Sessions

 

Session 1: The First Americans

LESSON OBJECTIVES: 

Students will define the following vocabulary words:

glacier, migration, theory, artifact, descendent, origin story, ancestor, Ice Age, time line, decade, century and millennium.

Students will explain how the Ice Age changed life for early Americans.

Students will understand how Native Americans used the natural resources found in the United States. 

Students will analyze Native American origin stories and describe what they tell about the creation of the world.

Students will practice reading a timeline. 

HOMEWORK: 

Create a timeline of important events in your life. 

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Session 2: The Ancient Indians

LESSON OBJECTIVES: 

Students will define the following vocabulary words:

nomad, technology, extinct, agriculture, tribe, civilization, class, slavery, pueblo, generalization and Agricultural Revolution.

Students will explain why the Clovis and Folsom points was important to ancient Indians. 

Students will describe how the agricultural revolution changed the way the Native Americans lived their lives. 

Students will examine early Native American civilizations built by the Olmecs, Mound Builders, Anasazi and Mayas.

Students will learn how to read a cultural map.

HOMEWORK: 

Why do you think the arrival of early people in the Americas caused many different cultures to form? Explain your answer. 

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Session 3: Native Americans of the Desert Southwest, Northwest Coast and the Arctic

LESSON OBJECTIVES: 

Students will define the following vocabulary words:

adapt, staple, surplus, ceremony, hogan, dugout, barter, potlatch, clan, pit house, harpoon and totem pole.

Students will examine the interior and exterior of a pueblo.

Students will describe how Native Americans adapted to the environment where their civilizations developed.

Students will explain what a medicine person does.

Students will understand the evolution of Native American pottery.

Students will describe how to make a dugout canoe.

HOMEWORK: 

Create a totem pole for your family.

 

Session 4: Native Americans of the Plains and Eastern Woodlands

LESSON OBJECTIVES: 

Students will define the following vocabulary words:

lodge, sod, tepee, travois, palisade, slash-and-burn, wigwam, wampum, longhouse, confederation, council, compromise and resolve.

Students will examine Native American homes: the teepee, longhouse and wigwam.  

Students will describe how Native Americans adapted to the environment where their civilizations developed.

Students will understand why the buffalo was so important to Native Americans of the Plains.  

Students will describe the uses of a wampum.

Students will analyze the Iroquois Legacy.

Students will learn how to resolve conflict.

HOMEWORK: 

Create Calendar Robe of your life. 

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Session 5: East Meets West

LESSON OBJECTIVES: 

Students will define the following vocabulary words: claim, isthmus, demarcation, treaty, colony and Columbian Exchange.

Students will understand the cause of why European merchants and explorers look for water routes to Asia. 

Students will discover the Vikings' arrival and the aftermath of their departure.

Students will discover the effects of Christopher Columbus' voyages to the New World.

Students will explain the importance of Caboto, Vespucci, Balboa and Magellan's voyages.

Students will summarize the Columbian Exchange.  

Students will learn how to follow routes on a map.

HOMEWORK:

Imagine you are a Spanish trader. Write a letter to your parents telling them about the new trade items you have discovered.

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Session 6: The Spanish Conquerors

LESSON OBJECTIVES: 

Students will define the following vocabulary words: grant, conquistador and desertion.

Students will identify what Ponce de Leon was looking for when he discovered Florida. 

Students will understand the relationship between conquistadors and Native Americans. 

Students will summarize Hernando de Soto's journey into the Southeast region of the United States. 

Students will summarize what happened on Panfilo de Narvaez's expedition into Florida.

Students will summarize Francisco Vasquez de Coronado's expedition through Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas.

Students will examine the components of a conquistador's armor. 

HOMEWORK:

How were the lives of Native Americans changed by European exploration? Explain your answers.

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Session 7: Search for the Northwest Passage

LESSON OBJECTIVES: 

Students will define the following vocabulary words: Northwest Passage, estuary, rapid, company and mutiny.

Students will explain the importance of the Northwest Passage.

Students will explore Giovanni da Varrazan, Jacques Cartier and Henry Hudson's expeditions looking for the Northwest Passage.

HOMEWORK:

How did the explorers searching for the Northwest Passage play an important role in American history? Explain your answer.

