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Upper elementary blog with practical, rigorous, classroom tested ideas to implement with your students.

Meso-America. Free Ancient Maya Lapbook and notebooking pages for homeschoolers and educators. Meso-America, meaning "Middle America".

Q: How can I seriously fit a game of Monopoly into a rigorous, time-crunched curriculum? Each spring, as an entry event to my oppression unit—where we share To Kill a Mockingbird and discuss civil…

This longitude and latitude worksheet challenges kids to find the locations of cities on a map. Practice geography with this longitude and latitude worksheet.

As stated in my previous blog post, to goal of the Filles du Roi was to help populate New France in order to strengthen France’s hold on the North American continent. Colonization came from t…

Have you ever sat in a boring Social Studies class? Thinking about the monotone voice of one of my Social Studies teachers makes me cringe even to this day! Needless to say, it was not my favorite subject and I never did well. When I became a teacher many moons ago, I was determined to make Social Studies interesting! In this post, you will find how I teach the beginning of a Colonial Unit. I like to mix it up with videos, projects, and food! Columbian Exchange: 1. Video: A great 10 minute explanation that keeps your students focused! 1492 Columbian Exchange Part 5 2. Informational Text: I wrote my own informational text, but to keep this post without expense, I found some great websites for text information! This site has information with a map, along with effects and impacts of the Columbian Exchange. Columbian Exchange Website 3. Group Research: Assign each group one of the following: Plants, Animals, Diseases. Have them research where they originated- Old World or New World. They can make a T-chart on with their findings to share with the whole group. Click Here for 3 Free T-Charts. 4. Favorite Food Writing Project: Think about your favorite food. Write down the ingredients of your favorite food and then determine whether or not it originated from the Old World or New World. More than likely some of the ingredients came from the Old World and some from the New World! If you lived in the Old World but one of the ingredients in your favorite food was from the New World, would it taste the same? Choose the Old World or the New World. Write about your findings and tell how it would taste without the ingredients from the other world! 5. Model the Columbian Exchange: Have each student create a picture of an item from the Columbian Exchange. To make sure they don't draw the same picture, I make a list of items and students pick them out of a cup. Then create spaces in the classroom for The Old World and The New World. Have students take their illustration to the the correct designated area. Then have students move from that area to the other area to model the exchange. European Settlements in North America 1. Spain in the New World: Informational Website: Spanish in America Spain was the first European country to use Native Americans as slaves. Some of the slaves were forced to work for long, strenuous days on the plantations where they tended to crops. Spain’s government traded the crops for economic growth. The main cash crops were sugarcane, tobacco, coffee, cocoa, and cotton. Native Americans were also sent to mine for gold where they often encountered harsh working conditions. Many natives died from these poor working conditions as well as hunger. ~section of text from Rockin Resources Writing Activity: Pretend you are a Native American. Write a letter to the Spanish viceroy persuading him to free you from the missionary, plantation, or gold mine. 2. France in the New World: Informational Website: French in America France was sending explorers over to the New World to claim land and establish fur trade. Robert LaSalle was a famous explorer who established fur trade routes up and down the Mississippi. At first, the King wasn’t pleased with LaSalle’s findings, but quickly changed his mind when he realized LaSalle had the only fur trading waters that weren’t freezing over! LaSalle paved the way for France to send other explorers and settlers to the area. They were settling in the middle of U.S. which became the Louisiana Territory. France attempted to develop plantations in these territories. Sadly, the land was not fertile enough to keep an abundance of crops growing. Fur trade continued to be their ticket to wealth in the New World! ~section of text from Rockin Resources Cause and Effect: Create cause and effect questions to go along with the text. Examples: 3. England in the New World: Informational Website: British in America England’s political and religious rights were different than the other countries settling in the Americas. They were allowed to set up their own governments and laws. They would hold meetings, elect representatives, and tax themselves. England allowed this self-government as long as they didn’t take up arms against the Crown. They were also permitted to practice their own religion. They did not have to abide by the Church of England. ~section of text from Rockin Resources Foldable: Divide paper into 4 sections. Write the following in each square: Resources, Religion, Government, Native Americans. Have students take notes in each square. Draw an illustration in each. Cookies: Students will never complain having food with their study! Ingredients: 1 cup brown sugar 1/2 cup shortening (margarine) 1 egg 1 1/2 cups flour 1/2 tsp. baking soda 1/2 tsp. salt 1/2 tsp. cinnamon 1/2 tsp. nutmeg For HOBNOB COOKIES, add 1 tsp. vanilla and 1/2 tsp cup raisins. For APPLEJACKS, add 1 cup chopped unpeeled apples. Cream together sugar and shortening. Add egg (and vanilla if you are making Hobnobs). Beat well. Mix dry ingredients together in another bowl. Add slowly to sugar mixture, beating well after each addition. Stir in raisins or apples. Grease cookie sheet. Form into small balls, or drop in the shape of balls on the greased sheet, 3 inches apart. Bake at 375 degrees for 12-15 minutes. Taken from www.kidactivities.net 4. Map Activity: Get a map of North America. Have students color in the 3 territories (Spain, France, England) and provide a map key. 5. Triple Venn Diagram: Have students create a Venn Diagram like the one below! Then have students answer the following question: If you had a choice, which country's settlement would you prefer to live in? 6. Timeline Project: Choose three dates from each of the European Settlements (9 total) and write a description for each one. I require my students to include a picture for each date. They do this by saving a picture for each date onto their computers. I like them to create a timeline using TIMETOAST. It is an awesome site where they can put their timeline information together! You can find these activities and more in the product below. It also includes 13 Colonies and Triangular Trade Routes. Colonial crafts, games and other activities are included. If interested, click here! Thank you for visiting our blog!!! Do you have a favorite activity for Columbian Exchange or European Settlements? I would love for you to share below! Connect With Me! TPT Store Facebook Pinterest My Blog

