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4th grade · Social Studies · Unit 2 of 6

History Detective

Sources, timelines and evidence

What your child practices

Primary and secondary sources, timelines and centuries, fact and opinion, claims and evidence, and judging a source by its maker, date and purpose, using early American history.

Alaska content standards learning standard: SS.4.2.22.1; SS.4.5.22.1 · using different kinds of historical sources and judging when and by whom they were made

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. A primary source is from the time, like a letter. A secondary source is made later, like a textbook.
  2. A fact can be proved true. An opinion is what someone thinks.
  3. Check a source’s maker, date and purpose. A century is 100 years.

Example: Is a colonist’s diary from 1750 a primary or secondary source? It was written by someone living then. Sources from the time are primary. Answer: a primary source

History Detective in Alaska

In the Alaska content standards, this is unit 2 of 6 in 4th grade Social Studies, after World Maps & Globes and before States & Capitals.

Gradelings describes a child's practice on this unit as Beginning, Approaching, Meeting or Exceeding (Four practice steps). That reflects practice, not a report-card mark: the teacher decides the mark.

Source: Alaska Department of Education and Early Development

Sample questions

A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.

  1. Question 1

    Which is a secondary source?

    • The Declaration of Independence
    • A textbook chapter about the colonies
    • A colonial newspaper from 1770
    • George Washington's diary

  2. Question 2

    A century is…

    • 1000 years
    • 50 years
    • 10 years
    • 100 years

  3. Question 3

    How many years passed between Jamestown (1607) and the Declaration of Independence (1776)?

    • 179
    • 69
    • 169
    • 159

  4. Question 4

    Why might two people describe the same event differently?

    • They have different perspectives
    • One must be lying
    • Only one person can see
    • Events never happen

  5. Question 5

    How does the past affect decisions today?

    • People learn from past events when making choices
    • Only kings remember history
    • It never does
    • The past is always the same as now

  6. Question 6

    A cause is…

    • Why something happened
    • Where it happened
    • Who wrote about it
    • What happened after

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