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: $10.19 (as of 11/10/2009)
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
American Revolution (DK Eyewitness Books)
Amazon Price: $11.55 (as of 11/09/2009)
Used Price: $5.45
If You Lived At The Time Of The American Revolution (If You.)
Amazon Price: $6.99 (as of 11/09/2009)
Used Price: $0.01
The American Revolution for Kids: A History with 21 Activities (For Kids series)
Amazon Price: $11.53 (as of 11/09/2009)
Used Price: $8.12
The American Revolution (Landmark Books)
Amazon Price: $5.99 (as of 11/09/2009)
Used Price: $0.01
A Making Thirteen Colonies: 1600-1740 A History of US Book 2
Amazon Price: $10.85 (as of 11/09/2009)
Used Price: $6.40
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:
Felicity: An American Girl (The American Girls Collection)
Amazon Price: $26.37 (as of 11/09/2009)
Johnny Tremain
Amazon Price: $11.49 (as of 11/09/2009)
Plymouth Pioneers (The American Adventure Series #2)
Amazon Price: (as of 11/09/2009)
Great Colonial America Projects You Can Build Yourself! (Build It Yourself series)
Amazon Price: $10.17 (as of 11/09/2009)
Colonial Kids: An Activity Guide to Life in the New World (A Kid's Guide series)
Amazon Price: $10.17 (as of 11/09/2009)
Other Books That You Can Read or Use
The following books would also be good to use for a study of Early American History:
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: $12.95 (as of 11/10/2009)
Used Price: $4.74
New Guestbook
Jimmie wrote...
I've lensrolled this to my Winter Promise American Story 1 Extras lens.
Posted June 26, 2008
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by Hip2Homeschool
Hello world. This is my bio. My name is Heather Langston and I am a homeschool mom of 6 children using unit studies. I have my own unit study business... (more)
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