About This Lesson
Why did Europeans first come to the Americas? The Grade 1 Core Knowledge History and Geography (CKHG) unit Early Explorers and Settlers looks at major reasons for the exploration of the “New World,” ranging from perceived easy access to wealth to a longing for religious freedom.
Students will explore the Americas with Columbus and the conquistadors who followed, looking at Europeans’ interactions with the indigenous peoples and at the often tragic results. They will then travel with the English explorers as they set up colonies in what would become the United States, first on a quest for riches in Virginia, and then on a search for a place to worship freely in Massachusetts. They will see how the first colonies overcame or succumbed to the hardships of life in this unfamiliar land, and they will witness the beginnings of slavery as agriculture in the southern colonies became profitable.
In its seven chapters, Early Explorers and Settlers looks at Columbus’s accidental arrival on the islands of the Caribbean, at the Lost Colony of Roanoke Island and its mysterious disappearance, and at the success of the Massachusetts Bay Colony in New England. The unit does not shy away from the difficult subject of slavery but gently introduces the subject in an age-appropriate manner.
