What Your Child is Learning in Unit 3: "Life in the English Colonies"

Over the next few weeks, your child will examine the three distinct colonial regions that developed in North America--the southern, New England, and middle colonies. He or she will also learn about the Jamestown settlement, and the arrival of slaves to North America.

Activities You Can Do at Home to Support Your Child's Learning

Chapter 7 The Southern Colonies

• In addition to the settlement in Jamestown, Virginia, European colonists also established a colony on Roanoke Island, off the coast of North Carolina. That colony and all of its inhabitants mysteriously disappeared. Use the library to help your child investigate this disappearance and talk about what may have happened.

Chapter 8 The New England Colonies

• Trade with other countries supported many New England colonists and even made a few of them wealthy. Together with your child, find items in your household that come from other countries , or look through newspapers or magazines for references to trade with other countries.

Chapter 9 The Middle Colonies

• Play a map game with your child. Call out the name of a city or town mentioned in Unit 3 and have your child locate it on a map of the eastern United States. Places to find: Boston, Rhode Island, Virginia, Massachusetts Bay, Jamestown, and Roanoke. Look through Chapters 7, 8, and 9 for additional places to continue the game.