Curated OER
The constitution and The Bill of Rights
Young scholars explore an Internet site that introduces the Framers, court cases, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights and even games and quizzes.
Curated OER
From Forest to Farm and Back Again
Students review and discuss a given set of questions regarding ecosystems. They analyze essays, maps and historical documents on timber harvesting and regeneration and then complete worksheets.
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.
National Endowment for the Humanities
Neh: Edsit Ement: Then and Now Life in Early America
Select from lesson plans that challenge learners 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.
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 young scholars to explore why the Colonists settled in specific regions. In groups, students examine primary documents, analyzing...
Organization for Community Networks
Academy Curricular Exchange: A Practical Experiment in Colonization
A detailed lesson plan depicting life in the early American colonies.
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.
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...
Alabama Learning Exchange
Alex: Colonial Network News: Ben Franklin Flies a Kite
The students will create a news program about Benjamin Franklin and life in colonial times. The students will work in groups of complete research and prepare a video presentation. Students will utilize books and various web sites to...
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]
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...
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.
Curated OER
National Park Service: Joseph Bellamy House: The Great Awakening in New England
This site describes the influence of the Reverend Joseph Bellamy and religion in 18th century colonial life. This lesson plan has excellent information, an inquiry question, historical context, maps, readings, images, and activities.
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.
University of Groningen
American History: Outlines: Colonial Period Society
This site provides an explanation of the influence of the frontier on the landed gentry and the role of education in the society.
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: English Iii, American Beginnings: 1492 1690
Three seventeenth-century buildings, two portraits, and three original accounts from Virginia and the Carolinas about the qualities and conditions of life in these southern English colonies that led to success and growth.
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation: Treasure Trek
Take a scavenger hunt in a colonial town. Try to find objects that the colonists would have used in their daily lives.
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,...
Other
Early American Paintings in the Worcester Art Museum
A site with examples and information about early American paintings from 1671-1829. Use the timeline to click on a time period, or click and select by artist, genre, or place of origin. Also includes an extensive bibliography.
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.
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.