An outstanding activity on the Thirteen Original Colonies, and the settling of Pennsylvania by William Penn is here for your learners. Valuable discussion takes place regarding how the colonies were settled, and some excellent handouts...

Two slide shows, viewed side-by-side, permit middle schoolers to compare and contrast the lives of the Pilgrims of the Plimoth colony and the Wampanoags. Four videos take learners on virtual field trips to the Plymouth plantation. And an...

A read-aloud anthology explores Colonial America. Third graders listen to informational texts, discuss what they heard, and participate in extension activities and writing. Take-home materials, assessments, and remediation opportunities...

Classes look at and analyze primary source images to explore the differences between the colonial regions during the Revolutionary era. They break into groups to tackle each region and then present their findings to the class. A final...

Was Puritan society governed as more of a theocracy or democracy? After comparing and contrasting a series of primary source documents, middle and high schoolers form small groups and debate the question.

Burrowing animals are busy! Get your middle school ecologists busy as well by having them create a scale model of a burrowing population. They also design a PowerPoint or poster to explain their models. 

Young historians trace the roots of African slavery and learn about the causes and effects of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade through a PowerPoint presentation and by reading and discussing excerpts from the book Copper Sun.

Ready to interpret the Declaration of Independence and understand its meaning? The resource divides scholars into pairs, where they work as a team to match translations with excerpts from the declaration. The class then engages in...

Sixth graders determine the possibility of establishing a colony on Antarctica to help eliminate the world's overcrowding. They consider environmental and economic criteria in determining how this colony functions ans is expected to do...

Learners view and analyze three different images related to the Battle of Lexington and Concord. They also answer a variety of questions in a graphic organizer to help keep the information straight.

While less well known than the event in Boston, the Yorktown Tea Party was equally decisive in turning community sentiment against Great Britain. To gain an understanding of why the colonists objected to the Tea Act, young historians...

Teach the class about the predecessor to Declaration of Independence—the Virginia Declaration of Rights. Using the foundational documents, scholars examine the two writings to consider how they are similar and how they are different. A...

How did early American pioneers decide what to take with them on their journeys, and what was their traveling experience like? Here you'll find a collection of activities to help you explore Westward Expansion with your young learners.