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Session 8: New Spain

LESSON OBJECTIVES: 

Students will define the following vocabulary words:

colony, colonist, buffer zone, borderlands, presidio, permanent, hacienda, self-sufficient, missionary and mission.

Students will understand the relationship between Spanish colonists and Native Americans. 

Students will explain the importance of Spanish borderlands and presidios in New Spain. 

Students will examine Castillo de San Marcos in St. Augustine, Florida. 

Students will discover how horses changed the Native American's way of life. 

Students will summarize how the El Camino Reals connected Spanish missions throughout Florida and the Western United States.

HOMEWORK:

How did the location of New Spain affect the way the Spanish settled the land? Explain your answer.

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Session 9: New France 

LESSON OBJECTIVES: 

Students will define the following vocabulary words: civil war, royal colony, proprietary colony, proprietor and plantation.

Students will understand why the French were eager to build colonies in New France. 

Students will summarize the effects of the Dutch and English settlements along New France's southern borders. 

Students will understand the importance of Jacques Marquette and Louis Joliet's expedition down the Mississippi River.  

Students will analyze the founding and development of Louisiana. 

HOMEWORK:

Suppose that you are French citizen who is asked by the French government to get people to settle in New France. Make a poster that persuades people to move to New France. Use words and pictures in your poster to show people the benefits of moving to New France.

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Session 10: Roanoke 

LESSON OBJECTIVES: 

Students will define the following vocabulary words: sea dog, raw material and armada.

Students will discover the important role pirates played in the conflict between England and Spain.

Students will explain why England established Roanoke.

Students will learn who Sir Francis Drake was and why he was important to the Roanoke colony. 

Students will learn who John White was and   

Students will formulate their own ideas about what happened to the residents of Roanoke. 

HOMEWORK:

Pretend you are John White and write a journal entry describing why they left their family to go back to England. Then write another journal entry about returning three years later to find everyone missing. Describe what you think may have happened to them. 

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Session 11: Jamestown 

LESSON OBJECTIVES: 

Students will define the following vocabulary words: stock, prosperity, cash crop, legislature, burgess and authority.

Students will discover the true relationship between Pocahontas and Jamestown.

Students will explain why the Virginia Trading Company established Jamestown.

Students will learn who Captain John Smith and John Rolfe were and how they were important to Jamestown. 

Students will understand the importance of the House of Burgess. 

Students will identify a problem and try to solve it using the seven step problem solving process. 

HOMEWORK:

Imagine that you are a Jamestown colonist. Write a letter to Captain John Smith expressing your opinion about his leadership abilities. Do you approve or disapprove of his rule?

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Session 12: Plymouth 

LESSON OBJECTIVES: 

Students will define the following vocabulary words: Pilgrim, compact, self-rule, and majority rule.

Students will examine the Mayflower Compact and understand the importance it had upon the future United States.

Students will evaluate how the success of the Plymouth colony may have influenced more people to come to North America.

Students will understand the importance of the colonists' relationship with Squanto and the Wampanoag tribe.  

Students will explain why William Bradford was an important governor in Plymouth. 

Students will compare and classify information presented in tables.

Students will analyze a journal entry from 1626 and compare the activities with events in their owns lives. 

HOMEWORK:

What do you think might have happened if Squanto hadn't helped the Pilgrims? Support your answer with evidence you learned in class. 

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Session 13: The Massachusetts Bay Colony 

LESSON OBJECTIVES: 

Students will define the following vocabulary words: Puritan, charter, common, specialize, town meeting, and public office

Students will understand who John Winthrop was and what he accomplished as leader of the Puritans.

Students will examine the layout of a Puritan village and the day to day life of a Puritan. 

Students will explain the contributions Puritans made to the future United States, such as having the first school in the colonies.   

HOMEWORK:

How was a Puritan town like the town in which you live? How was it different?

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Session 14: New Ideas, New Colonies

LESSON OBJECTIVES: 

Students will define the following vocabulary words: expel, consent, sedition, fundamental and frontier

Students will examine the lives and historical contributions of Roger Williams, Anne Hutchinson, Thomas Hooker and David Thompson. 

Students will evaluate the results of the Pequot War and King Philip's War.   

HOMEWORK:

Do you think the beliefs of leaders such as Roger Williams, Anne Hutchinson, and Thomas Hooker helped bring positive changes to the New England Colonies? Explain your answer. 

