EngageNY
Word Choice: Using Academic Vocabulary to Apply for a Colonial Trade Job
Scholars reflect upon colonial jobs such as a blacksmith, cooper, shoemaker, etc. Together, the class writes a job application as a practice for working independently. Learners employ their experience in writing a job application for a...
EngageNY
Writing to Inform: Colonial Trades
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...
EngageNY
Synthesizing Research: How Colonists Were Interdependent
Following the formative assessment of this unit, young scholars present the information they gathered on their specific colonial trade to the rest of the class. Working in groups, learners create posters describing the particular job...
Curated OER
Colonial Identity
Students research and discuss the origins of the American colonies and explore how colonists were still influenced by English culture. As a follow-up project, students produce a portrait of an individual.
EngageNY
Taking Notes Using a Graphic Organizer: Inferring About Work and Play in Colonial America
What was life like in colonial America? Follow this lesson plan 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...
EngageNY
Taking Notes Using a Graphic Organizer: Inferring About the Importance of Religion in Colonial America
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...
Curated OER
Colonial Trades and Apprenticeships
Learners examine and analyze culturally significant objects from colonial Boston. They construct a story around the life and work of Nathaniel Hurd from a list of keywords excerpted from a passage about Nathaniel Hurd. In addition, they...
EngageNY
End of Unit 1 Assessment: Inferring and Synthesizing (From Two Texts) About Life in Colonial America
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,...
Curated OER
We the People: The Citizen and the Constitution: The American Revolution
The contributions of African-Americans to the American Revolution are the focus of this Social Studies and language arts activity. After reading and discussing Linda Crotta Brennan’s The Black Regiment of the American Revolution, class...
Curated OER
Writing American Diaries
Young scholars examine the concept of historical perspective in writing. They read the diary of Sally Wister, a young Patriot from Philadelphia during the Revolutionary Era. Additionally, they must include different points of view in...
Curated OER
African-American Art and the Political Dissent during the Harlem Renaissance
Students are introduced to the culture of African American art. Using the internet, they research the events surrounding the Harlem Renaissance and discover how it produced a wide variety of art and literature. To end the lesson, by...
Curated OER
Lesson: Mathias Poledna: Crystal Palace
Film analysis takes critical thinking, connections, and context. Upper graders look at the film installation, Crystal Palace in terms of the film makers choices, presentation, and perspective of truth. After an analytical discussion of...
Curated OER
The Figure of Paul Revere. Romanticizing Colonial American History
Students compare paintings to make conclusions about American History in the Revolutionary War time period. Students share opinions concerning visual art. Other artwork can be used to entice inquiry as needed.
Curated OER
What can money tell us?
Students study the physical presence, imagery and written text on a reproduction of colonial currency. They apply their research to a modern day quarter to compare and contrast two coins. In addition, they design their own colonial...
Curated OER
Colonial American Trade, Currency, and Economy: The instability of a colonial economy
Students view an image of Nathanial Hurd's "Table of Conversions." They will work in small groups to complete a worksheet. Students participate in a discussion about colonial Boston's economy. This lesson is a precursor to a visit to the...
Curated OER
Artists in Colonial America
High schoolers visit the Memorial Art Gallery's exhibit, "About Face: Copley's Portrait of a Colonial Silversmith." They complete a worksheet based on the career of John SIngleton Copley as a colonial American artist. They experience the...
Curated OER
Interdependence: A Colonial Example
Students complete a variety of activities related to Colonial America and how people lived at that time. They conduct research on a selected colonial trade and present an oral report as role-playing that craftsman, and participate in a...
Smithsonian Institution
A Ticket to Philly—In 1769: Thinking about Cities, Then and Now
While cities had only a small fraction of the population in colonial America, they played a significant role in pre-revolutionary years, and this was certainly true for the largest city in the North American colonies: Philadelphia. Your...
EngageNY
Documenting Research: Sorting and Recording Information About the Wheelwright
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 used...
Curated OER
The Art of Political Cartoons in Revolutionary America
High schoolers analyze political cartoons. In this colonial America lesson, students examine the provided political cartoons and respond to analytical questions about each of them.
Curated OER
American Colonists Protest Song
Students explore the role of protest songs. In this early American history lesson, students research the acts passed by the British that angered colonists. Students then listen to protest songs from contemporary American history prior to...
Curated OER
A River, Dead or Alive: Native Americans and European Colonists' Treatment of a River
Learners write an expository paragraph about the uses of the Nashua River for the Native Americans and the European Colonists. In this river uses lesson plan, students determine the causes and effects of both parties using the river.
Curated OER
Colonial History: Fearless and faaithful
Young scholars discuss reasons why early europeans immigrated to North America. Working in groups, they complete Internet activities on the PBS Website. They take a simulated voyage to the new world and rercord their actions on...