When I’m teaching the American Revolution, I jump out of bed everyday, and (after coffee), I can’t wait to get into my classroom. Teaching this pivotal time right at the dawn of the United States

It's storytelling time! Bring the magic of tall tales closer to home by creating a tall tale based on someone your child knows and admires.

When I began homeschooling, I was starstruck by all the classic children's books. I grew up in the public school system with parents who weren't readers themselves. I continued on to college to get a degree in English, mostly because I loved grammar... but of course, soon I found myself reading many classics. So I learned the classic adult books. But I had never been welcomed into the world of classic children's literature. Until I started homeschooling. I hopped full on the train. Found all the best book lists. Borrowed them all from the library. Bought even more of them. And I started Sophie's first year of homeschool, checking off every single book on the list of classics for kindergarteners. But I never really stop researching. And as I continued to research, I would see snippets here and there of people pointing out issues with classics. "This book is so good, but you have to edit while you read because it calls Native Americans 'savages.'" Or, "This book talks about Christopher Columbus like he's a hero and doesn't give an accurate portrayal of the way he treated Natives." I was not educated enough. So I had to read all the comments, click on the links, read the articles. I followed every rabbit trail laid out before me, and soon I found myself in a heap of wreckage. I wouldn't say my history education was very strong, but I certainly thought I knew my stuff. But enough rabbit trails, enough listening, enough reading made me realize that I was given a biased history education. My history was from a white westerner's point of view, and it left out the side of the Native American and people of color. So I left the classics' train. And I jumped on the enlightenment train. Sometimes it still includes classics. But it's a train that is inclusive and seeks to give a full picture of history. Sometimes the train charges full force ahead, and sometimes it has to stop, refuel, backtrack, and correct its path. But I am fully on this train, committed to giving my children an education that is not white-washed or westernized but rather inclusive, diverse, and honest. I am constantly learning and constantly updating my shelves, but I wanted to share my favorite books. At the end of this post, I will share my favorite sources. Don't miss that part! I am only relaying information to you that I got from others, whom I'm so thankful for. If we want to include indigenous people and black people in our history curriculum, we must listen to them. Most of my book ideas were a direct result of listening to them and their recommendations. These are three incredible spines. They are so important. Each book comes in an adult format if you'd like to read those for yourself, but honestly, you could start with these young people versions and learn a shocking amount. All of these focus on different matters and are all important in their own way. If I had to recommend one to start with, though, I'd go with Zinn's. Howard Zinn - A Young People's History of the United States Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz - An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States for Young People Ronald Takaki - A Different Mirror for Young People I'm really big on having a spine for history, and then supplementing with biographies and historical fiction. It's hard to find a history spine for young children that isn't white-washed. Betsy Maestro's books are my favorite I have found, though. The spines mentioned above (Zinn, Dunbar-Ortiz, and Takaki) are better to start around 4th grade, I think, so Maestro's books would be good for before that. These books are all just so excellent for learning about the Native Americans before contact. For most of us, and for many curriculums today, America starts when the white settlers came. But that's a false narrative. This land has been here for an incredibly long time with people walking it. And those people (Native Americans) are still amongst us today! The top two books are good for a parent/teacher's own education, and the bottom three books are good to use for a curriculum with children. Catherine O'Neill Grace - 1621: A New Look at Thanksgiving Bill Bigelow - Rethinking Columbus Helen Roney Sattler - The Earliest Americans Charles Mann - Before Columbus Yellowhorn and Lowinger - Turtle Island Picture books are a lovely way to learn about Native Americans - both historical figures as well as legends. Below are some of our favorites. These are a great supplement to a curriculum. Biographies and legends make a curriculum come to life! Robbie Robertson - Hiawatha and the Peacemaker Liselotte Erdrich - Sacagawea S. D. Nelson - Buffalo Bird Girl Joseph Bruchac - Squanto's Journey Tomie dePaolo - The Legend of the Indian Paintbrush Tomie dePaola - The Legend of the Bluebonnet It's fun and important to know how people live. We not