Early American History Unit

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Early American History Unit Study

This is a lens to record our unit study on Early American History using the book, The Light and the Glory For Children, as well as other books on this topic. Feel free to use this for your own family. I will be writing units on the other books in the series in the future. These will be for sale on my website, Hip2Homeschool Unit Studies. So come along as we explore the beginnings of this country of ours.

Our Unit Spine

This unit uses the following book as a spine:

The Light and the Glory for Children : Discovering God's Plan for America from Christopher Columbus to George Washington

Amazon Price: $4.50 (as of 02/17/2012)Buy Now

Unit Study Activities

The following are activities that we will be doing during our study of Early American History.

- We will make a cover for our Early America Notebook, using card stock, decorated with stickers, clip art, or original drawings.

- We will be doing notebooking pages on topics that are mentioned in each of the chapters after reading them. For example, in Chapter 1, we will be doing a notebooking page on the Age of Exploration, focusing on navigation and maps, caravels, or the Atlantic Ocean. In Chapter 2, we will be doing a biography notebooking page on Christopher Columbus and/or a country report on Spain.

- On Days 3 through 7, we will be reading additional books on Indians, doing Indian crafts such as making an Indian headdress, and doing notebooking pages on the Indian tribes mentioned in Chapter 3.

- We will be labeling maps of North America and the United States with places, rivers, etc. mentioned in the chapters read throughout the book.

- We will be reading additional books about the colonies that were settled such as Jamestown and Plymouth. We will also read about famous people mentioned throughout the book, The Light and The Glory For Children, as well as documents written such as the Mayflower Compact and The Declaration of Independence. All the while we will be notebooking all of these topics and adding them to our Early America Notebook.

- We will also be reading additional books on events such as the American Revolution (see recommended books below in the Amazon books section) and notebooking the events and people of that war that won us the freedoms that we have today. We will also make Early American crafts, color American flags from that time period (the first American flag made by Betsy Ross), and make recipes of foods that were popular in that period of time.

Early American History on Amazon

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More Unit Study Activities

Here are a few more activities that we will be doing with our unit study on Early America:

- We will study the American Indian Tribes that are mentioned in our reading of The Light and the Glory and do notebooking pages on them. We will also do Indian crafts that represent each tribe.

- We will make a time line of American History that we will put on our wall in the hallway. We will add to it as we learn about each event or person that we read about in The Light and The Glory.

- We will also make individual time lines and add them to our unit study notebook.

- Watch episodes of Liberty's Kids and other DVDs on topics read about.

- We will also do a daily Bible study on the Scriptures mentioned for each chapter of The Light and The Glory. We will make a Bible verse notebook using a composition book and write in each verse as copywork after we read it.

- Read biographies of famous people during this time period, such as Christopher Columbus and George Washington, found at my local library.

- Do an artist/picture study, Charlotte Mason style, of artists from the Colonial Time period, such as Benjamin West, John Singleton Copley, and Gilbert Stuart. Study one artist and his works for 6 weeks, reading a biography of his life and studying his artwork. After they study a piece for 10-15 minutes, have them write a narration of what they remember from the work of art or orally narrate. They will also do artwork of their own in the style of the artist.

- Read American Girl books on Felicity. These books correspond with the Revolutionary time period that we will study. Boys can read the American Adventure series of books that correspond with the time periods that we study in this unit, if the American Girl books do not catch their interest.

Additional Books To Read Or Use

Here are a few more books or resources we plan to use with this study of Early American History:
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Other Books That You Can Read or Use

The following books would also be good to use for a study of Early American History:
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Websites For You To Visit and For Notebooking Pages To Compliment The Unit

Places To Explore and Get Notebooking Pages For the Unit

Here are some websites for you to explore what it was like in Early American.I have also added a couple of sites to get notebooking pages for the unit.
The Lost Colony
Website about the Lost Colony from Roanoke Island, North Carolina
History Of Jamestown
This site is all about the history of the planting of the Jamestown Colony.
Jamestown Replica
This is a free download from Homeschooling in the Woods of a replica of Jamestown that you can put together.
The Plymouth Colony
Website for kids about the Plymouth Colony
The Mayflower Compact
The Mayflower Compact and what it said
Mayflower History
Another site to explore to learn about the Pilgrims.
Pilgrim Clothing
This site talks about the clothing that the Pilgrims wore and has illustrations to show the clothing as well.
The Thirteen Colonies
This website tells about the Thirteen Colonies
Notebooking Pages.Com
Thirteen Colonies Themed Notebooking Pages by Debra F.
America's Library: Colonial Times
America's Library page about Colonial Times
Colonial America Kids
What life was like for children in Colonial America
Amusements in Colonial America
What children did for fun in Colonial Times
Colonial American Maps
This website contains old maps of Colonial America
America's Library: The American Revolution
America's Library page about the American Revolution
Liberty's Kids
This is the website for the animated television series about the American Revolution originally seen on PBS
The History Place
This page is on the American Revolution
Proud To Be An American Notebooking Pages
These are notebooking pages by Betsy S. over at Notebooking Nook, sold through CurrClick.You can also buy them at Betsy's site, The Notebooking Nook.
Colonial Williamsburg Official Site
This is the site to Colonial Williamsburg's official site where you can learn more about Colonial Times and the American Revolution
A Chronology of US Historical Documents
This has links to US historical documents from 1775 to 1800 but also has them from other time periods as well. This site is from the University of Oklahoma College of Law

 

American History Notebooking Pages & Printables To Use

Here are a few websites that I found with printables and notebooking pages, mostly free. These would be great to use for this unit.
Activity Village
Free homeschool printable pages for American History. Great resource!
Homeschool Helper
This is one of my favorite resources for notebooking pages. All of them are free.
Notebook Learning
Patriotic themed notebooking pages.
Homeschool Help Web
This is their page with free notebooking pages. There is one on George Washington and a few other topics that we will be studying.

Great Notebooking Resource

Student History Notebook Of America

Amazon Price: $5.95 (as of 02/17/2012)Buy Now
Used Price: $2.99

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Hip2Homeschool

Hello world. I am a Barefoot Books Ambassador! My name is Heather Langston and I am a former homeschool mom of 6 children. I have my own unit study bu... more »

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