This lesson can be used with The United States: An Open Ended History, a free online textbook. Adapted in part from open sources.
If you had to explain the causes of the American Revolution to your kid sister, how would you do it?? Believe it or not, being able to streamline and simplify your explanation of key events is a great way to check your own understanding.
Start with:
- Agitation, Taxation, and Representation by Other Means
- The Shot Heard Round the World, Common Sense, and Independence
For tomorrow: Take one page of notes filled with basic facts and chronology of the colonies from French and Indian War to American Revolution, drawn from the pages above, all with the general question in mind — “Why did the colonists declare independence?”
Use the information contained in these notes to create a minimum eight page storybook, illustrated, answering the question — “Why did the colonists declare independence?” Your book should tell the story of how the Revolution came to be – roughly from the French and Indian War to the Declaration of Independence. It should utilize at least 10 vocabulary words or key terms and tell a story that makes sense.
Your book will be read aloud during a class-wide story time – so make sure it has cadence (and maybe rhymes?)
Bonus points if you include a cute talking animal to gloss over uncomfortable social truths.
open ended social studies 