6-8 Resources
Explore a selection of activities, lesson plans, and teacher resources developed by our team and our trusted educational partners to enhance learning in and out of the classroom.
"This book shows you no matter how hard life gets not to give up on what you love, and what’s in your heart…”
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"This book shows you no matter how hard life gets not to give up on what you love, and what’s in your heart…” •
– Marshandra, Middle School Student
HOTYM | Teacher Pathway
Lesson Plans for Teaching Children of Willesden Lane
This four-part HOTYM lesson series for Grades 6–8 offers an immersive pathway into The Children of Willesden Lane, centering music, silence, and story as essential tools for ethical reflection and emotional growth. While rooted in the historical context of the Holocaust, this HOTYM approach invites students to consider how identity is shaped not only by history, but also by the relationships, choices, and creative acts that carry us through adversity. Adapted from The Willesden Project, each lesson deepens students' sense of belonging, resilience, and responsibility—encouraging them to hold space for others and carry memory forward with care.
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Uprooted
Holding On To What Grounds Us
Chapters 1-4
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Finding Home
How Belonging Shapes Us
Chapters 5-13
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Strength in the Silence and the Sound
How Music, Stillness, and Story Carry Us
Chapters 14-20
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Carrying the Story
Triumph, Memory, and Music
Chapters 21-26 & Epilogue
HOTYM | Telling My Story Final Project
This project invites students to reflect on who they are and share their identity with care. Inspired by Lisa Jura’s story in The Children of Willesden Lane, students are guided to create short multimedia testimonies that explore identity, memory, resilience, and voice.
But this is more than a digital storytelling assignment. It is a practice in listening, in presence, and in building threads of connection that can be carried long after the lesson ends. Through writing, music, silence, and shared reflection, students are encouraged to meet one another in a space of empathy and vulnerability, where their stories are not just told, but truly held.
Designed for grades 6–8 and part of HOTYM’s broader learning pathway, this project equips students to bear witness, speak from the heart, and strengthen their sense of belonging through story.
Lisa Jura Family Collection - Online Exhibit with HMLA
Through the generous support of internationally renowned concert pianist and Hold On To Your Music Foundation founder Mona Golabek, Holocaust Museum LA is proud to present the Lisa Jura Collection. This special digital exhibit honors Lisa Jura's life and legacy through rare primary sources, artifacts, and a powerful short film, Tipping Scales: The Story of Lisa Jura.
Designed for both teachers and students, the exhibit includes a downloadable Teacher’s Guide that supports a deeper exploration of Lisa’s journey and its enduring lessons of resilience, identity, and hope.
A Teacher’s Resource to The Children of Willesden Lane - with Facing History & Ourselves
The Teacher’s Resource provides a meaningful but flexible structure for examining the story Mona Golabek tells and relating it to historical and current events. It is designed for use with middle and high school students in English, social studies, music, and/or interdisciplinary studies.
Student Activities and Lesson Plans
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The Children of Willesden Lane Performance
Mona Golabek, author, performer and virtuoso concert pianist and founder of Hold On To Your Music Foundation, has introduced her mother Lisa Jura’s story to over one million schoolchildren through text and musical performances around the world.
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The Willesden Project makes the acclaimed theatrical show available in this 34-minute virtual, theatrical performance. Based on the best-selling book, The Children of Willesden Lane, Mona Golabek tells the story of her mother’s survival, resilience and triumph as she struggles to come of age separated from her family during World War II.
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Making a New Life: The Courage of a Refugee Virtual Field Trip
In this Virtual Field Trip, students will walk along with Mona Golabek as they hear from three different individuals about the refugee experience. Using a lens that covers the historical refugee experience as well as the modern-day experience, students will learn how refugees adjust to their new homes and cultures and celebrate the courage people can have in times of great change.
Suitable for upper elementary and middle school students, this Virtual Field Trip will teach how people gather crucial strength and support from fellow refugees and community resources. Students will also hear from real students about how they support refugees and learn about refugee stories and their experiences.
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“Your Music Will Help You Through” - The Children of Willesden Lane
The Children of Willesden Lane tells the true story of 14-year-old Lisa Jura, an aspiring pianist whose parents sent her from Vienna to London via the Kindertransport in 1938.
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In this activity, students will be introduced to The Children of Willesden Lane, and the theme of perseverance through music. Students will read an excerpt from The Children of Willesden Lane to identify how music can help one navigate hard times in one’s life. Students will define perseverance and interpret a quote from the memoir to develop a deeper understanding of the concept. Then, they will consider the role music plays in their own lives, particularly as they have navigated a challenging time.
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Refugee Crises and Individual Experiences
In this Virtual IWalk, you will explore historic and current-day examples of refugee crises and ways refugees have received aid and protection.
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As you move along the stops of this Virtual Walk, you will watch testimony of individuals who have experienced life as refugees and will discover the causes of refugee crises and how outcomes for refugees can be different in each case.
This Virtual IWalk features testimony from USC Shoah Foundation’s Visual History Archive of Zdenka Levy, a Jewish survivor, Sara Pol-Lim, a Cambodian survivor, and Hansu Mala and Mawaha Nurul Kamal, two Rohingya survivors.
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A Conversation with Mona Golabek - Dimensions in Testimony
In this activity, students will be introduced to the interactive biography of Second Generation (2G) Holocaust survivor Mona Golabek.
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Mona is the daughter of Lisa Jura, a Jewish survivor who escaped Nazi-annexed Austria through the Kindertransport, a rescue operation carried out by volunteers who following the Kristallnacht Pogrom, went to Germany and Nazi-occupied Europe to organize transports for children.
Students will engage with Mona through USC Shoah Foundation’s Dimensions in Testimony technology and learn conversation techniques. They will also learn how to construct questions appropriately to elicit personal, historical, and universal thematic responses. By the end of this activity, students will share what they have learned from Mona Golabek through a creative expression.
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Bonding through Adversity
In this activity, students will reflect on the bonding effect of shared adverse experiences. They will read an excerpt from The Children of Willesden Lane, the story of Lisa Jura, a 14-year-old Holocaust survivor, who was saved through the Kindertransport.
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The excerpt details the bonding experience Lisa found among the group of children who resided in the group home on Willesden Lane. Students will also listen to a clip of testimony by Ivy Schamis, a teacher survivor of a school shooting, who speaks about the connections she and her students made with other survivors of mass shootings. They will conclude by reflecting on their own experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic and how this event can build connections with others in their social environment.
This activity includes the testimony of Ivy Schamis, a survivor of the February 14, 2018, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting.
Please refer to the following educator resources to ensure you introduce this activity mindfully with your students: HOTYM’s Guiding Principles and Echoes & Reflections Pedagogical Principles
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Accompanied by Music: A Virtual IWalk
During this Virtual IWalk, you will learn about Lisa Jura, a Jewish survivor of the Holocaust and concert pianist, during her time in London as a Kindertransportee.
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The Kindertransport was a series of trains that transported children from Nazi-occupied Europe to safety in England. Lisa’s love of music sustained her through every step of her journey, supporting her as she adjusted to a new country during this challenging time. As you move through this Virtual IWalk, you will take a closer look at how music provided Lisa with the hope, solace, and strength that allowed her to be resilient in her new surroundings.
This Virtual IWalk features excerpts from the book, The Children of Willesden Lane: A True Story of Hope and Survival During World War II, by Mona Golabek and clips of testimony from Jewish survivors of the Holocaust, Leah Shander and RegineSchwarz.