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Session 15: New England's Economy

LESSON OBJECTIVES: 

Students will define the following vocabulary words: industry, export, import, triangular trade route and naval store

Students will examine the industries that made New England coastal towns prosperous. 

Students will examine the colonial triangular trader routes.   

Students will identify the ways New England's economy depended upon resources from oceans and forests. 

Students will read and construct a line graph.

HOMEWORK:

Draw a poster that shows the products that New England colonists made from the resources found in the ocean and in the forests. Label the products, and indicate each product's connection to the ocean or the forests. Be prepared to share your poster with the class next time. 

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Session 16: Breadbasket Colonies

LESSON OBJECTIVES: 

Students will define the following vocabulary words: refuge, trial by jury, justice, farm produce and Great Awakening.

Students will examine the Dutch settlements of New Netherland and New Sweden. 

Students will understand how New Netherland became New York.    

Students will critique Peter Stuyvesant's decisions in striving to maintain New Netherlands as a Dutch settlement.

Students will describe the influence William Penn had upon the future governance of the United States. 

Students will understand how the Quakers established colonies in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware.

Students will describe how the Great Awakening influenced the middle colonies. 

Students will understand the importance market towns had upon the economical success of the middle colonies. 

HOMEWORK:

What do you think New Your City might have looked like today if the Dutch had kept control of New Amsterdam? Support your opinion with evidence. 

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Session 17: Colonial Philadelphia

LESSON OBJECTIVES: 

Students will define the following vocabulary words: township, immigrant, militia and almanac.

Students will analyze the town layout of colonial Philadelphia.  

Students will understand how immigration influenced the culture of colonial Philadelphia. 

Students will describe how Benjamin Franklin contributed to the city with his inventions and scientific discoveries. 

Students will utilize information in a circle graph to write a paragraph about the thirteen colonies. 

HOMEWORK:

Create a city plan for a new community you are building in the middle colonies. Be prepared to share your plan with the class next time we meet. 

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Session 18: Moving West

LESSON OBJECTIVES: 

Students will define the following vocabulary words: backcountry and loft.

Students will explain why the Great Wagon Road was important to the settlement of the frontier.  

Students will examine what life was like on the frontier.

Students will analyze Daniel Boone's life on the frontier.

HOMEWORK:

Why do you think settlers of the backcountry were willing to face the hardships there? Imagine you are a settler who has moved to the frontier in the early 1700's. Write a journal entry in which describes your journey to the backcountry and the building of your new home. Be sure to include why you are have decided to face the hardships in the wilderness. 

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Session 19: Settlement of the South

LESSON OBJECTIVES: 

Students will define the following vocabulary words: indentured servant, constitution, indigo and debtor.

Students will analyze the Calvert's colonization of Maryland.

Students will examine indentured servitude in the Maryland colony.

Students will examine the importance of Maryland's Toleration Act and Carolina's constitution upon the future United States.

Students will understand why the Carolinas were split into North and South Carolina. 

Students will critique James Oglethorpe's leadership and accomplishments of using debtors to colonize Georgia.

Students will analyze the changes that occurred in Virginia with the growth of their population.

Students will practice telling fact from opinion.   

HOMEWORK:

What might have happened if rice and indigo had not grown well in the South Carolina colony?

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Session 20: Southern Plantations

LESSON OBJECTIVES: 

Students will define the following vocabulary words: planter, tidewater, broker, auction, overseer, spiritual, and public service. 

Students will analyze the layout of a Southern plantation.

Students will examine the lives of plantation workers, plantation owners and slaves. 

Students will discover the important contribution Olaudah Equiano's book made to end slavery in the United States. 

Students will practice reading a resource and product map of the thirteen colonies.  

HOMEWORK:

Imagine you are living on a plantation. Take on a role and write a diary entry to show what a day on the plantation is like. Be prepared to share your entry with the class. 

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Session 21: Southern Cities

LESSON OBJECTIVES: 

Students will define the following vocabulary words: apprentice, country seat and county.

Students will discover how people made a living in southern cities. 

Students will examine the importance Charles Town and other southern ports had upon the Southern Colonies.    

HOMEWORK:

What were the advantages and disadvantages of building more towns in the Southern Colonies?