Dynamic 2 Moms

American Revolution 1775 - 1783

c. Look and Learn

Please note: As with all of our units, there is no way we can cover every topic or theme and because there is a wealth of information free on this subject including minibooks, we just tried to cover some of the major issues. Too, as with all of our unit, we revisit them frequently so we can add to them.

About pics copyright: Some Jupiter Clip art, Some Look and Learn and some Public Domain. (I want to put this here to cover any attribution I may have not intentionally overlooked.Paid for by my license.)

Other units here on our site to go with this one.

Find out how the Iroquois influenced the Founding Fathers

Click here to read about the Iroquois Confederacy

Click here to go the Iroquois Lapbook

Poem/Song: The Rich Lady Over the Sea

There was a rich lady lived over the sea,

And she was an island queen,

Her daughter lived off in the new country,

With an ocean of water between.

The old lady's pockets were filled with gold,

Yet never contented was she,

So she ordered her daughter to pay her a tax,

Of thruppence a pound on the tea.

And then she called out to the island queen,

Oh mother, dear mother, called she,

Your tea you may have when 'tis steeped enough,

But never a tax from me!

Listen to the music and read it in it's entirety here.

Who is the Rich lady over the sea (no doubt it is England) and the colonist are viewed as her children.

Lord Cornwallis and George Washington

The American Revolution was the political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century in which thirteen colonies in North America joined together to break free from the British Empire, combining to become the United States of America.

c. Look and Learn

After the French War ended in 1763, peace and prosperity came to the Thirteen Colonies.

The ports of Boston, New York and Charleston were booming! The colonials were proud to be subjects but had been left alone for years to manage their own affairs.

Each colony was independent and elected its own governor.

Now at peace with France, the British government intended to keep the growing colonies under strict control.

Colonies:

New England Colonies

Connecticut

New Hampshire

Massachusetts

Rhode Island

Middle Colonies

Delaware

New Jersey

New York

Pennsylvania

Southern Colonies

Maryland

Georgia

North Carolina

South Carolina

Virginia

c. Look and Learn"Taxation without Representation"

Adopting the policy that the colonies should pay an increased proportion of the costs associated with keeping them in the Empire, Britain imposed a series of direct taxes followed by other laws intended to demonstrate British authority, all of which proved extremely unpopular in America. Because the colonies lacked elected representation in the governing British Parliament, many colonists considered the laws to be illegitimate and a violation of their rights as Englishmen.

Background prior to the American Revolution

The American colonies fought for England whenever England and France were at war. The Seven Years' War of 1756 - 1763 was a world wide struggle between those two countries. In America it was called the French and Indian War,

The Virginian George Washington gained valuable military experience in this war along with being noticed by both the colonist and Britain.

At the battle of of Jumonville or l'affaire Jumonville, a battle between the French and English for the control of the Ohio Valley, ended in a British victory lead by George Washington.

George Washington said "I ordered my company to fire" and before Washington could stop the killing and accept the surrender of the French, ten of them were dead, including their commander.

This conflict made Washington famous along with his gaining military experience.

As wrote by Paul Johnson in his book A History of the American People he said "Horace Walpole, in his History of the Reign of George II, was more accurate: "The volley fired by a young Virginian in the backwoods of America set the world on fire".

What were some of England's reasons for taxation and war?

England increased control over its colonies and the steps they took to do it:

England desired to remain a worldpower

England imposed taxes, such as the Stamp Act, to raise necessary revenue to pay the cost of the French and Indian War

What were some of the colonist reasons for being dissatisfied?

Colonies had no representation in Parliament

Some colonists resented power of colonial governors

England wanted strict control over colonial legislatures

Colonies opposed taxes

What was significant about the Proclamation of 1763?

The Proclamation of 1763 hampered the western movement of settlers

They had a sense of adventurer and a spirit to want to move beyond the Appalachian mountains.

Who were the colonist?

