United States Lesson Plans

Students access prior knowledge and locate the North and South Poles on the map. In this mapping lesson, students understand the position of the United States relative to the poles. Students answer questions about the globe.

This lesson has students think about how the regions of the United States are defined and characterized. They map the regions from memory and compare maps to see that regions are human constructions that do not generally have clearly-defined boundaries.

Students examine the economics that led to the founding of the First Bank of America. In this economics lesson, student participate in a reader's theater experience of the debate between Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson over the beginnings of the first Bank of the United States. They read primary source documents and the booklet, "The First Bank of the United States."

In this lesson 5th graders examine and research a major region of the Unites States in groups of four. In addition, they locate the states, capitals, mammals and two bodies of water or mountain ranges found within their region. After the research, they create a short play or story acting and taking their mammals through a journey through their region.

In this lesson students locate and extract census data. They produce population density maps of the United States in different scales and analyze population density maps by observing patterns and drawing conclusions.

In this lesson learners work together to analyze United States Census data on immigration. They compare and contrast the data and determine how immigration numbers have changed over time. They calculate percentages and make their own conclusions about the data.

In this lesson students discuss key business and consumer indicators that are used to measure the health of the economy. They compare the economic recovery (from the 2001 recession) of Utah and the United States. They discuss the benefits and hazards of federal government expenditures during economic downturns.

Students participate in a discussion about why people come to the United States, benefits and complications for both immigrants and the country, and their opinion on immigration. Given a list of both fiction and nonfiction books about immigration, they choose one to read and write a review of the book once they have completed.

Students explore child labor. In this cross curriculum United States history and literacy lesson, students work in groups to describe and discuss photographs depicting working conditions experienced by child laborers in the 19th century. Students write a persuasive paragraph supporting an amendment to regulate the working conditions of children laborers.

Learners examine some of the turbulent events that affected the United States during the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. After reading newspaper articles from The New York Times on specific events, they select one event and write a summary with a partner.