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Search every subject world, from Preschool to Grade 12. The first five courses of every subject path are free.

16 courses

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History, Civics & Social Studies · Grade 4

Use Sources and Build a Timeline

Fourth graders learn the tools for studying Illinois history: dating systems (BCE and CE), decades and centuries, building a timeline to scale from Cahokia to statehood in 1818, judging how useful a source is for a question (including a real 1787 primary source), and handling sources that disagree, such as the different dates given for Jean Baptiste Point du Sable's settlement at Chicago.

  • 4 lessons
  • About 85 min
  • Quiz: 10 questions
Free starter

History, Civics & Social Studies · Grade 4

Illinois Peoples and Histories

Fourth graders trace the Illinois Country from the arrival of French explorers and missionaries among the Illinois Confederacy, through French colonial villages (where both free and enslaved people lived), British rule and the American Revolution, to statehood in 1818 and the moves of the capital from Kaskaskia to Vandalia to Springfield, considering how each change looked to different peoples.

  • 4 lessons
  • About 90 min
  • Quiz: 9 questions
Free starter

History, Civics & Social Studies · Grade 4

State Government and Citizenship

Fourth graders sort which jobs belong to local, state and national government, learn the three branches of Illinois government under the 1970 Illinois Constitution, follow a bill through the General Assembly to the governor (including the veto and override), and explore what citizenship means and how citizens of any age can take part in state government.

  • 4 lessons
  • About 90 min
  • Quiz: 9 questions
Free starter

History, Civics & Social Studies · Grade 4

Economic Systems and Specialization

Fourth graders compare traditional, command, market and mixed economies; calculate profit and see how prices, profit and competition guide sellers; read Adam Smith's famous 1776 pin-factory example of specialization and connect training (human capital) to productivity and income; and map the main parts of the Illinois economy, from farms to factories to the Chicago transportation hub.

  • 4 lessons
  • About 90 min
  • Quiz: 10 questions
Free starter

History, Civics & Social Studies · Grade 4

Migration, Land and Changing Communities

Fourth graders follow the land of Illinois: how Native homelands became surveyed squares of land for sale, how the steel plow, drainage and the railroads turned tallgrass prairie into farms and new towns, how Illinois shifted from farms to cities and suburbs, and how people today weigh farming, building and protecting the last pieces of prairie.

  • 4 lessons
  • About 90 min
  • Quiz: 9 questions
Free starter

History, Civics & Social Studies · Grade 4

Rights, Responsibilities and Different Perspectives

Fourth graders read the First Amendment and connect rights to responsibilities, then study how rights were denied and won in Illinois: the struggle over slavery and the state's Black Laws, the 1837 killing of newspaper editor Elijah Lovejoy, the campaign that repealed the Black Laws in 1865, and the women's suffrage victories of 1913 and 1919. They compare perspectives at each step and identify the tools citizens use to change society.

  • 4 lessons
  • About 95 min
  • Quiz: 9 questions

History, Civics & Social Studies · Grade 4

Connections between Illinois and the Nation

Fourth graders explore how Illinois shaped the United States: the 1858 Lincoln–Douglas debates and Lincoln's 'House Divided' speech, Illinois's role in the Civil War, Chicago as the crossroads of the nation's railroads and trade (and the 1894 Pullman Strike that stopped them), and how Illinois is represented in the national government today, including presidents with Illinois ties.

  • 3 lessons
  • About 90 min
  • Quiz: 9 questions

History, Civics & Social Studies · Grade 4

An Evidence-Based State History Project

In this capstone project, fourth graders investigate a real Illinois question: why did Chicago grow from a small town in 1840 into the largest city in the Midwest by 1890? They plan the inquiry, analyze census data comparing Chicago and St. Louis, a 1914 poem by Carl Sandburg and summaries of the canal, railroads and the 1871 fire, then write and present an argument with a claim, cited evidence and a counterclaim.

