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For the term "american west".
Lewis and Clark Lapbook 0

American West Unit: Lewis and Clark, Fruit Leather and more

Lewis and Clark Lapbooks: I saw a wonderful set of lapbook materials on Lewis and Clark and on the American West over at Dynamic 2 Moms.  We used some of their materials to make notebook pages for the kids’ history notebooks. Also the US mint website had a number of really great printables about the journey of Lewis and Clark because of the series of nickles that were released in...

American West Unit: Geography and the Louisiana Purchase 0

American West Unit: Geography and the Louisiana Purchase

Our next topic was the Louisiana Purchase. Prior to 1803, the United States territory went only as far as the Mississippi River. Napoleon Bonaparte, the ruler of France, needed money for his wars in Europe and sold the Louisiana Territory to the U.S. for $15 million (3 cents an acre!).  This nearly doubled the size of the United States. We’ve been using a map that shows the Louisiana Purchase and...

American West Unit 0

American West Unit

As I mentioned last week, this semester we are studying the American West. We picked up where we left off last semester when we talked about Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett. (To the left is Davy Crockett’s birthplace cabin in Tennessee which we visited last Thanksgiving.) We talked about the Ohio Valley settlement and how as settlers made their way west they used the rivers for transportation.  We learned a...

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FREE Famous Americans Packet

Who are these Famous Americans? Do your kids know who Benjamin Banneker, Dred Scott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton; Clara Barton or Scott Joplin were? (Mine weren’t sure!) You might want to grab this FREE Famous Americans Packet to help your kids learn more! This packet provides several options for learning about these 20+ Americans.  They can research and write down what they learned, they can do some fill-in-the-blank worksheets or they...

American Revolution Unit - Worksheets and Activities 0

American Revolution Unit

Our American Revolution Unit is more than 60+ pages and includes worksheets and notebook pages, a booklet, review cards and new chronology cards. We started the school year with a unit on the Age of Exploration (see more about this unit here)  followed by a study of colonial America (see our 13 Colonies Packet here). Then we moved on the the American Revolution! We actually started with a discussion of...

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American History Resources

Today I wanted to highlight a number of American History Resources we have used in our homeschool. In the spring, we tend to do quite a bit of review. One really good overview of all of American History is a video called America, The Story of Us. The episodes are dramatized and really keep the attention of my kids. This is not an in-depth series, just a broad overview, but...

Free Native American Notebook Pages 0

Free Native American Resources and Printables

This time of year, many people study Native Americans and/or the history of the colonies.  We have a lot of  free resources on the blog that I thought I would highlight again. I also thought I would include some of the books and resources we used along the way.  We’ve covered the history and culture of different Native American tribes in different years, so you’ll find that the first resources...

History through Literature - Book Lists for Elementary 0

History through Literature – Book Lists for Units on China, Middle Ages, American Revolution and More!

When we are doing history units, I’ve always tried to bring in a rich selection of literature. Historical fiction is a powerful way to make readers feel more connected to that period. A book like Johnny Tremain (affiliate link) has a rich cast of memorable characters that helps the period, in this case the American Revolutionary period, come to life. We have brought in a wide selection of books for...

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Native American Unit

Columbus Day was set aside as the second Monday in October as a federal holiday in 1934. Slowly celebrations of Native American culture has been gaining recognition as well.  For example, South Dakota renamed Columbus Day to Native American Day in 1990. This Columbus Day,  more cities are recognizing Native Americans (see this CBS article). According to CBS News, nine cities will be celebrating Indigenous Peoples Day. Those cities include ...

American Revolution Unit - Worksheets and Activities 0

Causes of and Events Leading to the American Revolution (60-Page Packet)

American Revolution Unit: Worksheets, Review Cards, Lapbook Page, Books, Resources, and More! Our most recent history unit was on the causes and events leading up to the American Revolution. We went into quite a bit of depth on the French and Indian War and how the colonies then became the focus of England’s attention in the post-(French and Indian)-War period as Parliament struggled to cover their expenses and tackle their...

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American History Textbook/Curriculums We Use

Last week, I talked a lot about our civics and government unit.  Today, I thought I would briefly mention the American History books the kids have been reading this year. As many of you know, we started off the year with a unit on Native Americans (We shared a number of notebook pages that are free to download for that unit): Native Americans of the Northeast (Part I: Algonquins) Native...

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Native Americans of the Southeast: Cherokee, Seminole Indians, Trail of Tears

I got a little behind posting because it took so long to share our experiences visiting with Pocahontas’s Great-Great-Great (12th Great) Granddaughter.  In the meantime, we’ve done another entire portion of our Native American unit. We learned about the Seminole Indians, their culture and removal (for many of them) from Florida. And, we also learned about the culture and tragic history of the Cherokee people. We started the unit with a...

John Brown Harper's Ferry 1

Our Visit to West Virginia – Harpers Ferry, Adventure Ropes Course, Blackwater Falls

With all of my health problems last year, we weren’t able to get away much at all. At the last minute, we decided to throw our camping gear in the car and head out for some adventures! We had a wonderful mix of camping, nature, education and fun. We unplugged for the week… and headed off!! Our first destination was West Virginia.  You may have heard of John Brown, who...

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Learning About West Africa – Children’s Games and more

It has been quite a while since I talked about our African Unit. I think the last time I wrote, I shared the history pages I made about the Ghana and Mali Empires. We had also learned about some famous Africans such as Sundiata and Mansa Musa. The past couple of weeks, we’ve been learning more about contemporary Africa.  We’ve been doing a lot of reading from Journey into Africa:...