Part of learning about the 13 colonies is memorizing the names of the colonies by their region. The hard part is that my students have always had a difficult time remembering the names.
So I came up with a mnemonic or acronym to help them memorize the names in order of how the coloines are actually situated on a map.
Why Memorize the 13 Colonies?
Memorizing the names of the 13 colonies is important because later in the year, my students will memorize the names of the 15 states and capitals. So having 13 under the belt helps. Also, you’ll want your students to be familiar with the names when you start teaching your American Revolution Unit.
Acronym to Remember the 13 Colonies
Northern Colonies
Nerds- New Hampshire
Mostly- Massachusetts
Read- Rhode Island
Carefully- Connecticut
Middle Colonies
New Yorkers- New York
Prefer- Pennsylvania
New Jokes- New Jersey
Daily- Delaware
Southern Colonies
Most- Maryland
Vampires- Virginia
Never- North Carolina
Sleep- South Carolina
Got it?- Georgia
I think acronyms and mnemonics are the way to go to teach students anything difficult to memorize. I wrote another blog post about Mnemonics in Math that I think would be helpful for your students.
This acronym is part of my 13 Colonies resource, that you can grab HERE.
If you need a fun 13 Colonies project, read my 13 Colonies Project blog post about how my students choose a project to complete.
You got this! Giselle