Fourth graders practice using a graphic organizer to record their notes and answer text-dependent questions while supplying evidence of how they found their answer. They focus on a machine called the wheelright, which was commonly...

What does the French and Indian War have to do with the American Revolution? Following the war, Britain issued the Proclamation of 1763 in an attempt to limit the colonists' western expansion. To understand how the proclamation, the...

Discover colonies! Young historians will listen to a primary source journal entry read aloud with a backdrop of wave sounds. They discuss the entry, add historical facts to a chart and personal insights to another. Then they listen to...

Close your colonial America unit with a performance-based assessment. Class members will show their proficiency in several skills including using details to back up inferences, determining the meaning of words in context,...

The impressive story of Benjamin Franklin, including his rise from a printer’s apprentice to a statesman, color upper-level scholars’ understanding of the possibilities of life in colonial Philadelphia. But not everyone had the...

Improve class understanding of colonial times by reading an informational text and filling out the accompanying graphic organizer. Class members work with a partner to read, take notes, make inferences, and synthesize information.The...

Scholars learn all about the Puritans in the third installment of a 16-part lesson series. After watching a video, they read and discuss biographies of Puritans and Quakers from American history, write journal entries and poetry, and...

While Benjamin Franklin enjoyed fame and success in colonial Philadelphia, that was not the experience of all coming to the British colonies. Young scholars trace the life of an indentured servant using a scholarly biography and reading...

Fourth graders compare and contrast life in England with plantation life in America. They study the dependencies or mini-industries that could be found on plantations.

Young researchers use the Internet or books to find out about colonial women during the American Revolution. They organize information in a graphic to demonstrate their understanding of the research they gathered before writing a...

What was life like in colonial America? Follow this lesson and your pupils will find out what people in colonial times did for work and for fun. Ask learners to compare and contrast the two texts and explain what the reading helped them...

Fourth graders who are studying life in colonial America engage in an instructional activity that has them create a "Help Wanted" ad that would have been written by a master craftsperson from back in the day. They utilize a graphic...

Fourth graders recognize and can describe the settlers of Early America. In this American colonies instructional activity, 4th graders research using primary and secondary sources, Native Americans, Europeans, and African Americans...

Eleventh graders analyze works by John Donne and Thomas Heriot. In this Colonial America lesson, 11th graders examine pieces of literature, documents, and video clips to identify the issues regarding religion in the colonies. Student...

A read-aloud anthology focuses on colonial towns and townspeople. Over three weeks, young scholars listen to stories, participate in discussions about town life, practice word work, and complete an extension activity with each...

Imagine being one of the painters in 1910 at the Lyme Art Colony in Connecticut. Using the Florence Griswold Museum's on-line resources to gather information about the daily life of artists at the boardinghouse, learners write a letter...

Second graders increase their baseline knowledge of primary and secondary sources and the likenesses and differences of them with regard to a selected historical event.

Fourth graders investigate the role of African American slaves in rice plantations. In this slave life instructional activity, 4th graders discuss the products produced in the 13 colonies. Students discuss the importance of rice to South...

Fifth graders compare and contrast two early colonies and make a T chart. They list examples of worked well and what did not, and significant historical events. They use higher order thinking skills by deducing how different scenarios...

Encourage readers to compare and contrast the information that they find in informational text with a variety of reading passages and worksheets. Learners read all about subjects in science, social studies, and literature...

Eleventh graders ponder about what it means to be an "American." They discuss the impact of an author's word choice and sentence structure on text. They identify some major themes and development of the Letters... Compose paragraphs and...

Students develop a legal system. In this justice system lesson, students examine case law in the Untied States and draw on that experience to create a legal system for a "moon colony" which integrates the legal systems on Earth.

Students explore slavery by reviewing the written laws intended to keep African Americans subservient. In this U.S. slavery lesson plan, students analyze a time-line of the history of African Americans. Students discuss the patterns of...

Students explore U.S. history by reading biographical material in class. For this Benjamin Franklin lesson, students identify the life of Franklin and the events that led him to become one of America's first heroes. Students complete an...