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5th grade · Social Studies · Unit 1 of 10

Road to Revolution

Taxes, protests and Patriots

What your child practices

British taxes, colonial protests such as boycotts and the Boston Tea Party, the Continental Congresses, and why Loyalists and Patriots saw things differently.

Arizona Academic Standards learning standard: 5.SP4.1; 5.E4.1 · the causes of the American Revolution, including British taxes

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. Britain taxed the colonies after 1763 to pay debts from the French and Indian War.
  2. Colonists had no elected members in Parliament: “No taxation without representation.”
  3. The Sons of Liberty protested, Committees of Correspondence shared news, and the Quartering Act made colonists house soldiers.

Example: Why did Britain start taxing the colonies after 1763? Britain had just fought a long war in North America. Wars cost a lot of money. Answer: to pay its debts from the French and Indian War

Road to Revolution in Arizona

In the Arizona Academic Standards, this is unit 1 of 10 in 5th grade Social Studies, before The American Revolution.

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

    Why might a colonial farmer in debt to British merchants support the Patriots?

    • Independence might free him from British rules and taxes
    • He loved the Stamp Act
    • He was a British soldier
    • He wanted more British taxes

  2. Question 2

    The Sugar Act (1764) taxed…

    • Sugar and molasses brought into the colonies
    • Tea only
    • Horses
    • Paper

  3. Question 3

    The Sons of Liberty were…

    • British soldiers
    • A group of colonists who protested British laws
    • The king's sons
    • A group of French traders

  4. Question 4

    Paul Revere's famous engraving of the Boston Massacre is a good example of…

    • A neutral photograph
    • A map of Boston
    • A source made to stir up anger at Britain
    • A British government report

  5. Question 5

    Which colonists were called Patriots?

    • Those who wanted independence from Britain
    • Hessian soldiers
    • British soldiers
    • Those loyal to the king

  6. Question 6

    Which colonists were called Loyalists?

    • Those who moved to Spain
    • Those who were French
    • Those who wanted independence
    • Those who stayed loyal to the British king

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