earlyUSforyoung

//Latest Update: 4/11/11 (dead links updated)// = = = Early U.S. History for Young and Middle Students =

EXPLORERS: In order to learn about the discovery of America by Europe, and how that changed everything about the land, we had to start with the explorers themselves. I wanted the kids to understand that it wasn’t an easy matter for people to hop on a boat in those days and just sail across the ocean, with no real idea of where they were going to end up.

We played a game I made up called the explorers game. I used a rough map of the lands on the two edges of the Atlantic Ocean pasted onto a large piece of cardboard, then drew a grid on top of it. I created two Starting and Stopping places, marked with red and blue dots. Red was England as the starting point and North America (around Virginia) as the ending point. Blue was Spain as the starting point and South America (the northeastern tip) as the ending point. I cre ated blue and red playing pieces in the shape of a ship and used a pair of dice from an old game re-marked. One had the 4 cardinal directions on it (one side each for North and East and two for South and West) and the other had “1” on two sides, “2” on two sides and “F” on two sides. F stood for “FATE CARD” and meant they had to draw a fate card.



Students played in twos. They first drew a card ([|gamequestions.doc]) with a geography question on it, giving it to their partner who read the question to them. Since the answer was on the card as well, the reader could tell them if they answered correctly. If they did they could roll the dice to determine how many squares to move and which direction to move. If they hit land that wasn’t their destination, they had to stop and wait until their next turn to move. If they rolled “F” they chose a Fate Card to determine what happened ([|Fate Card.doc]).

This game is okay but it is rather slow moving. If you like the idea of the game, please feel free to play around with it until you find something that works for you and your kids.

I also had the kids create playing cards for different explorers. They were dealt two names out of a list of explorers representing different countries and different destinations. (I used: Rene-Robert de LaSalle, Herenando De Soto, Ponce de Leon, Bartholomew Dias, Marco Polo, Giovanni de Varrazano, Francis Drake, Samuel de Champlain, Henry Hudson, Ferdinand Magellan, Amerigo Vespucci, John Cabot, Christopher Columbus, and Vasco da Gama). The students had to research their explorer and provide certain information on a worksheet ([|Explorer Trading Cards.doc]). One task was to use colored pencils to create a symbol to represent their explorer in a square on the form. After they had completed their research and forms, I took them and scanned in their art work, then placed their information in a template I’d created using PageMaker. You can see their finished products here: ([|tradingcards.pdf]). I color-coded the cards for the countries they were exploring for: purple for Spain, magenta for England, blue for England/Netherlands, green for France, yellow for Italy, red for Portugal. I made the cards the size of index cards so we could use store-bought plastic recipe card covers. I printed out a set for each student.

Of course, we had to talk about pirates too! In two groups, the kids created their own treasure map to give the other the group to follow (with a treasure of chocolate coins at the end). The kids didn’t have much experience searching and scanning on the Internet, so I thought we ought to try a simple web quest (really “treasure hunt”) called Captain Dave’s Lost Treasure ([] We also went over the Pirates Code of Conduct ([]) and we read the poem “Pirate Don Durk of Dundee” (found at this site, scroll down: [|http://www.story-lovers.com/listspiratestories.html).] We investigated tools that sailors had to navigate with and how they used them. The Mariners’ Museum website has some very good information on early navigation methods: [].

On their activities page ([]) you will find several projects for students to make. Their explanation of latitude and longitude is a great introduction: [] After going over the basics of latitude and longitude, early navigation methods and tools, I had the kids cycle through the stations to make a quadrant, an astrolabe and a water compass. I also had them trace Magellan’s voyage from Spain to the Spice Islands on a map based on coordinates (I can’t find this activity—I think it may have come from one of the many children’s books we used as resources). And lastly, we focused on looking at two different accounts of the a battle in Mexico between Native Americans and Spaniards (this is from a text book I have, and I’ve typed it in so you can use it but please don’t pass it around too much! [|history and bias.doc]). This gave me a chance to talk about 1) the nature of our written history and 2) how the two sides might have totally different points of view about the “first contact.”

COLONIAL: Living in central Virginia, we had access to lots of places to visit on field trips. We visited Jamestown (to look at the ongoing archaeological digs there), Berkeley Plantation, Meadow Farm Museum (for a special tour of farm tools), and Wilton House. These all helped to make colonial history REAL for the kids. I gave short lectures on life in the different colonies, and how different peoples from different parts of Europe settled in various areas ([|Colonies.doc]). Luckily, we also had a good ITV series on the Spanish, French and English colonies and how they were different (alas, it’s now out of print, but you may be able to find a similar resource). The kids each took different areas of the English colonies (northern, middle and southern) to investigate and report on to each other. I taught them a song I remembered from my childhood called “When I First Came to This Land” which is funny. (you can find the lyrics at [] but note that they misspell “muscle”). I had some other colonial songs on a CD which we also played. Along with this we spent one day baking pumpkin bread from scratch (boiled pumpkin and all) and creating butter in a jar. We also made applesauce from scratch.



Our overview of the types of houses the colonists lived in included projects making oil paper windows, creating a colonial-style rag rug and learning how to measure trees using shadows and angles ([]). One of our sessions focused on entertainment. We played all sorts of games that colonial kids played: marbles, dice, blind-man’s bluff and pick-up sticks. We also made simple little bunny dolls from one piece of cloth and several rubber bands. (See [] for directions, republished at [] with bigger pictures). Despite groans from the boys, we learned the Virginia Reel and the minuet.

