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America: The Story of Us ~ Episode 2: "Revolution" Lesson Plans

Geez .. It's only the second post in this series and I almost forgot about it! On Thursday night, as I was packing to go out of town for the weekend, I remembered that I would need to get it ready to auto post. So, I stayed up that night to get it done.

The second episode of America: The Story of Us is "Revolution". We spent three weeks on this unit.

We read The Winter of Red Snow by  Kristiana Gregory and Yankee Doodle Boy by Joseph Plumb Martin. We read an equal number of pages each day to cover the three-week unit (The Winter of Red Snow was good, I thought, although Dawson did not enjoy it as much. It was more of a story than Yankee Doodle Boy.)



We watched Episode 2, did the discussion questions/video quiz for the episode and the vocabulary words. These can be printed by going here. The Episode Guides are down the left hand column on the site.


All "notebooking pages" are printed from Advanced World History Vol. 2 from Hold that Thought!

All "America's Heritage" references are materials printed from America's Heritage: An Adventure in Liberty by The American Heritage Education Foundation, Inc.

Dawson also does Internet research to help him obtain information for his note booking pages. He is required to write 8-9 sentences since he is in the 9th grade.

We did the following activities:

* "Great Encouragement for Seamen" recruitment poster (from Episode 2 Guide)
* Declaration of Independence Signer's puzzle from America's Heritage
* Declaration of Independence Unscramble from America's Heritage
* Declaration of Independence worksheet from America's Heritage
* Memorized Preamble
* John Hancock notebooking page
* Declaration of Independence notebooking page
* George Washington notebooking page
* Valley Forge notebooking page
* Cornelius Surrender notebooking page


Books Read (maybe not the whole book, but reading through it for notebooking pages and general information):


A Revolutionary Field Trip: poems of Colonial America by Susan Katz
Valley Forge by Richard Ammon
George Washington: Our First President by Garnet Jackson
Young Patriots: Inspiring Stories of the American Revolution by Marcella Fisher
Yankee Doodle: A Song from the American Revolution by Ann Owen


Videos Watched:

"School House Rock, American Rock"


** These lesson plans were based on planning for an American History course for a 9th grade boy. I allow some activities to be under his grade level and some to be above in order to give him a fun, exciting, and well-rounded understanding of the materials.



Previous Lesson Plans Posted:
Lesson 1 ~ Rebels

Comments

  1. Did you know there's a boy version of Dear America? It's called "My America," and I know there's one for the American Revolution and a few other things.

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  2. I appreciate you remembering! Wonderful.

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  3. I pinned this post and your first one in this series...I am hoping to watch this DVD series with my girls sometime in the future. Thanks for taking the time to put this together, and share it!

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  4. I'm with Susan, I am pinning these too. Honestly, this makes me want to punt Middle Ages [which we love] and follow along with you. GREAT ideas Nicole.

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  5. I love that you are sharing this lesson plan(s)... it is similar to what we began last year, and are still plugging away at...at a much slower pace than you, lol. Get to about 1800, and we'll be around the same lessons, then I can follow your lead *hee*
    @ Ticia~ thanks for the heads up on 'my america' - who knew? love dear america, but I have 5 boys! =)
    ~Sheri

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  6. Wow! I am so to find your blog! This is our first year to homeschool, 6th grade, and we chose to do so for very similar reasons. My husband has handled history this year but will be in Afghanistan as we begin 7th grade. I have been very nervous about teaching something I know so little about. This resource has sparked my excitement and I can hardly wait to get started! I know how busy homeschooling keeps all of us and I truly appreciate you taking the time to share your plans.

    Codye

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  7. Do you know if the episode guides are available somewhere else? They are no longer available on the link you provided above. Thank you so much!! Planning to do this next school year!!

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    Replies
    1. Unfortunately it appears that the Episode Guides are no longer available. They weren't really extensive anyway, so you can certainly do without it. if you watch the videos with your kids you can come up with a few discussion questions and vocabulary words. Have fun!

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  8. You can still find them if you google them. I found them all just last night (July 4, 2013). It is true the links above don't work, but the episode guides *are* available online!

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