Possible Weekly Topics

And Proposed Activities

​

 

Opening Celebration: Explorers and Mayflower Crossing

​

Component I – Colonial America

​

Building a Colony

Log houses, 13 original colonies, Mayflower Compact, surviving, Roanoke​

Native Americans

Natural dyes, Colonial timeline, petroglyphs, Native American games, trading, Native American food

Colonial Villages

Colonial craft, smallpox inoculation, Colonial schools, Colonial games, Colonial food storage, hopscotch

Colonial Farms

Spin wool, Colonial chores, square foot gardening, Colonial poetry, wells, pumpkins, Farm Families game

Colonial Trades

Silversmithing, pieces of eight, shop signs, Colonial money, Poor Richard's Almanac, wheat grinding, supply and demand, wheelbarrow races

Colonial Inventors

Printmaking, armonica, simple machines, logic problems, patents, fire brigade game​

​

Component II – Revolutionary Era

​

Celebration: Revolutionary War Reenactment

​

Protests

Boston Tea Party, paying taxes, Sons of Liberty, Sugar Act, Colonial treats, tax game

Revolutionary War

Secret messages, Betsy Ross Flag, women in the Revolutionary War, Revolutionary music, Revolutionary War vocabulary, Revolutionary War food, Revolutionary games

Declaration of Independence

Fireworks craft, liberty, grievances, estimating, Preamble, pen and ink, Colonial bells, Duck, duck, goose

The Constitution

Gilded walnuts, kinds of government, presidential responsibilities, checks and balances, Preamble, ex post facto, debate, quoits game

The Bill of Rights

Star garland, amendments, freedom of religion, math game, right to petition, eminent domain, mock trial, search and seizure

America Today

Pommander craft, symbols of America, how a bill becomes a law, eagle populations, poetry, string popcorn and cranberries​

​

Holiday Celebration: Colonial Christmas

​​

Component III – US Timeline

​

Founding Fathers

Campaign buttons, architectural styles, coin flipping, Book of Etiquette, parliamentary procedure

​

Westward Expansion

Paint with soil, vote for sheriff, budgeting for trekking, Lewis and Clarke, Oregon Trail, Pony Express

Civil War

Checkerboards, soldiers' items, fourscore, Gettysburg Address, Capture the Flag

Industrial Revolution

Upcycling, industrialized food, recipes, 1000 words, assembly line, Model T Ford race

WWII

Trench art, WWII newspaper, Axis vs. Allies, wartime food, V-mail, moon phases, radio show, Civil War tag

Art and Science in America

Mount Rushmore, presidential timeline, Mars Rover, ages of presidents, art critic, art museum scavenger hunt, rockets, relay race​

​

Celebration: All President's Day

​​

Component IV - 50 States

​

Northeast

State trees, elements, liberty, apples, minerals, Northeast food, Little League

The South

Paddle boats, coal garden, crossing the Missippi, poetry, Music City, cake run

The Midwest

cork husk dolls, caves, 3D math, Windy City, rock types, corn products,

Plains States

buzzer craft, tornadoes, Mount Rushmore, body language, aquifers, homesteading, Keepers of the Fire game

Mountain States

Potato craft, rail workers, measuring horses, stories, genetics, rodeo, 

Pacific States

Totem poles, flower dissection, apple fractions, movies, temperate rainforests, tropical fruits​

​

Celebration: American Road Trip

​​

Component V - California Dreamin'

​

Natural California

Poppies, leaf transpiration, blue whale, superlatives, tree height, nature scavenger hunt

Native Californians

Pinch pots, hunter/gatherers, Native American games, legends, comparisons, rhythm game

Californios

Cowboys, ranching

California Missions

Adobe bricks, mission model, a day in the life of mission living

Gold Rush

Prospector craft, gold rush game, flow chart, pan for gold, gold rush race

Golden Age of California

photo props, DNA model, minorities in California, movie vocabulary, red carpet, spacesuit​

​

Closing Celebration: America the Beautiful

​

​