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5th grade · Social Studies · Unit 3 of 8

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.

Minnesota K-12 Academic Standards benchmark: 5.4.19.2; 5.4.20.2 · the events that led to the American Revolution, from several perspectives

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 Minnesota

In the Minnesota K-12 Academic Standards, this is unit 3 of 8 in 5th grade Social Studies, after Colonial Trade & Work and 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: Minnesota Department of Education (MDE)

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 colonists were called Patriots?

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

  2. Question 2

    In 1774, Thomas Jefferson wrote that Parliament…

    • could tax the colonies freely
    • should rule the colonies forever
    • was always right
    • had no right to make laws for the colonies

  3. Question 3

    How did Britain punish Boston after the Tea Party?

    • It made Boston the capital
    • It left the colonies
    • It closed the port with the Intolerable (Coercive) Acts
    • It gave Boston free tea

  4. Question 4

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

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

  5. Question 5

    Before the war, Benjamin Franklin went to London to…

    • speak for the colonies to the British government
    • sell the colonies
    • join the British army
    • become king

  6. Question 6

    The First Continental Congress met in 1774 to…

    • Write the Constitution
    • Decide how the colonies should respond to Britain
    • Elect a king
    • Sell tea

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