The American Colonies

Last week, students finished their Enlightenment unit by taking a quiz.  Now, we are shifting our focus from European history to American history with a unit on the American colonies.  This will help prepare students for the curriculum in 7th grade, which will cover early United States history. Students will be using a lot of primary sources for this unit to look at the formation of the colonies from multiple perspective including the colonists, Native Americans, and slaves.  For example, today, they looked at primary sources from the perspective of John Smith, the leader of the Jamestown colony.  They used primary and secondary sources to defend their opinion about whether or not the story of Pocahontas saving John Smith's life was really true.  Later in the week, they will learn about the Plymouth colony.  Next week, they will finish the school year by completing a project about the different colonies and their last test will be on Friday, June 3.

Question for your 6th grader:

• Did Pocahontas save John Smith's life?