We talked about money and barter, and jobs that people had in colonial times. Each kid took one job to explore and then we had a “quiz” on different job titles (using the list from the Colonial Williamsburg site: []) Another topic we explored was education in colonial times. We had some examples of the types of school books students would use and we made red and blue inks out of berries to use with our handmade quill pens. We watched another ITV show about Colonial Clothing. As we neared time to cover the American Revolution, we talked about Bacon’s Rebellion and the French and Indian War. We also talked about the start of “newspapers” in the colonies and how that helped people share ideas with each other.

We explored some representative colonial governments, those of the Virginia, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania colonies. We watched The Patriot, a video from Colonial Williamsburg about the dilemma the colonists felt about declaring their freedom from England. REVOLUTION: We created a temporary timeline from a card game one of the families had that covered the battles and events of the Revolutionary War. Then we watched a movie, //Johnny Tremain//, based on the book, which covered the very beginning of the war by focusing on a young apprentice in Boston who joins the Sons of Liberty.

I provided the kids with several pieces of art work illustrating the war. I had downloaded these off the Internet and printed them out. Each student then got several descriptions on separate pieces of paper and their task was to match their descriptions with the correct piece of art. ([|painting annotations.doc]). We then glued the painting and its description on a piece of black construction paper. Once they had that done, their task was to create an art museum display of these famous paintings. I asked them to choose the criteria for grouping the paintings themselves and let them go at it. They discussed several options and then created their museum exhibit. The adults got a tour of each section presented by the various students.



We explored again the choice between staying with England and becoming a new country through a role-play activity, “Reason or Treason?” ([|Scenarioforrev.doc]). In this, a prosperous merchant must decide how he is going to vote in the Continental Congress by talking with various members of his family who represent different points of view. This is an open-ended role-play, with no right or wrong answer. When discussing the spies of the revolution, the kids created their own secret message using good old lemon juice and heat. They were also given a message that they had to encode and then share with each other which type of coding method they used, based on some examples from the war. Another fun day we watched the movie //1776// to help introduce them to some of the famous individuals involved.

One session I read to them the famous by Longfellow, Paul Revere’s Ride and let them keep the rhythm while listening (it sounds a lot like the hooves of horses!). With that, we also made tin lanterns out of huge tin cans (fill them with water to freeze so they have a solid surface to drive nails into to make a pretty design). We also listened to the great song from Schoolhouse Rock, “The Shot Heard Round the World.” I also had a CD with some colonial songs on it, and we listened to a few of those. We also watched episodes from Liberty Kids, the series from PBS (here’s their website, with many good resources on it: [])

EARLY GOVERNMENT: We explored the issues involved in creating the new government. We went back to Schoolhouse Rock to listen to “Preamble” and “Three Ring Government” (to this day my daughter can sing the Preamble to the Constitution because of this song!) The kids each had one of the early presidents to report on, which we spread throughout this unit. We learned about the Lewis & Clark expedition, and all the new discoveries made. That led into other discoveries, inventions like the Cotton Gin and how these new machines changed life and the economy. We brainstormed what types of characteristics a good inventor needed to have. After learning about the War of 1812, the kids listened to a rousing version of “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

We looked at several early political cartoons and talked about how these were used in persuading people to support one idea or another, and about how different parts of the country were beginning to have very different ideas about their government. See ([|Resources for Early America.doc]) for a list of good resources we used. Also see the following web sites for background information and other activity ideas.

COLONIAL: Different Colonies Chart: [] 13 Originals: http://[|www.timepage.org/spl/13colony.html] Pocahontas, John Rolfe, Jamestown, and Virginia: [|http://members.tripod.com/~AlanCheshire/index-15.html] Colonial Williamsburg lesson plans: [] Old Sturbridge Village teacher resources: [|http://www.osv.org/school/resources.html] A Colonial Family and Community (a history detective online activity): [] A Voyage Back in Time: Exploring Jamestown (a web quest activity):[| http://chalk.richmond.edu/education/projects/webquests/voyage/] The Founding of the 13 Original Colonies Web Quest: [] Jobs in Jamestown (research project): [|http://teacherlink.org/content/social/instructional/jamesjobs/procedures.html] 1607: Journey to Jamestown (an online interactive game): [] From Revolution to Reconstruction (an online textbook—very good basic info): [|http://odur.let.rug.nl/~usa/H/1990/ch1_p2.htm] Colonial Kids (created by kids for kids about colonial life): [] Resources for “A Day in the Life” series from Williamsburg: [] To Market, To Market: Colonial Economy: [|http://score.rims.k12.ca.us/score_lessons/market_to_market/] REVOLUTION: America Rock! (from Schoolhouse Rock): [] Excellent background site for Benjamin Franklin: [] Spy Letters of the Revolution: [] Liberty! (PBS site with several good resources) [|http://www.pbs.org/ktca/liberty/] Politics in Colonial Virginia: [|http://www.history.org/Almanack/life/politics/polhdr.cfm] Constitution of the United States: [] Amazing Women of War and Peace: [|http://userpages.aug.com/captbarb/femvets.html] A Revolutionary Web Quest: [|http://library.thinkquest.org/11683/High.html] Detailed Timelines: [] Web Quest based on “Johnny Tremain” (great if you have the kids read the book): []