National Endowment for the Humanities
Neh: Edsit Ement: American Colonial Life in the Late 1700s
In this very detailed lesson plan, learners will explore what life was like during colonial life in the late 1700s. Students will use what they have learned to write fictional letters to a cousin.
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Colonial Williamsburg: Experience Colonial Life
Experience colonial life through a variety of narratives. Topics include the African-American experience, animals, Christmas, clothing, family, food, gardening, manners, politics, religion, tools, and trades.
Alabama Learning Exchange
Alex: Learning About Colonial Life
This is a group activity that allows young scholars to use predictions to learn about the lifestyle of American colonists.
Scholastic
Scholastic: Teaching With Dear America: Colonial Period
Activities useful in presenting American colonial life. Find references to novels, a colonial home, and a diary entry activity.
Library of Congress
Loc: Teachers: Geography and Its Impact on Colonial Life
Beginning with a discussion on how people adapt to or relocate to environments, this lesson encourages students to explore why the Colonists settled in specific regions. In groups, students examine primary documents, analyzing Colonists'...
Library of Congress
Loc: Geography and Its Impact on Colonial Life
European settlement patterns were influenced by geographic conditions such as access to water, harbors, natural protection, arable land, natural resources and adequate growing season and rainfall. Examine a variety of primary sources to...
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Colonial Williamsburg: Meet the People
Meet the people of colonial Williamsburg! Content includes a focus on the life of African-Americans, colonial children, tradesmen, and elite members of society. Special focus is also placed on the lives of George & Martha Washington,...
National Endowment for the Humanities
Neh: Edsit Ement: Then and Now Life in Early America
Select from lesson plans that challenge students to compare everyday objects from colonial times to present day objects. Links to sites with photos and other primary sources will assist students in their comparison.
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Metropolitan Museum of Art: Art and Identity in British North American Colonies
Consider the English identity of American colonists by examining the sorts of imported goods and decorative arts Americans chose to purchase and display.
Smithsonian Institution
National Museum of American History: Within These Walls
Two hundred years' worth of American history all in one house. Learn what a close examination of a single-family dwelling can tell us about what life was like during five different periods of American history: the colonial era, the...
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Colonial Williamsburg: Colonial Religion
The site provides a detailed overview of role religion played in the lives of the colonists. Content explores how religion played a part in the Revolution, and the statute for religious freedom, as well as providing a lesson plan, a link...
The Henry Ford
The Henry Ford: A Colonial Family and Community
Students are asked to be historical detectives. Using primary documents, they uncover information about the life and community of the Daggetts of northeastern Connecticut in the 1700s.
National Women’s History Museum
National Women's History Museum: Anne Hutchinson: American Women's Movement
This lesson focuses on the life and trials of Anne Hutchinson, who fought for the rights of women in mid-17th century New England.
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Becoming American: The British Atlantic Colonies, 1690 1730
Primary resource material on the ideas, scientific and religious, of the colonial period from 1690 to 1730.
Smithsonian Institution
National Museum of American History: Within These Walls
If these walls could talk! Explore American History through one house that has experienced over 200 years of history. This interactive site has pictures of artifacts, primary sources, and music from 1757-1945. Be a detective and guess...
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Colonial Williamsburg: Travel in the 18th Century
This site has a lesson plan that contrasts the methods of travel during Colonial Times, with those of today.
Georgia Department of Education
Ga Virtual Learning: Colonial Literature Assignments
This lesson focuses on the assignments for the unit on Colonial Literature. It features a list of reading assignments, thought questions, a mini-research project assignment, and links to websites on Native American Culture and Native...
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Colonial Williamsburg: Numismatics: Coins and Currency in Colonial America
Valuable lessons in the history of Europeans' early exploration and settlement of America can be gained by following the money used in trade. Coins and Currency exhibition lets you examine evidence of Spanish, British, Dutch, French, and...
Stanford University
Sheg: Document Based History: Reading Like a Historian:examining Passenger Lists
[Free Registration/Login Required] Students use primary source documents to investigate central historical questions. In this investigation, students critically examine the passenger lists of ships headed to New England and Virginia to...
University of Groningen
American History: Outlines: Agriculture Rules the South
The essay describes the devlopment of the Southern colonies as agricultural centers and the cultural aspects associated with rural, agricultural life.
Henry J. Sage
Sage American History: The Puritans of New England
A description of religious strife and factions in the 17th Century. Provides a detailed and comprehensive account of the Puritans, their life and culture, as they migrate to America and establish themselves in New England.
Khan Academy
Khan Academy: American Indian Culture of the Plains
The Plains Indians had a dynamic society that changed over time. See how the introduction of the horse changed their way of life. Read about their religion, societal structure, housing, and tools. Included are pictures, maps, critical...
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Colonial Williamsburg: Redefining Family
This site from the Colonial Williamsburg Museum explores the different "families" of colonial Williamsburg. Content includes a focus on each cultural group: white, Native American, and black.
PBS
Pbs Learning Media: Colonial House
Colonial House video segment in which Colonists and the Passamaquoddy people encounter each other for the first time in a reenactment of a New England settlement in 1628. [4:38]