Curated OER
Quebec
Ninth graders to examine the past to find out why Quebec has been so determined to protect its cultural heritage. They access primary resources on the Internet to promote their engagement with the past.
National Endowment for the Humanities
Neh: Edsit Ement: American Colonial Life in the Late 1700s
In this very detailed lesson plan, students 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.
Henry J. Sage
Sage American History: Colonial Life: Faith, Family, Work
Article illustrating colonial life in North America. The author discusses religion and religious movements, women and the colonial family, and work, including slavery, during the 17th and 18th Century. Photographs and links to primary...
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.
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Teacher Serve: Religious Diversity in America
Article provides an overview discussion of an ethnic and religious pluralistic society explaining distinguishing factors of religious life in North America. Includes guideance for student discussion, scholar debate and links to related...
Alabama Learning Exchange
Alex: Life in Colonial America
This lesson presents an explanation about who the early colonists were and why they came to America. Students will explore their lives and the economy by navigating the Internet. Students will conclude the lesson by completing a WebQuest...
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 learners to explore why the Colonists settled in specific regions. In groups, students examine primary documents, analyzing Colonists'...
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Colonial Williamsburg: Mathematics With a Mob Cap
This hands-on multidisciplinary activity, combines math and social studies. Young scholars will discover how 18th Century fashion, and culture impacted Colonial Life.
SMART Technologies
Smart: Colonial Life
Factors that shaped British Colonial America. Compare and contrast life in the New England, Mid-Atlantic, and Southern colonies.
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Colonial Williamsburg: A Colonial Christmas in Wiliamsburg
Site offers a glimpse of Christmas Celebrations in Colonial Virginia.
PBS
Africans in America: Phillis Wheatley
This website briefly describes the life of Phillis Wheatley, poetess and freed slave.
Georgia Department of Education
Ga Virtual Learning: Colonial Literature: Slave Narratives
This lesson focuses on Colonial period slave narratives including the autobiography, "The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano" by Olaudah Equiano. Links are provided to the narrative and the website Africans in America:...
Other
New York State Museum: Colonial Albany
Provides information about life in the colonial village of Albany. Includes many resources about important structures, happenings, and people. A great resource for information on colonial America as a whole.
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.
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: America in Class: Abigail Adams and "Remember the Ladies"
Lesson using primary resource to explore how Abigail Adams's famous appeal to "Remember the Ladies" is a reflection of the status of women in eighteenth-century America.
PBS
Wnet: Thirteen: Colonial House
Companion website for Colonial House, a televised experiment in historical reenactment, provides information and insight about what daily life, in 1628, must have been like for English settlers in early America. With video clips from the...
PBS
Wnet: Thirteen: Colonial House: For Teachers: 'Tis a Very Dirty Manner of Life
Interactive adjunct to the popular PBS series Colonial House, which follows the efforts of modern-day families attempting to live as early colonists in seventeenth-century Maine, focuses on the language and expressions common to that...
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...
University of Maryland
Umbc: Children's Lives at Colonial London Town
A digital storybook called Children's Lives at Colonial London Town: The Stories of Three Families. London Town is located in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, and was a trading port in 18th century colonial America. There is an...
Other
San Francisco Unified School District: Colonial Faire Project
A large collection of high-quality resources for learning and teaching about the Thirteen English Colonies. The main page outlines examples of student project possibilities. There are individual pages for primary resources, people from...
Other
Colonial America: Life in Colonial America
Here's a site with lots of information written by middle school students. Click on English Colonial Life, then Development of Self-Government for more information on government of the colonies.
PBS
Africans in America: William Byrd's Diary
Excerpts from "The Secret Diary of William Byrd" in which, among other things, he describes slaves as piece of property.
Other
New Netherland Institute: New Amsterdam Kitchen: Domestic Life in New Netherland
Provides information about the foods eaten by settlers in New Amsterdam and how they prepared it. Describes the different utensils and dishes that were used for cooking and for food consumption.
The History Cat
The History Cat: History of Colonial America
Information about the history of the colonization of America. Read about Jamestown, Plymouth, the Salem witch trials, colonial life, and the Thirteen Colonies.