You can use a visual aid such as a series of timelines that depict the years of settlement, from the pre-Columbian migration and settlement patterns, to the settlement of the 13 original colonies and territories. These timelines can be adapted to primary students who can fill the events into the differing timelines with activities and artwork depicting various times. Secondary students can use the timelines to select areas to examine in depth the events, rationale and effect that each settlement had on the formation of the United States.
According to HistoryWorld.com, the history of the American Indian started 30,000 years ago when the first settlers, the Pre-Columbian Indians, crossed the Bering land bridge from Asia during an ice age. Migrating south, the pre-Columbians traveled across what is now North America and into Central and South America, founding civilizations such as the Anasazi, the Mound Builders, the Iroquois Confederacy and all the other sovereign nations that made up the bulk of what was to become the United States. Students can use the Internet to look at the various characteristics, agricultural activities, religions and other aspects of the pre-Columbians, and how these American Indians were integral to the survival of subsequent settlements.
The object of this portion of the lesson plan is for the student to understand the motivation, abilities and settlements attributed to the Vikings. Primary students can recreate and map where the Viking settlements were, and compare the map to where the known American Indian settlements were situated in relation to them. Secondary students can examine the motivations, the chronology of the Viking settlements and their subsequent status. They can also discuss the effect that these settlements had on their successors.
The continuing timeline elicits a breakdown between the Age of Exploration, with the Spanish founding of St. Augustine, Florida, and the Colonial period with Jamestown, Virginia, Plymouth, Massachusetts, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. In each of these timelines, students can examine original primary documents that divided the world without regard to native populations, and create their own journals undertaking roles within each of the colonies. The last part of the lesson can be a discussion period, where students can talk about the individuals who settled, their reasons for coming to the colonies and how these reasons translated into the revolution and subsequent founding of the United States. Students can trace the progress of various settlers and recreate their lives in activities such as reading diaries aloud, and using art, slogans and journal pages to decorate the timelines.