready-to-teach packet turns a one-minute song into three lessons on reading, history and engineering.
In Somebody Before Me: Garrett Morgan & the Traffic Signal, a curious child meets Garrett Morgan, a Black inventor from Cleveland, Ohio. After seeing a crash at a busy corner, he designed a signal with STOP and GO arms and a position that stopped traffic in every direction. Students then look at his real 1923 patent to find out how we know he invented it.
What's inside (24-page printable PDF):
3 sessions of 30–40 minutes each: Who Made This?, How Do We Know? and What Will YOU Make?
A Patent Detective page built on Morgan's original patent drawing. Students find the maker, date and place, like real historians.
Two reading levels (K–1 and grades 2–3) with comprehension questions
Be the Signal: a hands-on intersection test with STOP, GO and ALL STOP cards
Sing-along lyric sheet, word cards, a problem-and-solution page, a timeline to cut and sort, and a then-and-now page
My Invention Plan and a Classroom Patent certificate
Standards: Common Core RI.2.1, RI.2.3, RI.2.7, W.2.2 and SL.2.1; NGSS K-2-ETS1-1, K-2-ETS1-2 and K-2-ETS1-3; C3 Framework D2.His.2.K-2 and D2.His.11.K-2
Teacher background, teaching-with-care notes, differentiation, a family page, an answer key and full source links
Works with the free video on Teach Between the Lines TV (about 1 minute, captions on screen).
License: one teacher, for use with their own students. Please do not share, post publicly or resell.