Contact and European Settlement

• • Native American reaction stories and contact narratives

  • U.S. geography mapping activities and how they relate to cultural interactions

  • Debate over treatment of non-Europeans

  • Explorer business plan project

  • Columbian Exchange simulations for crops and disease

  • Create a colony

  • Mapping activities

  • Iroquois League Constitution rewrite in modern terminology

  • Daily life

  • Native American Demographic Statistics

  • Constitution of the Iroquois Nations

  • Treaty of Tordesillas, Papal Bull of 1493

  • Artwork of Theodore de Bry

  • Maps of Exploration

The Colonial Era

• Debates

• Mapping activities of original colonies

• Virginia Charter

• Mayflower Compact

• Fundamental Orders of Connecticut

• Maryland Toleration Act

• Writings of Benjamin Franklin

• Read the Mayflower Compact (1620) and A Model of Christian Charity by John Winthrop (1630).

• Debate over the treatment of non-Europeans.

• Individual colony brochure/broadside – create an advertisement for state.

• Unsolved Mysteries – What happened to the Roanoke Colony?

• Daily life in the colonies – toys/games: marbles, jacks, cornhusk dolls, etc

The American Revolution

• • Analysis of primary sources such as the Declaration of Independence

  • Create a colonial newspaper.

  • Mapping of the original 13 colonies.

  • Loyalist and Patriots debate.

  • Propaganda posters to refute various British policies.

  • Historical reenactment of American Revolution and/or colonial life.

  • Structured academic debate/Socratic Dialogue: How revolutionary was the American Revolution?

  • What if…. Discussion: How could the war have been avoided? – What if the Patriots had lost the war?

  • America: The Story of Us – The History Channel documentary film series.

  • Nathaniel Bacon’s Declaration

  • Stamp Act, Townshend Duties, Intolerable Acts, Broadsides and Propaganda

  • Conceptual timeline: The Coming of the Revolution.

Articles of Confederation and the Constitution

• Research "hot topics" and create legislative proposal

• Simulated amendment/ ratification

• Kids Voting

• Congress.gov

• Mock ratification

• Simulated Congress (under the Articles)

• We the People (https://www.k12northstar.org/Page/8814)

• Federalist and Anti-Federalist Papers

• Abigail Adams’ “Remember the Ladies” Letter

• Washington’s Farewell Address

• Art of John Trumbull, Gilbert Stuart, Charles Willson Peale, John Singleton Copely

• Analysis of primary sources such as the Articles of Confederation, Constitution and the Star Spangled Banner.

• Reader’s Theater or other role-playing activities of the Constitutional Convention.

• Learn the origin of songs: Yankee Doodle Dandy and the Star Spangled Banner.

• A More Perfect Union, film (1989).

• America: The Story of Us – The History Channel documentary film series.

The Early Republic

• Venn diagram/Thinking Maps® of the political parties, American Revolution and the War of 1812.

• Learn the origin of songs: Yankee Doodle Dandy and the Star Spangled Banner.

• War of 1812.

Westward Expansion

• • Cherokee Indian removal census activity

  • Primary sources – Indian Removal Act

  • The West miniseries by director Stephen Ives and exec. Producer Ken Burns

  • America: The Story of Us miniseries

  • Profile of territorial acquisition

  • “Come West” advertisement for territorial acquisition

  • Political Cartoons

  • Marbury vs. Madison

  • Worcester vs. Georgia, Cherokee Cases

  • Gibbons vs. Ogden

  • McCulloch vs. Maryland

  • Missouri Compromise

  • Fugitive Slave Act, Dred Scott vs. Sandford

  • Artwork of George Catlin, Karl Bodmer

  • Artwork of the Hudson River School

  • Simulation of Westward Expansion – Santa Fe/Oregon Trail: Life in a wagon party.

  • Using Google Earth to show historical changes of major cities (www.earth.google.com).

  • Charting Lewis and Clark’s expedition using journals, websites and other resources.

  • Political cartoons – Monroe Doctrine.

  • Mapping activities that demonstrate territorial expansion, areas of exploration, Trail of Tears, areas of industrialization, etc.

  • Use of primary sources relative to the Indian Removal Act, railroad construction, urbanization and Westward Expansion.

  • Narratives of Frederick Douglass and other former slaves.

  • Cherokee Indian removal census activity.

  • America: The Story of Us – The History Channel documentary film series.

Industrialization and Reform

• Multi-layered maps – learners create a single map that includes overlapping economic, social, and political themes.

• Diary entry from the perspective of an immigrant, factory worker, African American, etc.

Civil War

• The Civil War documentary created by Ken Burns

• Primary sources – Gettysburg Address

• Battle photos

• Mapping activities – Underground Railroad

• Write their own reconstruction plan

Research Project

• National Archives

• https://www.congress.gov/

• Explorer business plan project

• Legislative proposal

• Turning points in American History since 1865

• Primary sources: the Gettysburg Address and Emancipation Proclamation.

• Simulation of the Underground Railroad.

• Mapping activities: northern vs. southern states, Underground Railroad, battles, etc.

• Timeline of events.

• Cook soldier food.

• Use of battle photos by Matthew Brady and others.

• Divide the class along the Mason Dixon Line and evaluate songs from each side.

