---
title: Native American Tribes
created: '2026-05-26'
updated: '2026-05-26'
type: lesson_topic
subject: history
tags:
- history
- grade-2
- homeschool
standard: ''
phase: 2
phase_name: "WINTER: American History Foundations (Weeks 9\u201316)"
weeks:
- 9
source: ''
---
# Native American Tribes
Second grade history topic covering native american tribes. Part of Phase 2 (WINTER: American History Foundations (Weeks 9–16)).
## Key Concepts
First peoples of North America
- **Objectives:** Identify that Native Americans lived here first, recognize diversity of tribes
- **Activities:**
- Learn about different tribes (Lakota, Cherokee, Iroquois, Navajo)
- Read stories about Native American life
- Make a dreamcatcher or similar craft
- **Assessment:** Identify 3 tribes and describe where they lived
### Week 10: Native American Life & Culture
**Focus:** How different tribes lived
- **Objectives:** Understand housing, food, clothing varied by region
- **Activities:**
- Compare longhouses, tipis, wigwams, adobe homes
- Learn about Native American agriculture (corn, beans, squash)
- Discuss how tribes used natural resources
- **Assessment:** Draw and describe a Native American dwelling and explain why it suited their environment
### Week 11: Early Explorers
**Focus:** First European explorers of North America
- **Objectives:** Identify key explorers and their voyages
- **Activities:**
- Christopher Columbus — who was he and when?
- John Cabot, Hernando de Soto, Francisco Coronado
- Follow their routes on a map
- **Assessment:** Map with explorer routes labeled
### Week 12: The First Colonists
**Focus:** Why people came to America
- **Objectives:** Understand reasons for colonization (freedom, resources, land)
- **Activities:**
- Story of the Mayflower and Plymouth Colony
- Jamestown — the first permanent colony
- Discuss what life was like for colonists
- **Assessment:** Write/draw about one colony and describe daily life there
### Week 13: The Thirteen Colonies
**Focus:** Growth of colonial America
- **Objectives:** Locate the 13 colonies, understand regions (New England, Middle, Southern)
- **Activities:**
- Map the 13 colonies
- Compare life in different colony regions
- Discuss how colonies made their own rules
- **Assessment:** Label 13 colonies map, compare two colony regions
### Week 14: Colonial Daily Life
**Focus:** What colonial children did
- **Objectives:** Compare colonial childhood to modern childhood
- **Activities:**
- Colonial school, games, chores, food
- Read "The Story of the Pilgrim Children"
- Colonial crafts: spinning, candle making, writing with quills
- **Assessment:** Venn diagram — colonial life vs. modern life
### Week 15: The Road to Independence
**Focus:** Why colonists wanted independence from England
- **Objectives:** Understand unfair taxes and "no taxation without representation"
- **Activities:**
- Boston Tea Party story
- Stamp Act — what was it and why were colonists angry?
- Paul Revere and the midnight ride
- **Assessment:** Explain in own words why colonists wanted freedom from England
### Week 16: American Revolution Overview
**Focus:** Key events and people of the Revolution
- **Objectives:** Identify the American Revolution as a war for independence
- **Activities:**
- Declaration of Independence — what does it say?
- George Washington as leader
- Timeline of Revolution events
- **Assessment:** Revolution event timeline (5 key events in order)
---
## Standards
Not specified
## Prerequisites
[[my-neighborhood]], [[community-helpers]], [[rules-and-why-we-have-them]], [[buying-and-selling]], [[maps-and-directions]]
---
*Generated from curriculum data* ^[[raw/curriculum/history]]