only are better able to understand the people but also the land we live on, if we live in the Americas. These are some of my favorite books for learning about the types of homes Native Americans lived in. We personally don't live far from mounds, and it's a really neat place to visit. Bonnie Shemie - Houses of Snow, Skin, and Bone Bonnie Shemie - Houses of Bark Bonnie Shemie - Mounds of Earth and Shell Bobbie Kalman - Native Homes Bobbie Kalman - Life in a Longhouse Village Bobbie Kalman - Native Nations of the Western Great Lakes A few more books about Native American historical figures and legends that we love, and a book to understand that Native people still live amongst us today! Simon J Ortiz - The People Shall Continue Tehanetorens - Legends of the Iroquois (this is a really fun one!) Charles A. Eastman - Indian Heroes and Great Chieftains Joseph Bruchac - Between Earth & Sky Basically anything by Joseph Bruchac is wonderful. He's a good name to know. Both of these books are good ones. Once your children are older, continuing to read biographies and historical fiction is important, but the books will get longer. Joseph Bruchac - Sacajawea Cornelia Cornellisen - Soft Rain Historical fiction is one of our very favorites in our house. Louise Erdrich and Joseph Bruchac are simply the best when it comes to historical fiction about Native Americans. The Birchbark House series is a great series if you're looking for one with a Little House on the Prairie feel but that covers the Native's perspective. Louise Erdrich - Birchbark House series Joseph Bruchac - Children of the Longhouse Joseph Bruchac - The Arrow over the Door I consider all of these good spines to cover black history. James Haskins is an author I like, and his books are the top four, but he has many more as well. These books all cover a time period or different slave accounts rather than one person. James Haskins - Bound for America James Haskins - Building a New Land James Haskins - Following Freedom's Star James Haskins - Out of the Darkness Virginia Hamilton - Many Thousand Gone Kadir Nelson - Heart and Soul Doreen Rappaport is an author I really love, and she has some books not pictured that I would also recommend: No More!: Stories and Songs of Slave Resistance Free at Last! Stories and Songs of Emancipation Nobody Gonna Turn Me 'Round There are a lot of great picture books about different movements of black history, from slavery to emancipation to the civil rights movement. Here are some we love. Andrea Davis Pinkney - Boycott Blues Andrea Davis Pinkney - Sit-In Jacqueline Woodson - Show Way Gretchen Woelfle - Mumbet's Declaration of Independence Scott Russell Sanders - A Place Called Freedom Picture book biographies are simply one of our favorite! Gary Schmidt - So Tall Within Nikki Giovanni - Rosa Doreen Rappaport - Frederick's Journey Doreen Rappaport - Martin's Big Words I truly find that there's nothing like historical fiction to make history come to life! (Thank you Amber from Heritage Mom for so many of these recommendations!) Sharon Draper - Stella by Starlight Patricia McKissack - A Picture of Freedom Brenda Woods - My Name is Sally Little Song Mildred Taylor - Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry Harriette Gillem Robinet - Forty Acres and Maybe a Mule William Armstrong - Sounder Don't forget to introduce your children to other voices in other subject areas as well! Poetry - Consider Phyllis Wheatley, Langston Hughes, Joseph Bruchac, Louise Erdrich, and Effie Lee Newsome Artists - Consider Jacob Lawrence, Horace Pippin, Henry Ossawa Tanner, Helen Hardin, and Pablita Velarde Music - Consider Scott Joplin, Elizabeth Cotten, Chevalier de Saint-Georges, Duke Ellington, and Robbie Robertson Some of my favorite sources: * Heritage Mom - Amber is simply amazing. As a black mama raising black children, she provides a world of wisdom on giving children a black perspective in history as well as other subjects (composers, artists, fiction, field trips). * The Parallel Narrative - I've gotten a lot of book ideas from this site. She breaks it down by time period and subject area. * Living Books of all People Facebook group - If you're on Facebook, be sure to join this group. People are continually posting new books and resources, and the search bar is great when you need to find information on a specific area. * Oyate - This site has been really informative about Native Americans. They review books and also have a shop with books they recommend broken into different categories. * American Indians in Children's Literature - So many great reviews on this site! * Woke Homeschooling - This is a curriculum thoughtfully put together by homeschooling mama Delina Prcye McPhaull. * A Broken Flute- This is a pricey book. I borrowed a copy from the library, but I will say it's worth every penny should you choose to buy. Doris Seale and her companions go through hundreds of books on Native Americans, reviewing them thoroughly. It gave me a lot of ideas for books to buy but also after reading through it, I began to have a clearer idea of what to look for and what to avoid when looking for books on indigenous people.