• America: The Story of Us – The History Channel documentary film series.

A History of U.S.: The Story of America series

by Joy Hakim, Oxford university Press

Dear America series (Diaries from the perspective of children of virtually every period of American history), Scholastic Press

The History News: Explorer News

by Michael Jonstone

Candlewick, 2000 (978-0-763-60985-6)

Perspectives on History series (A variety of topics in American history using authentic examples that give students the opportunity to practice reading primary source documents)

And Then What Happened, Paul Revere?

by Jean Fritz

Puffin, 1996 (978-0-698-11351-0)

The Boston Tea Party by Steven Kroll

Holiday House, 2000 (978-0-823-41557-1)

Can’t You Make Them Behave, King George? by Jean Fritz

Puffin, 1996 (978-0-698-11402-9)

Charlotte by Janet Lunn

Tundra Books, 1998 (978-0-887-76383-0)

Crossing the Delaware: A History in Many Voices by Louise Peacock

Aladdin Books, 2007 (978-1-416-95890-1)

Dear Benjamin Banneker

by Andrea Davis Pinkney

Sandpiper, 1998 (978-0-152-01892-4)

Emma’s Journal: The Story of a Colonial Girl by Marissa Moss

Sandpiper, 2001 (978-0-152-16325-9)

Katie’s Trunk by Ann Turner

Aladdin Books, 1997 (978-0-68981054-1)

Redcoats and Petticoats

by Katherine Kirkpatrick

Scholastic, 2000 (978-0-439-16510-5)

Shh, We’re Writing the Constitution

by Jean Fritz

Perfection Learning, 2001 (978-0-673-81771-6)

Sleds on Boston Common: A Story from the American Revolution by Louise Borden

Margaret K. McElderry Books, 2000

(978-0-689-82812-6)

Will You Sign Here, John Hancock?

By Jean Fritz

Puffin, 1997 (978-0-698-11440-1)

Bill Pickett: Rodeo-Ridin’ Cowboy

by Andrea Davis Pinkney

Sandpiper, 1999 (978-0-152-02103-0)

Black Women of the Old West

by William Loren Katz

Atheneum Books, 2007 (978-1-416-96390-5)

Cassie’s Journey: Going West in the 1860s

by Brett Harvey

Holiday House, 1995 (978-0-823-41172-6)

Children of the Gold Rush by Murphy & Haigh

Alaska Northwest Books, 2003

(978-0-882-40548-3)

Children of the Wild West by Russell Freedman

Sandpiper, 1990 (978-0-395-54785-4)

Daily Life in a Covered Wagon

by Paul Erickson

Puffin, 1997 (978-0-140-56212-5)

Dandelions by Eve Bunting

Sandpiper, 2001 (978-0-152-02407-9)

Going West by Jean Van Leeuwen

Puffin, 1997 (978-0-140-56096-1)

It Happened in Colorado by James Crutchfield

Two Dot Books, 2007 (978-0-762-74567-3)

New Hope by Henri Sorensen

Puffin, 1998 (978-0-140-56359-7)

Nothing Here But Trees by Jean Van Leeuwen

Diai Books, 1998 (978-0-803-72178-4)

Plains Women: Women in the American West by Paula Bartley

Hodder Arnold H & S, 1996

(978-0-340-61135-7)

Rachel’s Journal: The Story of a Pioneer Girl by Marissa Moss

Sandpiper, 2001 (978-0-152-02168-9)

American Too by Elisa Bartone

HarperCollins, 1996 (978-0-688-13278-1)

Dia’s Story Cloth by Dia Cha

Lee & Low Books, 1998 (978-1-880-00063-2)

Dragonwings by Laurence Yep

HarperCollins, 2001 (978-0-064-40085-5)

Grandfather’s Journey by Allen Say

Sandpiper, 2008 (978-0-547-07680-5)

How Many Days to America? A Thanksgiving Story by Eve Bunting

Sandpiper, 1990 (978-0-395-54777-9)

I Was Dreaming to Come to America: Memories from the Ellis Island Oral History Project by Veronica Lawlor

Puffin, 1997 (978-0-140-55622-3)

Immigrant Kids by Russell Freedman

Puffin, 1995 (978-0-140-37594-7)

Journey to Ellis Island: How My Father Came to America by Carol Bierman

Disney-Hyperion, 2005 (978-0-786-85499-8)

The Lotus Seed by Sherry Garland

Sandpiper, 1997 (978-0-152-01483-7)

My Freedom Trip by Frances & Ginger Park

Boyds Mill Press, 2010 (978-1-590-78826-4)

One More Border: The True Story of One Family’s Escape from War-Torn Europe

by Kaplan & Tanaka

Groundwood Books, 2004 (978-0-888-99638-1)

Marianthe’s Story: Painted Words & Spoken Memories by Aliki

Greenwillow Books, 1998 (978-0-688-15661-9)

A Picnic in October by Eve Bunting

Sandpiper, 2004 (978-0-152-05065-8)

When Jessie Came Across the Sea

by Amy Hest

Candlewick, 2003 (978-0-763-61274-0)

The Whispering Cloth: A Refugee’s Story

by Pegi Deitz Shea

Boyds Mills Press, 1996 (978-1-563-97623-0)