  • 4 lessons
  • About 100 min
  • Quiz: 9 questions

History, Civics & Social Studies · Grade 5

Inquiry and Primary Sources

Fifth graders sharpen the historian's toolkit with real primary sources from early America: Benjamin Franklin's 1754 'Join, or Die' cartoon, Thomas Paine's 1776 'The American Crisis', and two conflicting accounts of the 1770 Boston Massacre. They ask inquiry questions, source and contextualize documents, detect point of view and loaded language, and corroborate evidence to judge reliability.

  • 4 lessons
  • About 95 min
  • Quiz: 9 questions
Free starter

History, Civics & Social Studies · Grade 5

Indigenous North America before European Colonization

Fifth graders explore the diversity of Indigenous North America before 1492: how environments from the Arctic to the Southwest shaped homes, food and work; how nations governed themselves, including the Haudenosaunee Confederacy; the agricultural knowledge (maize, the Three Sisters, irrigation) and trade networks that connected the continent; and how historians use archaeology and oral tradition while avoiding stereotypes.

  • 4 lessons
  • About 100 min
  • Quiz: 9 questions
Free starter

History, Civics & Social Studies · Grade 5

Colonization and Diverse Colonial Experiences

Fifth graders examine why Spain, France, the Netherlands and England explored and colonized North America and where they settled; trace the Columbian Exchange of plants, animals and diseases; compare the economies of the New England, Middle and Southern colonies; and compare how colonization was experienced by Native nations, enslaved Africans, indentured servants, women and free colonists.

  • 4 lessons
  • About 105 min
  • Quiz: 9 questions
Free starter

History, Civics & Social Studies · Grade 5

Conflict, Revolution and Independence

Fifth graders trace the chain of causes from the French and Indian War to the Declaration of Independence, follow the major turning points of the Revolutionary War from Lexington and Concord to Yorktown and the Treaty of Paris, close-read the Declaration's big ideas and grievances, and compare how Patriots, Loyalists, enslaved and free Black Americans, Native nations and women experienced the Revolution.

  • 4 lessons
  • About 110 min
  • Quiz: 10 questions
Free starter

History, Civics & Social Studies · Grade 5

Founding Documents and Constitutional Ideas

Fifth graders learn why the first national government under the Articles of Confederation was too weak, how delegates at the 1787 Constitutional Convention reached compromises (including the Great Compromise and the Three-Fifths Compromise), how the Constitution's principles (popular sovereignty, separation of powers, checks and balances, federalism) limit power, and how the debate over ratification led to the Bill of Rights.

  • 4 lessons
  • About 110 min
  • Quiz: 9 questions
Free starter

History, Civics & Social Studies · Grade 5

Early Republic, Expansion and Consequences

Fifth graders follow the young United States from George Washington's first term and the first peaceful transfer of power, through the Louisiana Purchase and the Lewis and Clark expedition (and the Native nations who made it possible), to the growth of the nation's territory by 1848, and they weigh its consequences: new land for settlers, fierce debates over slavery's spread, and forced removal of Native nations such as the Cherokee on the Trail of Tears.

  • 4 lessons
  • About 110 min
  • Quiz: 9 questions

History, Civics & Social Studies · Grade 5

Economics, Rights and Civic Action

Fifth graders connect money, rights and action: how Britain's trade rules and colonial boycotts used economic pressure, how incentives and costs shape choices, how governments pay for public goods with taxes, how rights expanded through amendments won by citizens' movements from the 13th to the 26th Amendment, and how people today can use the same civic tools to work for change.

  • 4 lessons
  • About 105 min
  • Quiz: 9 questions

History, Civics & Social Studies · Grade 5

Research Multiple Perspectives on a Historical Question

In this capstone, fifth graders investigate a compelling question: was the American Revolution revolutionary for everyone? They read Abigail and John Adams's 1776 letters, study the 1777 freedom petition led by Prince Hall, and examine the experiences of Native nations, Loyalists and Black Loyalists, then write an evidence-based argument that weighs multiple perspectives and answers a counterclaim.

  • 4 lessons
  • About 110 min
  • Quiz: 9 questions