Washington’s Eastside · Our story
History right outside
the classroom door.
Local History of the Eastside is a free collection of classroom materials that brings the history of Washington’s Eastside into Grade 3, 4, and 7 classrooms.
Across two lessons, students trace how Redmond, Kirkland, Bellevue, and Sammamish grew from the homelands of the region’s Native peoples into the communities they live in today—through mill towns, berry farms, wartime shipyards, and the most recent tech boom.
The inspiration
Why local history?
Richard Hao is a board member of the Redmond Historical Society and is deeply passionate about sharing the history of the place he calls home. Growing up, he never had the chance to learn about the history of his own community in school. The stories of the people and places around him were there, but they weren’t part of what he was taught.
He created this curriculum so that today’s students don’t have to miss out the way he did, and so that every Eastside classroom has an easy way to explore history right outside its doors.
Made for teachers
What’s included
The lessons are aligned to Washington State Social Studies standards, with a detailed standards map in the Teacher’s Handbook. Each grade-level collection includes:
A classroom presentation
Browse online or download as a PowerPoint, with core and optional slides so you can fit the unit to your schedule.
Speaker notes
Slide-by-slide guidance, discussion prompts with expected answers, and activity materials.
A teacher’s handbook
Background reading, a standards map, a slide-by-slide teaching guide, and suggestions for extending the unit.
Bring history to life. Hands-on activities include analyzing historical photographs, a then-and-now Photo Match game, and a final Mini-Museum project that can double as an assessment.
Explore Grade 3 →Explore Grade 4 →Explore Grade 7 →Grounded in local research
Our sources
These materials draw on the work of local historians, archives, and public records, including:
- HistoryLink.org, including thumbnail histories of Redmond, Kirkland, and Sammamish, and essays on the Lake Washington Shipyards, the Lake Washington Ship Canal, and the Monohon mill town.
- Eastside Heritage Center, including its histories of Japanese farmers in Bellevue (1898–1942) and of incarceration.
- Redmond Historical Society, including the Decades of Redmond History series.
- Kirkland Heritage Society, including On the Ways to Victory: The Lake Washington Shipyards.
- Washington State Law Library, on the Education for All campaign and House Bill 90 (1971).
- U.S. Census Bureau and the Washington Office of Financial Management, for population data.
- Densho Digital Archive and David Neiwert’s Strawberry Days: How Internment Destroyed a Japanese American Community (2005).
- Library of Congress, for its primary source analysis guides.
Let’s connect
Get in touch
We’d love to hear how you’re using these materials in your classroom. For feedback, questions, or to arrange a field trip, contact Richard Hao.
richard.hao@redmondhistoricalsociety.orgAcknowledgements
This project would not have been possible without the support of Krystal Medina and Phoebe Greenman from the Lake Washington School District, and John Oftebro and Laura Lee Bennett from the Redmond Historical Society. Thank you for your guidance, feedback, and belief in making local history accessible to every student.