In a Social Studies Skill Builder, students work in pairs to examine transparencies that will teach them several geography skills, such as determining location with lines of latitude and longitude and identifying physical features of the United States.

In a Visual Discovery activity, students work in pairs to examine images of Native American migration routes, four natural environments in North America, and an Inuit family in front of their Artic home. Students use visual details in the images and information from History Alive! America's Past to discover why Native Americans migrated to North America and how they adapted to the environments they encountered.

Students learn about seven Native American cultural regions and use an annotated map to record information about cultural adaptions made by groups from each region. In a Response Group activity, students debate what three historical artifacts might have been created by a Native American group in that area. Afterward, students read to find out which artifacts were actually from that region and record notes on an annotated map.

Students learn about European exploration in the 15th and 16th centuries by "excavating" and examining objects from a "sunken ship." In a Social Studies Skill Builder, pairs take on the role of underwater archeologists to investigate eight placards, each of which contains an image of an artifact from an explorer's sunken ship, such as a Bible, a compass, and tobacco.

In a Social Studies Skill Builder, students use an illustrated classroom matrix to organize information about European explorers and then play a game in which they answer questions about the explorers.

In a Visual Discovery activity, students analyze images of Roanoke, Jamestown, and Plymouth to create act-it-outs that show why settlers came, the hardships they endured, and the reasons why each settlement succeeded or failed.

In a Problem Solving Group work activity, students create a billboard for one of six British colonies and then try to persuade other students to settle in their colony.

In a Response Group activity, student groups analyze and respond to three dilemmas faced by Africans during enslavement: trading slaves for guns in West Africa, surviving the Middle Passage, and living as an enslaved person in the colonies.

In a Writing for Understanding activity, students take a "walking tour" of colonial Williamsburg to examine aspects of colonial life, such as government, social life, and religion.

In an Experiential Exercise, students plan a class party and then experience frustration when the PTA places restrictions on the party. Students relate their feelings to those of the colonists and then match metaphors of parent-child conflicts with key historical events.

In a Problem Solving Group work activity, student groups represent six historical figures in a panel debate between Loyalists and Patriots.

Essential Question: What were the arguments for and against colonial independence from Great Britain?

In a Social Studies Skill Builder, students examine objects on Thomas Jefferson's desk, such as a letter and an invitation, to learn about the events and ideas that led to Jefferson's drafting of the Declaration of Independence.