Subscribe

4th grade · Social Studies · Unit 8 of 9

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.

Arizona Academic Standards learning standard: 4.SP3.4; 4.SP3.2 · judging a source by its author, date and purpose, and comparing sources

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 Arizona

In the Arizona Academic Standards, this is unit 8 of 9 in 4th grade Social Studies, after Colonial Trade & Work and before The Americas Through Time.

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: Arizona Department of Education

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

    The 1700s are called the…

    • 7th century
    • 17th century
    • 19th century
    • 18th century

  2. Question 2

    A century is…

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

  3. Question 3

    What is a primary source?

    • An encyclopedia
    • A movie made last year
    • Something made by a person who was there at the time
    • A textbook written today

  4. Question 4

    What does a timeline show?

    • Who was right
    • Events in the order they happened
    • How much things cost
    • Where places are

  5. Question 5

    Which is a secondary source?

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

  6. Question 6

    "Because of new taxes, colonists boycotted British goods." What is the effect?

    • Colonists boycotted British goods
    • Colonists
    • Britain
    • New taxes

More 4th grade