Declaration of Independence Interactive Lesson Plans
How would it feel to have your Declaration of Independence unit completely planned out for the next 3 weeks? I’m talking 15 lessons, worksheets, and answer keys completely ready to go.
Amazing, right?
I’m a former 5th grade teacher myself. Back then I struggled to find effective social studies resources for my students.
Because of this, I started creating my own units and sharing them online. In fact, this unit is the first 3-week history unit I ever shared!
Now I work full-time creating curriculum to help busy teachers like you. I want to help you fall in love with teaching history by creating high-quality units.
My unit of Declaration of Independence lesson plans has been used by thousands of 5th-8th-grade teachers.
So keep reading to find out why this unit will ENRAGE your students (in a good way).
What’s included?
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15 complete lesson plans (3 bonus lessons)
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15 days of activities
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Pacing guide
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Answer keys
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70+ pages with a variety of activities such as simulations, writing activities, student booklets, and more
Table of Contents for Declaration of Independence Unit
Week 1
- Day 1: Choose Your Destiny—activity where students adopt a colonial identity that will last throughout the unit (they love this part!). Then they receive a colonial name, job and salary, and a political faction to belong to (patriot, loyalist, or neutralist)
- Day 2: Patriots vs. Loyalists—sorting cards with Patriot, Neutralist, and Loyalist arguments, booklet, & primary source worksheet
- Day 3: Stamp Act Simulation & Prepare for the Stamp Act Congress—In order to feel the stress of taxation without representation, students take part in simulated classroom taxes. Students also have to put an “official stamp” on all of their assignments in order for them to be graded.
- Day 4: Stamp Act Congress—simulated congress, article about what really happened, & reflection
- Day 5: Townshend Acts Simulation & Boston Massacre Lesson—classroom tax simulation, analyze eyewitness accounts of the Boston Massacre and explain each speaker’s point of view
Week 2
- Day 6: Tea Act Simulation & The Boston Tea Party—classroom tax simulation, informative article, draw a political cartoon of the Boston Tea Party
- Day 7: Intolerable Acts Simulation & Lesson—classroom tax simulation, task cards about the Intolerable Acts, & student worksheet
- Day 8: Prepare for the First Continental Congress—learn about proposals and come up with speeches for the congress
- Day 9: First Continental Congress—simulated congress, article about what really happened, & reflection
- Day 10: Lexington, Concord, & Thomas Paine—article & student worksheets about Lexington and Concord, translating quotes from Thomas Paine’s Common Sense
Week 3
- Day 11: Prepare for the Second Continental Congress—learn about proposals and come up with speeches for the congress
- Day 12: Second Continental Congress—simulated congress, article about what really happened, & reflection
- Day 13: Analyze the Declaration of Independence—compare the Declaration to a break-up letter & organize it into sections
- Day 14: Key Ideas in the Declaration of Independence—task cards & student worksheets
- Day 15: Write Your Own Declaration of Independence—use the Declaration as a model text for a writing piece
Help For The Teacher
- Table of contents (also available in the preview)
- Suggested pacing guide
- 15 lesson plans
- Answer Keys (Of course!)
- Editable end-of-unit test and study guide
- Easy printing file including all student worksheets and articles
Here’s what teachers are saying about this Declaration of Independence Unit
“Love this resource! The simulations rock and the students totally engage when they experience what the colonists did during that era. Thank you!”
―Lorenzo H.
“Why can’t I give this an A+?!?! This resource was AMAZING. I taught about the events that led up to the Revolution and the kids were totally invested in this! They took sides and argued at the Constitutional Convention. [The students] became sick with rage when the “Town Crier” came through with yet another “ACT” was posted on the classroom door, as it meant less money for them. They learned sooo much!”
―Gregory C.
“The best Social Studies resource I have found [and] the kids absolutely love the lessons and activities! It makes the history real to them!”
―Sarah K.
More Declaration of Independence Resources
Teaching is already hard work, so I want to save you TONS of time and help you fall in love with teaching history. That’s why I’ve created this unit of Declaration of Independence Lesson Plans.
You may also be interested in other resources for teaching the Declaration of Independence like Primary Sources, kid-friendly videos, and a free Patrick Henry Lesson.
Explore more of my popular units:
Dear Becca,
We are using the Declaration of Independence Unit which we purchased in July/August of this year. However, on the digital slides of Lexington/Concord and Thomas Paine the digital slides will not come up. Instead it give us Primary and Secondary resources. Can you help us please?
Thank you,
Melissa Ramsey
Hi Melissa,
THANK YOU so much for letting me know! I fixed the link. If you go to the Google Slides PDF and click the link for Day 10 it is fixed. PLEASE let me know if you see anything else weird like this! 🙂
Thanks again,
Becca
Any suggestions for introducing the Stamp Act (paying the students and collecting stamps) in the age of Hybrid Learning? I have several students who are fully remote and the rest of my students do at least 2 days a week remotely. Otherwise, I LOVE these actives.
Distance learning definitely requires us to be creative! Maybe try making a Google form they have to fill out every day which is equivalent to putting a stamp on things? And you could add more forms for each act (Townshend, Intolerable). It’s not as fun as the in-class stuff but it could still be annoying for them to fill out multiple Google Forms each day and help them feel the frustration of “taxation without representation.”
That is a great idea! My biggest frustration was distributing and collecting money. My colleague suggested using Class Dojo. I don’t use it normally, but it was easy to set up for this purpose. For the stamps, I will ask at the beginning of the lesson who needs to buy a stamp, and then I will assign an “assignment” with the stamp attached that they have to cut and past onto their slides. I’ll then deduct the funds from Dojo.
I have almost all of your unit and LOVE them! I am looking at the “Choose Your Destiny” Lesson Plan. Is there an updated website that I need to have for the Colonial Williamsburg resources? I am unable to find the section where it lists information about jobs.
Here is the website: https://www.colonialwilliamsburg.org/explore/historic-trades/?from=navexplore 🙂