In A Cheyenne Odyssey, players become Little Fox, a Northern Cheyenne boy whose life is changed by the encroachment of white settlers, railroads, and U.S. military expeditions. As buffalo diminish and the U.S. expands westward, players experience the Cheyenne's persistence through conflict and national transformation. Mission US engages young people in the study of transformational moments in American history. Each mission consists of an interactive narrative game and curriculum materials aligned to national standards. The games immerse players in rich, historical settings and empower them to make choices that illuminate how ordinary people experienced the past.

Wow! Is tomorrow already August? Time has flown by this summer! I have been gone the majority of the summer, hence the lack in posts... but I am back now! I have a lengthy list of things to blog about from my summer adventures! To begin with, here is one of my crafty Pinterest projects that I have completed (here is the link to the original idea): Colonial America/Revolutionary War Guess Who! I have been wanting to do this project for a while now and finally made the time this last month. It took me some time to put it all together! The old-fashioned Guess Who game is hard to come by! They have made it all fancy now, which is not what I wanted! I scoured garage sales and thrift stores until I found one! Here are my directions: 1. Find an old Guess Who game and take out the cards (you might already have one in your game cabinet.) 2. Select people from history, family, students, etc. to turn into a game. 3. Measure the game cards in your Guess Who game. (Mine were 1.75" x 1.12") 4. Using your favorite document maker, (I used Power Point) create boxes that are the measurements of your cards. 5. Find pictures of your people you want to use either on the Internet or photos you have taken. 6. Insert the photos into your document, sizing them to fit inside the boxes. 7. Insert a text box at the bottom of your boxes and type the person's name. 8. Print, laminate, cut, insert, and play! (Make sure you print an extra set to draw from.) Rules of play: 1. Open the trays by turning them upside down. 2. Each player draws a card that their opponent will be trying to guess. 3. Ask "yes" or "no" questions to narrow down the suspects. (You can ask if they are bald, wearing a hat, male, or even about something they did in history like did this person fight in a war?) 4. Narrow down the selection until you think you know who your opponent has for you. Make your guess on your next turn to see if you are correct! Bonus: If you want it to be more of a challenge, pull 2 cards to guess. Then, you can ask questions like: Is either person involved in the Revolutionary War? or Are both people female? I hope you will create your own Guess Who game now! I would love to sell my cards that I have made, but I just got the images from Google, so that wouldn't be legal. However, it really didn't take long to make. Make sure you link up pictures of yours if you make one!

