6th grade Social Studies: how to help at home
What your child learns in 6th grade social studies in the Alabama Course of Study, and simple things to try at home.
Focus areas this year
- Course: Making a New Nation: United States Beginnings and Civic Foundations
- Colonization of North America
- The American Revolution
- Creating a government, and citizens' rights and responsibilities
Easy ways to practice social studies at home
- Follow a current event together and ask who is affected and why people see it differently.
- Build a timeline of a family event or a historical topic they are studying.
- Use an atlas or online map to trace a trade or travel route.
- Ask “Whose voice is missing from this story?” when reading about the past.
What each unit covers
The Columbian Exchange
The plants, animals, people, ideas and diseases that crossed the Atlantic after 1492, sugar plantations, and the transatlantic slave trade and the Middle Passage, told factually, with how enslaved Africans resisted and kept their cultures alive.
The Thirteen Colonies
Why the colonies were founded, how land and climate shaped the three regions, the people who founded them, the religious life of the colonies and the First Great Awakening, and early self-government such as the Mayflower Compact and the House of Burgesses.
Colonial Trade & Work
Resources, specialization and trade in the colonies, mercantilism, and the Atlantic slave trade and its impact on African peoples, told plainly and age-appropriately.
Road to Revolution
British taxes, colonial protests such as boycotts and the Boston Tea Party, the Continental Congresses, and why Loyalists and Patriots saw things differently.
The American Revolution
The Declaration of Independence and its ideals, key battles from Lexington to Yorktown, help from France and others, and the people of many backgrounds who shaped the war.
Building a Government
Why the Articles of Confederation were replaced, the compromises of 1787, the three branches, checks and balances, federalism and the Bill of Rights (1791).
Founding Ideals
The Magna Carta, English Bill of Rights and Mayflower Compact, the Declaration of Independence, the debates of 1787, the Federalist Papers, and the principles of the Constitution.
Rights & Amendments
What the first ten amendments protect, the Reconstruction Amendments, and why rights come with limits and responsibilities.
Taking Part
Ways to take part before and after 18, volunteering and civil society, petitions and peaceful protest, deliberating about tensions in our democracy, and checking news for reliability.
North America Before Contact
Major Indigenous societies of North America before European contact: the Mississippian mound builders of Moundville and Cahokia, Ancestral Puebloans, the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, nations of the Great Plains, and the nations of the Southeast, many of which are living nations today.
Explorers & Colonizers
Why Spain, France and England explored and colonized North America (mercantilism, religion, wealth and new opportunities), the expeditions that reached Alabama, and the effects on Indigenous peoples.
Choosing Our Leaders
How the Constitution and its amendments set up the selection of leaders: the Electoral College, terms of office, Alabama's senators, representatives and electoral votes, and the amendments that widened the right to vote.
Federalism in Alabama
How federalism divides power between the national government and the states, and between Alabama and its counties and cities, and how the legislative, executive and judicial branches work at each level.
A New Nation
George Washington's presidency (the first Cabinet, the new capital in the District of Columbia, religious freedom), and the rise of the Federalist and Democratic-Republican parties in the 1790s.
What the report card levels look like at home
- Beginning
- Just getting started with this idea. Short, regular practice with lots of support helps most.
- Approaching
- Understands parts of it and is building confidence. Keep practicing the tricky parts.
- Meeting
- Has it! Mixed review now and then keeps it strong.
- Exceeding
- Applies it confidently, even in new or harder situations. Try challenge mode and real-life problems.
Your child’s teacher decides the level on the report card. Read the Alabama report card guide.
Common questions
Follow a current event together and ask who is affected and why people see it differently. Build a timeline of a family event or a historical topic they are studying. Keep sessions short, about 10 to 15 minutes, and stop on a success.
The Alabama Course of Study 6th grade social studies units include The Columbian Exchange, The Thirteen Colonies, Colonial Trade & Work, Road to Revolution, The American Revolution, Building a Government.
Free printable 6th grade social studies practice sheet
Questions from every unit, with an answer key.