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5th grade · Social Studies · Unit 3 of 12

First Peoples of the Americas

Arriving, adapting and building cultures

What your child practices

How and when the first people came to the Americas, how peoples adapted to the Arctic, plains, deserts, forests and islands, and how shared customs, languages and ways of governing give a group its identity. Native nations such as the Haudenosaunee and Inuit are living communities today.

New York State Learning Standards learning standard: 5.1a; 5.1b; 5.1c · how the first people reached the Americas, how early peoples adapted to and changed their environments, and the cultures they built

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. During the Ice Age, sea levels were lower, so land joined Asia and North America.
  2. People adapted to their environment: river peoples fished and farmed rich soil.
  3. The Haudenosaunee Confederacy is Six Nations, including the Mohawk and Seneca. The Taíno lived on Caribbean islands.

Example: Why could people walk from Asia to North America in the Ice Age? Much water was frozen in ice. Lower seas left a land bridge. Answer: Sea levels were lower, so land joined the continents.

First Peoples of the Americas in New York

In the New York State Learning Standards, this is unit 3 of 12 in 5th grade Social Studies, after Exploration & Exchange and before Civilizations of the Americas.

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: New York State Education Department (NYSED)

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 nation is part of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy?

    • Onondaga
    • Inca
    • Olmec
    • Aztec

  2. Question 2

    After arriving in North America, early peoples gradually spread…

    • Only to the Caribbean islands
    • Back to Asia
    • Only to the Arctic
    • South, all the way to South America

  3. Question 3

    Many scientists think the first people came to the Americas about…

    • 14,000 to 25,000 years ago
    • 2,000 years ago
    • 500 years ago
    • 1 million years ago

  4. Question 4

    Scientists learn about the first Americans by studying…

    • Their written diaries
    • Newspapers from long ago
    • Tools, bones and other things they left behind
    • Old photographs

  5. Question 5

    The 'Three Sisters' crops grown by many Native nations are…

    • Apples, pears and plums
    • Wheat, barley and oats
    • Rice, tea and soybeans
    • Corn, beans and squash

  6. Question 6

    'Patterns of governance' means…

    • How a group makes decisions and chooses leaders
    • How a group draws maps
    • How a group cooks food
    • How a group builds houses

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