Teaching the 13 Colonies to students is a social studies subject you can’t skip in 5th grade. Before jumping into the Causes of the American Revolution, it’s important your students understand how the colonies were established and how life differed in each region.
So how do you make this topic fun and engaging? Here are some lesson plan ideas and classroom activities to get you started.
Start with Regional Differences: Geography, Economy, and Culture in the 13 Colonies
Teach students that the 13 Colonies were divided into three distinct regions: New England, Middle, and Southern. Discuss how geography influenced the economy, industry, and daily life in each region. We given discuss how the weather affected the agriculture.
I also show students videos to provide a brief overview because nothing beats ” seeing” history. Also, videos provide great background knowledge before your students begin to do some reading about the 13 colonies.
Be sure to put on the Closed Captioning for your EL students. Here are some videos that I think are great:
Kids Academy provides a quick overview of the regions and is geared toward younger students.
Learn Bright goes into more detail about how the colonies were formed, the people who settled there, and the geography.
Flocabulary is a music rap video of the 13 Colonies
Help Students Memorize the 13 Colonies with Games and Printables
Knowing the names of the colonies will just make it that much easier when they are learning about the American Revolution and all the names of the 50 states. Try these engaging and low-prep activities that make repetition fun and memorable.
13 Colonies Acronym FREEBIE
My FREE 13 Colonies Acronym makes it super easy to memorize the names of the 13 Colonies. There are three acronyms that students need to memorize for each region: New England, Middle, and Southern colonies. The free download also comes with two sizes, 1 for a 3-ring binder and a smaller size to glue into a notebook. Read this blog post about how I get my students to memorize the names of the 13 Colonies.
Word Scramble With Map Clues
Word scrambles are fun for kids and this word scramble not only has them spell out the colonies correctly, but it has an image of the map outline of the colony.
Word Search
Word searches are great to have handy for your early finisher. This particular one is challenging and meant for upper-grade students because many of the words are spelled backward.
13 Colonies Memory Game
This is a simple game that gets your students practicing the names of the colonies. It only takes 15 minutes and it’s a fun and engaging game. Students can play in pairs or as early finisher work.
The rules are simple, students take turns turning over two cards. If the cards match, they keep them and go again. If they don’t match, they need to return them to the same position. Students who have the most cards at the end of the game, win.
My students sit on the floor with a partner to play this game, and then I keep it out on a table for them to do if they finish an assignment early throughout the week.
You can get all these 13 colonies lesson pack HERE.
Compare and Contrast the 13 Colonies Regions with Reading and Graphic Organizers
Once students have some background knowledge about the different regions, it’s time to do some reading and compare and contrast them. Have your students read a short article and complete a simple graphic organizer.
Many teachers try to make Social Studies completely hands-on but there is no way to get around doing some reading. Students must process what they are learning through reading and answering comprehension questions.
Group Project: Design a Billboard to Promote a Colony
One project idea that my students enjoy is creating a billboard to encourage people to move to your colony. In this project, divide your students up into a group of 4 and choose a colony for each group to research.
The assignment is to create a billboard on a large poster that says the name of the colony and has images and symbols to represent the geography and industries.
Students are to create a slogan and then think of a fun way to persuade people to move to their colony during their presentation. Here are some examples:
Read my Blog post: Unique 13 Colonies Project Ideas for Students for more 13 projects that students can choose from.
Use 13 Colonies Reader’s Theater to Boost Engagement and Fluency
Students enjoy acting out Reader’s Theater and this “13 Colonies Readers Theater Industries and Regions” skit is a fun way to incorporate history and language arts together.
This skit is interactive because students huddled up into a small group of 3 to read it, as opposed to whole class where there are too many students who forget their turn to read. It’s also a great way to practice fluency. Double whammy!
If you are looking for Reader’s Theater about other 13 Colonies subjects like the early English settlements and Colonial Government, check out my Readers Theater bundled skits. Get ready for some laughs because these dramatic plays are funny and light-hearted. Click HERE to learn more.
Review the 13 Colonies with Interactive Games Like Kahoot and Jeopardy
Kahoot
Kahoot is a game-based learning platform online. If you haven’t played, give it a try. It is free if you have a basic membership. Be sure to click Basic, when the pop-up for paid versions comes up. There are different games that you can play based on the 13 Colonies subject. What I love is that you can edit the games. So if there is a question you haven’t covered in your classroom, you can easily delete it.
Jeopardy
Jeopardylabs.com has some FREE and amazing games to review any topic. We play the 13 Colonies game once students have completed
So there you have it. You’ve got everything you need to make your 13 Colonies unit fun, memorable, and effective.
Make sure to save some of the image pins to your Pinterest board so you can return to them later when you’re teaching your 13 Colonies unit. You got this! Giselle