American Colonies
A fifth grade history lesson
By: Sue Rossen
Standards
• This lesson is based on the following California
history standards:
• 5.4.1 Understand the influence of location and physical setting on the
founding of the original colonies.
• 5.4.2 Identify the major individuals and groups responsible for the founding
of the various colonies and the reasons for their founding.
• 5.4.3 Describe the religious aspects of the earliest colonies.
Lesson Plan







Students will view the PowerPoint Presentation and take notes on the teacher’s
analysis.
Students will read the history unit on the early American colonies.
Students will complete a chart that will organize each group of colonies according
to their geography and resources, leaders, religious groups, and economic activities.
The students will use this chart to write a five paragraph summary for each group of
colonies. These summaries will include information about geography and
resources, leaders, religious groups, and economic activities.
Students will then draw pictures illustrating life in the colonies in the seventeenth
and eighteenth centuries.
Students will also draw maps of each set of colonies showing which current states
were part of the colonies.
These summaries, pictures, and maps will be bound to form a book for each
student.
The English Colonies
In America
PowerPoint Presentation
Southern Colonies
Current States
Maryland
 Virginia
 Georgia
 North Carolina
 South Carolina

The Southern Colonies
Resources:
The land was beautiful with fertile soil
and navigable rivers.
Fish and timber were some of the
available resources.
Cash crops included tobacco, rice,
and indigo.
HARDSHIPS
Jamestown was established in 1607, but
less than half the settlers survived the
first year.


Mosquitoes in the swampland carried germs
that spread malaria, yellow fever, and other
deadly diseases.
It was difficult to farm in swampland.
NEW LEADERSHIP
• John Smith became the new leader.
• He stated that only people who worked
would get food.
• Settlers began working together and using
the area’s resources to build homes.
• In 1612, the colonists planted their first
successful tobacco crop.
NEW PLANS
Some colonists became rich through
tobacco rather than gold and silver.
The warm moist climate of the
Southern Colonies was excellent for
farming tobacco, which did not grow
well in the cool English climate.
Farmers could sell tobacco for six
times the price of wheat.
Tobacco Problems:
Growing tobacco was not easy.
 The work was difficult and strenuous.
 Southern farmers began buying African
slaves.
 Between 1570 and 1870, about 12 million
Africans were sold into slavery.

WHY THE COLONISTS
CAME:



Virginia and the Carolinas (later separated into
North and South Carolina) were founded as
corporate colonies. People hoped to get rich.
James Oglethorpe founded Georgia to give
English debtors a new start in life as farmers.
Lord Baltimore founded Maryland as a place
for Catholics who were persecuted in England.
MIDDLE COLONIES
Current States
•
•
•
•
New York
New Jersey
Delaware
Pennsylvania
The Middle Colonies
RESOURCES:
 Fertile soil
 Navigable rivers
 Timber, iron
 Animal furs
 Mild, rainy climate
WHY THE COLONISTS CAME
► New
York and New Jersey were first claimed by
Netherlands and Sweden in 1624 for the fur trade.
► In 1664, England captured the colonies to control
the resources.
► The king gave a large part to his brother, James,
the Duke of York.
► The king also gave a large area of what is now
Pennsylvania to William Penn because he owed
Penn money.
William Penn and the Quakers
• William Penn established Pennsylvania as a “Holy
Experiment” where people of all religions could live
together in freedom.
• He published the benefits of his colony.
• In addition to the Quakers, people came from all over
Europe for religious freedom and economic
opportunities.
• They also cooperated with the Native Americans.
ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES






Trapping
Fur Trading
Farming
Mining
Cattle Ranching
Shipping
NEW ENGLAND COLONIES
Current States




Connecticut
Rhode Island
Massachusetts (included Maine)
New Hampshire
NEW ENGLAND COLONIES
Resources:




Timber
Fish
Wildlife
Clean rivers and streams
WHY THE COLONISTS
CAME




John Winthrop, and the Puritans,
wanted to purify their religion.
They had been persecuted in England.
They came to the colonies to find
religious freedom.
Other groups that came included the
Separatists (Pilgrims)
EARLY LEADERS





William Bradford
John Winthrop
Thomas Hooker
Roger Williams
Anne Hutchinson
RELIGION



Religion was the center of life in the
New England Colonies.
Life was harsh, but the Puritans felt
blessed by God to be in the colonies.
The Puritans had come for religious
freedom, but they did not extend that
freedom to people of other religions.
 People who did not agree with the Puritan
leaders, left Massachusetts.
 Thomas Hooker founded the colony of
Connecticut.
 Roger Williams disagreed and founded
Rhode Island.
 Ann Hutchinson also moved to Rhode Island.
ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES




Farming
Trade
Forestry
Fishing