How to Write Tall Tales: Five traits of tall tales like Davy Crockett, Paul Bunyan & John Henry that set them apart in the folktale genre.

Here are five benefits for reading tall tales in elementary classrooms and libraries and some ideas for sharing tall tale stories with students.

Our oldest son loves all things history-related. I wanted to teach him about the Lewis & Clark expedition and the group of adventurers (the Corps of Discovery) that explored the lands acquired in the Louisiana Purchase and the Oregon Territory. It took a little more work and research than I'd planned, but at long last, the board game I made to retrace their steps and learn expedition facts was complete. It was time to play! What you need is a die and small game pieces. We used two different colored glass babbles. Small buttons would work great as well. I'll supply the rest. Well, except for the paper. You'll need paper. Eleven pieces to be exact. With your printer fired up, download and print this free PDF. The first five pages are the game board. If you anticipate giving this lots of play, print on heavyweight cardstock for added durability. The last six pages are the game cards. I printed mine on colored office paper, punched a hole in one corner, and threaded them through a metal ring. This kept them in order, but isn't a necessity. Before my son and I played Westward Bound!, we read a phenomenal book by David A. Adler. This provided precisely the background my son needed to understand how truly phenomenal exploration of the western United States was in the early 1800s. To play the game, we put both game pieces on the black circle near St. Louis, Missouri. We took turns rolling the die and moving our game pieces forward (westward) the number of spaces rolled. The number we landed on, determined the card we read (for example, if we rolled a six, we moved six spaces, landed on 33, and read the 33 card). Encourage players to read the cards aloud so that all players learn more facts and milestones. At the bottom of each card are instructions to either stay put or move forward or backwards. The player must move their game pieces if the card dictates. The player will not read the card for whatever number they eventually land on during their turn, though. Play alternates between players until one player reaches Fort Clatsop in Oregon first. This player is the winner (which unfortunately, was not me). The good news, though, is that my son has already asked to play again! DISCLAIMER: Is this board game perfect? No. Some of the dates and events don't match with the geographic location noted on the board. I did my best to match them up when possible, but in order to pace a child's progress along the westward route, and not have all the stops grouped together, sometimes it just wasn't possible. So while the events are historically accurate, the geography isn't always.

This is part 2 of a 6 part hands-on unit study on the American War for Independence. Hold a tea party, act out the Boston Massacre and Boston Tea Party, bake a pound cake, examine the work of silversmiths, and more! My lessons are geared toward 2nd-3rd grade level children and their siblings. These are lessons I created to do with a weekly homeschool co-op. We meet each week for 2 1/2 hours and have 14 children between the ages of 0-12. Use these fun lessons with your class, family, after school

This free Amelia Earhart lapbook contains booklets about her birth and early life as well as her writing career and time spent in flight.

As an alternative to curriculum, you can also teach history just using literature! Here are some of the best books to teach American history.

Give your beginning geography student some practice finding north, south, east and west on a map of the U.S.!

Since I teach American Literature, every day in my classroom provides instruction for the founding ideals of our country and reflects th...

These books and activities make planning a Native American unit study about a specific tribe easy and fun. Grab the FREE Notebooking Pages to complete your study.

