Social Studies

Welcome to the Social Studies Time Travel Machine

Location: North America

Time Coordinates: 40,000 BC to 1789

The Year in Social Studies
September-October: We are studying the theories about how the first peoples arrived on the North American continent.  We traveled back 40,000 years in time, to learn about how the early peoples developed complex cultures in response to the different environments they encountered. (Our main focus is the Pacific Northwest Coast, Southwest Desert, Great Plains, and Woodlands Peoples.)

November:  We are now only 500 years in the past and studying the Early European Explorers who laid claim to the Native American lands.

December-January:  It is 300 years ago. France, Spain, and England have laid claims to large tracts of land in the "New World".  We have become the first British colonists, travelling across the Atlantic to settle in New England, The Middle Colonies, and The Southern Colonies. 

February:  We are learning about the events leading up to the Revolutionary War: The Proclamation of 1763, The Stamp Act, The Quartering Act, The Sugar Act, The Townshend Act, The Boston Massacre, Committees of Correspondence, The Tea Act, The Boston Tea Party, and The Intolerable Acts.

March-April:  We are learning about the Revolutionary War and the Beginning of Our National Government.  The famous battles covered are:  Lexington and Concord, Bunker Hill, Saratoga, and Yorktown.  Students are very interested in Washington's Winter Headquarters at Valley Forge and the Prussian Baron von Steuben!  Also in this unit are the early steps in forming the government: The Second Continental Congress, The Declaration of Independence, The Articles of Confederation, and the Constitution.