Massachusetts, Home to Many Different People Grade 3


 Massachusetts: State Profile from 2020 Census


1804 map of Massachusetts

 

 

 

Grade 3 Content Standards

 

Topic 1:  Massachusetts Cities and Towns Today and in History

 

1. On a current map of Massachusetts, locate and describe the class's home town or city, its geographic features and historic landmarks, and explain their purpose and significance.

 

 

2. Research the origins of the home town or city (e.g., when it was founded, by whom, how it grew) and describe its current population size; interview family members friends, and neighbors to obtain information about living and working there in the past and present.

 

 

3. Explain what it means for the classroom and schools they attend and city or town in which they live to have a government.

 

Native American Tribal Territories Around 1600

Topic 2:  The Geography and Native Peoples of Massachusetts

 

1. On a physical map of North America, locate the Northeast region and identify important physical features.

 

2. On a political map of the current United States, locate the New England states.

 

3. Explain the diversity of Native Peoples, present and past, in Massachusetts and the New England region, including Abenaki/Wabanaki, Massachusett, Mohican/Stockbridge, Narranganett, Nipmuc, Wampanoag.

 

 

 

 DRAMATIC EVENT:  Peskeompskut Massacre or Battle of Great Falls

LEARNING PLAN: Native American Homes 

 

 

Topic 3:  Native People's First Contacts with European Settlers

 

1. Locate Europe and North America on a map and explain why European explorers of the 16th and 17th centuries wanted to find new trade routes and new supplies pf natural resources such as timber and fish.

 

2. Trace the sea voyages of European explorers who explored the Northeast coast of North America (e.g. Giovanni Caboto (John Cabot), Bartholomew Gosnold, Giovanni de Verrazano, Samuel de Champlain).

 

3. Research and report on what each explorer sought when he began his journey, what he and his crew found, how they communicated their discoveries to other Europeans, and how their discoveries affected indigenous populations of America and changed European ideas about the world.

 

 

 

 

Topic 4:  The Pilgrims, the Plymouth Colony and Native Communities

 

1. Explain who the Pilgrims were and why they left Europe to seek a place where they would have a right to practice their religion; describe their journey, the government of their early years in the Plymouth Colony, their relationship with the Wampanoag and Abenaki/Wabanaki people.

 

 

 

The Puritan by Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Springfield, Massachusetts

 

Topic 5:  The Puritans, the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and Native Communities

 

1. Explain the roles of early English leaders of the Puritans of Massachusetts Bay Colony and the Pilgrims of the Plymouth colony (e.g., John Winthrop, Miles Standish, William Brewster, Edward Winslow, William Bradford, John Alden, John Cotton, Thomas Hooker).

 

 

 

2. Explain why the Puritans migrated in great numbers to Massachusetts in the 17th century and the consequences of their migration for the indigenous peoples of the region.

 

 

3. Describe details of daily life, housing, education, and work of the Puritan men, women and children of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

 

 

The Crucible by Arthur Miller

 

 

4. Explain the importance of maritime commerce and the practice of bartering-exchanging goods or services without the payment of money-in the development of the economy of colonial Massachusetts.

 

 

 

Topic 6:  Massachusetts in the 18th Century through the American Revolution

 

1. Using a historical map, explain the extent of the Province of Massachusetts in the 17th and 18th centuries.  Explain the reasons for the growth of cities and towns in Massachusetts in the 1700s.

 

2. Analyze the connection between events, locations, and individuals in Massachusetts in the early 1700s and the beginning of the American Revolution.

 

 

 

3. Analyze how the colonists' anger led to the Declaration of Independence and what the purpose of the Declaration was.

 

 

4. Explain how, after the Revolution, the leaders of the new United States had to write a plan for how to govern the nation, and that plan is called the Constitution.  Explain that the rights of citizens are spelled out in the Constitution's first ten amendments, known as the Bill of Rights.

 

 

5. Explain that states also have plans of government; recognize that the Constitution of Massachusetts (1780) is the oldest functioning constitution in the world; that its primary author was John Adams, and that, in addition to outlining government, it gives basic rights to citizens of the Commonwealth.