This document outlines a unit plan for teaching 5th grade students about the 13 colonies. It includes details about the students, the unit objective to describe colonial life and how the US gained independence, a four week schedule covering the New England colonies, southern colonies, events leading to the Revolutionary War, and independence. Technology integration is described using YouTube videos, documents, illustrations, hands-on activities like writing with quills and making butter, and having students dress up and conduct a colonial classroom.

1. The 13 Colonies Unit Plan
By: Heather Phillips

2. Learners
• My 5th grade class is composed of 20 students,
11 girls and 9 boys, of those 20 students 3 are
African American and 2 are Jewish. They are
all around the age of 11 and all come from the
same small town in Virginia.

3. Objective
• My students will be able to describe life in the
colonial period as well as describe how the
United States gained its Independence. To obtain
success I will use videos, pictures, books and
hands on activities to teach my students about
Colonial America. By the end of a month my
students will have an 90% accuracy when
describing life in the colonies. I will evaluate my
students using in class discussions, I will also have
my students write about what they learned.

4. • Week 1: Introduction to Colonial America. I will
have a discussion with my students to see what
they already know, and what they want to know. I
will then start to teach my students about the
New England colonies.
• Week 2: I will talk about the southern colonies.
What people do for a living and how life in the
southern colonies is different than life in the
northern colonies.
• Week 3: I will start to describe what problems the
colonies faced and the events that led up to the
Revolutionary war
• Week 4: Revolutionary war and Colonies gain
Independence

5. Technology
I will use YouTube videos to help illustrate life in
the 1700’s. I will also use documents and
illustrations of the time to show my students
about the Colonies. I will also have my students
do activities that would show them how life
was. At the end of the unit I will have my
students dress up as if they were in the 1700’s
and conduct a class like it would have been back
then.

6. • I will also have my students do activities like
writing with a quill pin and making butter in a
jar.
• My students will also have to make a postcard
and write about life as if they were living in
the Colonies.

7. Works Cited
• YouTube videos: “No More King”, “Shot Heard
Round the World”