Hands on learning US Geography with Little Passports, Activities, Free Printables, State Geography lessons, Lessons, activities, & more Natural Beach Living

I like to have the kids write historically from the perspective of someone who was at that event. Meaning, when I want them to write about, say a battle of the American Revolution, I don't just have them list off facts, I like them to take on the persona of a person who witnessed the battle and is telling the story. Such was the case when I had my students learn about the battles this year. I had them research the battle using this form here. It was basic, just asking them to fill in the blanks on basic information about the battle itself. Then I had them create a postcard (I used this template in google slides...though if you have no access to tech you can print it off and have them handwrite it.) They wrote a first person narrative in letter form to a relative explaining the details of the battle they researched. I asked them to make up an address and create a stamp. This could be any sort of picture they thought would make a good stamp during that time period. Some kids drew one and took a pic to insert. Others found pictures online that fit with what they were going for. Next came the fun part. The students created the picture portion of the postcard. Some of them created a picture using clipart and the shapes tool on Google Slides. Others found several pictures online that would match what they described in the battle and used that. Then we cut the pieces out, glued them together, laminated them, and viola....a postcard was made! And that is it. It was a quick and easy way to have the kids research and write about the battles. This could work for any historical event really, though since we were researching the battles, we went with that in my room :)

Free parts of the US Constitution lesson with graphic organizer that teaches how the US Constitution is organized. Perfect for 5th grade and middle school.

In this interactive lesson supporting literacy skills in U.S. history, students watch video dramatizations that tell the story of the Spanish explorers who arrived in the Americas with Columbus and introduced European, African, and Asian plants and animals to the Western Hemisphere. Students explore how the Columbian Exchange impacted life on both sides of the Atlantic. During this process, they read informational text, learn and practice vocabulary words, and explore content through videos and engagement activities.

What is a role-play, simulation, or re-enactment? I’ve learned that within the realm of Social Studies instruction, teachers use these different names and varying twists on methods to help s…

Oh my word I love this time of year. It has actually been chilly here in Southern California. This, of course, means that all the children will be sick soon because our bodies can’t handle the shock!!! {Sadly this includes my sick little guy, wrapped up in a blanket next to me. Every October I miss at least 4 days of work due to Jackson getting the stomach flu.} But fall has arrived and we are ready to go with it! Last week we were in full on pumpkin mode on our hallway! Are you dying? How cute right? An entire hallway of pumpkins!!!! Every single pumpkin was different! But they were all adorable! Not one “Funky” pumpkin in the patch. My grade level knows how to make learning fun, and our hallway was filled with amazing student writing! In preparation for our walking field trip to the pumpkin patch, I wrote a pumpkin life cycle book. It is just like “My Apple Tree Grows”, and my students are enjoying the quick interactive activity on each page! Plus, we are having a whole bunch of fun graphing, rhyming, and doing addition to 10! They even love the tests! But I have to tell you, first grade readers need support. They need vocabulary cards, real photographs, and most importantly they need it to be fun! The art in this unit delighted them and got them writing great descriptive sentences! The book for the class library is so cute. The kids are so excited to get their hands on it! Don’t miss out on these amazing freebies!!! Click the pictures to get to the blog posts and download the fun! The little baby above is from me and works with any behavior system you already have going in your classroom! Lisa from Growing Firsties is my just the best. I “lub” her. We are planning to get together soon, and I am a little worried that the “Fun Police” will throw us in the slammer. We are going to have all kinds of fun. She created a great Columbus day freebie! I love it and I know you will too! This page is my favorite. It gets my students writing complex sentences and they love sharing their opinions!Who am I kidding? I love sharing opinions too! So what’s your opinion on Halloween? Is Halloween a dirty word? { } yes! { } no! Sorry you can’t actually click your answer, but I am dying to know what you think! Should we be allowed to say the “H” word at school. I have worked in two schools with two extreme views… One school had an annual “H” parade, and my current school is a no “H” zone! What are your thoughts? Leave your email with your opinion and Random Sampler will pick a winner to win my new unit! Roxanne Comment #15 is the winner!

This American Literature text from Apologia combines well with a study of United States History. Learn about American authors and their place in history along with primary documents and how culture influenced literature.