Twelve fact cards go into a chart comparing the New England, Middle and Southern colonies on this 5th grade social studies sheet. The rows are geography, climate and how people made a living, and each region gets four facts, such as rocky soil and forests, mild winters and rice farming along South Carolina's coast. Page 2 asks three written questions on the sea, the breadbasket colonies and climate. Page 3 is the answer key.
“Compare the geography, climate and ways of earning a living in the New England, Middle and Southern colonies.”
The chart on page 1 has students sort twelve facts across those three rows and three regions.
“Explain how land and climate shaped how colonists earned a living.”
Questions 1 to 3 on page 2 cover the sea in New England, grain in the Middle colonies and plantations in the South.
Twelve short cards, from cold winters and short summers to hot summers and a long growing season, are written into a grid. The rows are Geography, Climate and How People Made a Living, and the columns are the three regions.
Three questions answered in complete sentences: why New England colonists turned to the sea, why the Middle colonies were called the breadbasket, and how climate shaped life in the Southern colonies. A harbor scene with a ship and a fishing boat sits beside the first.
The filled chart and a model answer for each question. The Southern living cell holds two cards: tobacco, rice and indigo on plantations using enslaved labor, and rice farming along South Carolina's coast.
Cards first
Read the twelve cards together and ask which region each belongs to before anyone writes. Mild winters and rich farmland are Middle colony facts that some students may put in the South.
Point to the chart
On page 2, have students underline the chart cell they used for each answer. It ties each sentence to evidence instead of a guess.
Plan the plantation talk
The Southern column mentions enslaved labor. Set aside time to discuss it on the day you use the sheet rather than leaving students to read it alone.
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