Amplify Grade 1 CKLA Knowledge Domain 10 American Independence: A New Nation and Domain 11 Frontier Explorers Activities

The last two units in the Amplify Knowledge series are American Independence: A New Nation and Frontier Explorers. Your students will love to hear how the American was founded, and all about westward expansion!

Since there is never enough time in the year, I teach these units back to back. They take us right up to the end of school, so I don't do a celebration in the same way I have for the other units.

Here are the activities I use to enhance their learning!

Ambience

For both units, I hang this USA map backdrop up.

USA Map backdrop for CKLA Knowledge units

This year I outlined the 13 colonies with yarn to help them focus on that area only during Domain 11.

I was packing to move rooms for next year and never took the picture but I will add it once we are back in September.

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Videos and Google Earth

For A New Nation, SchoolHouse Rock and Liberty Kids have some great videos that my students love to watch after their daily lessons.

A New Nation Google Earth locations and historical videos

I also linked some Google Earth locations for important historical locations that are discussed throughout the unit.

For Frontier Explorers, I use some ambient flyovers of the Appalachian Mountains in the Spring and Fall, as well as the Rocky Mountains.

These are all available in this free download, click here for your copy!

Activities

To help my students understand the significance of the Boston Tea Party, I always show them what it looks like when just a single tea bag goes into the water.

They are amazed when they see how quickly it happens - and then it helps them to understand what it was like when 342 chests of tea hit the water.

Student Books