From Activity for Kids

"Tinkers, Tailors, and Candlestick Makers

The English thought of the colonies as 13 wayward children disobeying their mother country.

For decades, the colonists had been happy to be the children of England, but now they felt they were grown up and ready to do things their own way. They had proved, by settling in the wild new land and building thriving communities,that they could do things on their own. In their struggles, they had developed a habit of independence. "

About the setup of the LAPBOOK

As we were finishing this unit and I was almost completed with helping my sons with the layout of the minibooks, the boys decided to make this layout similar to the way we laid out the file folders for the War Between the States Unit.

Basically, we took two file folders and added them together to make a bigger lapbook (portrait). Adding two file folders together is not complicated and Homeschool Helper Online has a picture and instructions here on this link as to how we did it.

Initially, I had created each minibook to fit in ONE letter size folder with ONE flap extender, turned LANDSCAPE.

Got all of that?That means there is more than one way to do lay out the minibooks. You do not have to set up like we did.

Some of the Covers you will notice have been set up to fit landscape on the outside of the file folder.

Here is a picture of how they fit and how I originally created the unit for the lapbooks to go in.

LANDSCAPE LAYOUT

Picture is of a file folder open with an extender page added and turned landscape. I have pictured where the minibooks are placed so they fit.

Covers and Decorating Pieces for the Unit

Covers for file folders turned Portrait

Dnload AR Cover 1 Portrait Dnload AR Cover 2 Portrait

Silhouettes are a type of shadow picture and became very popular during the life time of George Washington

Dnload AR Cover 3 Portrait

Covers for file folders turned Landscape

Dnload AR Cover 1 here Dnload AR Cover 2 here.

Dnload AR Cover 3 here.

Dnload map of the 13 colonies here.

Dnload here layered book of historic Battles

Dnload Boston Massacre bk Dnload Boston Tea Party/Sugar Act

Dnload Can you answer? Dnload Causes of the War

Dnload England's Reasons For Taxing Dnload "Join or Die"

Download above Patriots Minibooks here.

Road to Liberty Timeline

Dnload Who was King George, II, The Colonist and What was the Proclamation of 1763

Dnload the Stamp Act and Paul Revere Minibooks here.

Dnload Taxation without Representation mini book here.

Links/Downloads/Free Lapbooks to go with this:

George Washington's Rules of Civility - Download this copy and use for copy work.

So much to choose from that is free! (isn't that nice)

Since there are so many other nice free lapbooks and notebooking pages, we wanted to be sure you saw them.

Sometimes we want to pick and choose so we listed some links here so you can choose some from "here and there" to make your own unit or you can use ours entirely. Your choice.

This picture is of Betsy Stout's lapbook over at Notebooking Nook. She did a beautiful job.

Click here to go there Free American Revolution Lapbook

(Picture copyright Betsy Stout - Notebooking Nook)

Another Free American Revolution Lapbook - Lee over at Hebrews 1:10 Blog also has a very nice free lapbook with a WHOPPING 47 page download as well as some nice notebooking pages. Again, another beautiful job!

(Picture copyright Lee at Hebrew 1:10 Blog)

Peakmore Academy has some minibooks on her blog too. Scroll down to the "history" section.

Jan May over at Millennium Girls has some really fun lessons to go with this unit called Spies of the American Revolution, writing with invisible ink and gadgets.

Click here to go there.

Scholastic has a free 4 page minibook download from their Fun-to-Read American History Book.

Listen to audio by The Founding Documents. From the site:

Starting with Patrick Henry's "Give Me Liberty Or Give Me Death" speech which helped to spark the American Revolution, and ending with the First Inaugural Address of President George Washington, these documents represent key points in the founding of the U.S. government. Each document featured here also includes a brief introduction which summarizes the context and significance of the document in American history.

Free Boston Tea Party Lapbook on Homeschool Helper.

Free Constitution Lapbook on Homeschool Helper.

Free George Washington Lapbook on Homeschool Helper.