American Revolution Lesson Plans & Activities
Create a revolutionary experience in your classroom using one of our colonial America or American Revolution-related lesson plan topics below.
Lesson Plan Topics
American Revolution
- What Challenges Did the Continental Army Face? – Examine primary sources to discover more about challenges faced by the Continental Army during the American Revolution. (Elementary & Middle)
- Tea Overboard – Analyze articles from an eighteenth-century newspaper to investigate how a single event in one Virginia community helped to turn people against Great Britain as the Revolutionary War approached. (Elementary & Middle)
Colonial Life
- What Was Everyday Life Like in Colonial Virginia? – Investigate passages and photographs to explore everyday life in colonial Virginia and the important role of each person living on the farm. (Elementary & Middle)
- How Do We Know About Colonial Life? – Analyze an eighteenth-century inventory to learn more about how colonial Virginians lived. (Elementary & Middle)
- Tobacco Economy – Bring colonial economics to life for your students! Learners will explore the 18th-century tobacco economy, watch a short video and engage in vocabulary, graphing and historical analysis activities. Students can test their success as a colonial farmer in the culminating board game. (Elementary & Middle)
Historical Analysis
- What Challenges Did the Continental Army Face? – Examine primary sources to discover more about challenges faced by the Continental Army during the American Revolution. (Elementary & Middle)
- Tea Overboard – Analyze articles from an eighteenth-century newspaper to investigate how a single event in one Virginia community helped to turn people against Great Britain as the Revolutionary War approached. (Elementary & Middle)
- What Was Everyday Life Like in Colonial Virginia? – Investigate passages and photographs to explore everyday life in colonial Virginia and the important role of each person living on the farm. (Elementary & Middle)
- How Do We Know About Colonial Life? – Analyze an eighteenth-century inventory to learn more about how colonial Virginians lived. (Elementary & Middle)
- Tobacco Economy – Bring colonial economics to life for your students! Learners will explore the 18th-century tobacco economy, watch a short video and engage in vocabulary, graphing and historical analysis activities. Students can test their success as a colonial farmer in the culminating board game. (Elementary & Middle)
Economy
- Tobacco Economy – Bring colonial economics to life for your students! Learners will explore the 18th-century tobacco economy, watch a short video and engage in vocabulary, graphing and historical analysis activities. Students can test their success as a colonial farmer in the culminating board game. (Elementary & Middle)
People
- What Was Everyday Life Like in Colonial Virginia? – Investigate passages and photographs to explore everyday life in colonial Virginia and the important role of each person living on the farm. (Elementary & Middle)
Anna’s Adventures Activity Sheets and Videos
- Tobacco Economy – Test your success as a colonial farmer in the action-packed tobacco economy board game.
- Anna’s Adventures: Drums & Drills – Drill like a soldier! Learn more about Baron von Steuben, a key trainer of the Continental Army, and practice the facing commands taught to Anna in the video using the provided illustrations.
- Anna’s Adventures: Nine Men’s Morris – Game on! Download the directions and game board for “Nine Men’s Morris,” a strategy game which provided entertainment for Revolutionary War soldiers.
- Anna’s Adventures: Pick & Pickle – Now you’re cookin’! Follow simple recipes to create your own preserved food at home, complete a word search challenge and identify preservation methods in an illustration of 18th-century foods.
A visit to The American Revolution Museum at Yorktown is the perfect complement to the online resources found here. Be sure to explore our full range of hands-on history programs for groups, families and individuals and teachers.