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5th grade · Social Studies · Unit 9 of 13

Civil War & Reconstruction

A divided nation, freedom and rebuilding

What your child practices

How the expansion of slavery caused sectionalism and the Civil War, the war's main events, Juneteenth in Galveston, Reconstruction, and the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments. Told factually.

Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) teks student expectation: 5.4(D); 5.4(E); 5.11(B) · the central role of slavery in causing the Civil War, its effects, Reconstruction and the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. Sectionalism means caring more about your region than the whole country.
  2. The Civil War began in 1861 at Fort Sumter. Reconstruction followed; the Freedmen's Bureau opened schools.
  3. The 15th Amendment protected the vote regardless of race, but after Reconstruction many Southern states blocked Black voters.

Example: What does sectionalism mean? A section is one part of the country. People put their own region first. Answer: caring more about your own region than the whole country

Civil War & Reconstruction in Texas

In the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS), this is unit 9 of 13 in 5th grade Social Studies, after A Growing Nation and before America in the 20th & 21st Centuries.

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: Texas Education Agency (TEA)

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 Freedmen's Bureau helped formerly enslaved people by…

    • sending them overseas
    • taking their land
    • starting schools and helping find work
    • building forts

  2. Question 2

    The 13th Amendment…

    • ended the draft
    • created the income tax
    • abolished slavery
    • gave women the vote

  3. Question 3

    Which side won the Civil War?

    • the Union
    • Mexico
    • Britain
    • the Confederacy

  4. Question 4

    After Reconstruction ended, many Southern states passed laws that…

    • ended all taxes
    • gave everyone equal rights
    • built new schools for all
    • kept African Americans from voting

  5. Question 5

    Sectionalism means people care more about their…

    • family than friends
    • school than home
    • country than their region
    • own region than the whole country

  6. Question 6

    The plantation system grew because there was high demand for…

    • steel
    • computers
    • cotton
    • ice

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