Early Communities & U.S. Regions

The big idea

Your child learns why explorers and settlers came to North America, including people who did not choose to come, and looks at early meetings with Native nations from more than one point of view. Then your child researches when and why your own community began. After the Quarter 1 review, the unit maps U.S. mountains, rivers and the Great Lakes, compares the five U.S. regions, and studies how Native nations in each region used the land then and live today.

Standards in plain words

• D2.His.1.3-5 Puts related events in time order to compare things that happened at the same time.
• D2.His.2.3-5 Compares life in the past with life today.
• D2.His.3.3-5 Asks questions about people and groups who shaped important changes in history.
• D2.His.4.3-5 Explains why people living at the same time had different points of view.
• D2.His.14.3-5 Explains likely causes and effects of events and changes.
• D3.1.3-5 Gathers useful information from several sources, paying attention to where each source comes from.
• D2.Geo.2.3-5 Uses maps, photos and other images to explain how places and regions connect to their land, water and climate.
• D2.Geo.4.3-5 Explains how culture shapes the way people change and adapt to their surroundings.
• D2.Geo.8.3-5 Explains how where people settle and move relates to where natural resources are and how they are used.
• D2.Geo.10.3-5 Explains why land, water and climate differ from one world region to another.
• D2.Geo.5.3-5 Explains how the people and the land of a place change over time.

Anchor texts

• Reading About Our World passages: 'How Do Towns Begin?' (Week 8), 'Five Regions, One Country' (Week 11) and 'Native Nations Across the Land' (Week 12)
• Video hub topics: early contact between settlers and Native peoples, the Great Lakes and U.S. climates, comparing the Northeast and Southeast, and Eastern Woodlands nations
• Your community's own history sources

Watch across the unit

• Watch for: Saying explorers 'discovered' America, or telling early contact as a story with only one side.

  Try: Ask, 'Who was already there?' and after each account, 'How would the other group describe this same day?'

• Watch for: Believing every Native nation lived in tipis, or ending Native history in the past.

  Try: Connect each home to the land and resources of its region, and draw an arrow on the timeline that runs all the way to today.

• Watch for: Mixing up the Southeast and the Southwest, or weather and climate.

  Try: Put a hand on the map: South plus East is the Atlantic side, South plus West is near Mexico; ask whether a statement is about today or many years.