Below you will find web links, extra printables, and other resources to use along with the Colonial History units in the Layers of Learning curriculum. Check out our Amazon store to see fun goodies we recommend to accompany this course.
Colonial History is sold as a single volume and as individual units, which are like chapters within the Colonial History book. Here’s a link to a free printable cover to accompany all of your Colonial History PDF units.
Age of Exploration
- YouTube Playlist of the Age of Exploration
- View a detailed timeline of the Age of Exploration
- Explore this awesome set of maps and articles from PBS and Google Earth about the most important explorers of this era
- Read and view an interactive lesson from PBS about the Columbian Exchange
- Print these cute and colorful worksheets about Columbus for kids 9 and under
- A set of printable worksheets about Pedro Alvarez Cabral
- The Waldseemuler’s 1507 map on which America is named for the first time. You can zoom in on this map in high resolution and examine it carefully, notice the differences between the actual world and this early map. See how much has been discovered by Europeans in 1507 and how far they still have to go.
- Hand your kids this fun coded message worksheet about the Age of Exploration to solve as an intro to a lesson
- Browse and explore the online Mariner’s Museum – lots of images and articles about people, events, and artifacts
- Read the translation of the Treaty of Tordesillas
- Read the Letters Patent granted to John Cabot by Henry VII
- See an image of a compass from Italy 1562 – you can browse through this entire site, looking at medieval and Renaissance era scientific instruments
- View a 16th century mariner’s astrolabe, used to determine latitude
- Read an illustrated article that explains how a mariner’s sextant works
- Read an account of Magellan’s voyage from a mariner who was there
- Khan Academy on the Exploration of the Americas
Colonialism
- This is a diary entry of a Virginia settler from 1607
- Read the letter from Queen Elizabeth I granting Walter Raleigh permission to explore and subdue Virginia
- Read the Charter of the Dutch West India Company, 1621
- Khan Academy on the Spanish & Portuguese Empires
- View a map of Portuguese Goa in 1600, the most important factory in India
- Play Build Your Stax, an online stock trading game to learn how joint stock companies work. You can do this individually or as a group, which works great for younger kids.
- Or play The Stock Market Game. This one is best for kids 13 and older.
- Khan Academy on Transoceanic Empires
- Khan Academy on New Economic Systems
Reformation
India
Far East
Aztecs, Incas, & Conquistadors
- Read letters from Hernando Cortes in which he describes the land of Mexico and explains the actions he took
- An excellent article for 14 and older about the Spanish colonies and how they were organized politically and socially.
- A primary source document from a Spanish priest who spoke out against the mistreatment of the American natives
- View an engraving of De Soto discovering the Mississippi and read an article about the event and the engraving
Africa & the Slave Trade
- View a high resolution image of the stowage of the slave ship Brooks
- Scroll down to Chapter 2 and read Olaudah Equiano’s account of being captured and carried across the Atlantic as a slave