Grade 5 Social Studies Units

Discover Grade 5 Social Studies unit plans with standards-aligned lessons that build U.S. history knowledge, civic understanding, and real-world critical thinking skills.

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Grade 5 Social Studies Units

Unit Plan 36 (Grade 5 Social Studies): Cumulative Synthesis & Exhibition

Culminating 5th grade History Fair where students synthesize timelines, maps, documents, and civic/economic ideas into an interactive exhibit showing U.S. development and citizenship.

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Grade 5 Social Studies Units

Unit Plan 35 (Grade 5 Social Studies): The United States in the World

Students map how the U.S. connects to other nations through trade, movement, and ideas, explain global interdependence, model how taxes or boycotts affect demand, and identify which levels of government support these worldwide connections.

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Grade 5 Social Studies Units

Unit Plan 34 (Grade 5 Social Studies): Civic Action and Service

Students design a local civic action or service project that reflects democratic ideals, citizen responsibilities, and rights with limits, using civil discourse to choose an issue and create clear products that communicate their plan to an authentic audience.

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Grade 5 Social Studies Units

Unit Plan 33 (Grade 5 Social Studies): Human-Environment Interaction in the New Nation

Students explore how canals, railroads, and land use reshaped the environment and economy of the new nation, analyzing resource use and weighing the benefits and costs of human-environment interaction.

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Grade 5 Social Studies Units

Unit Plan 32 (Grade 5 Social Studies): Expanding America’s Borders

Students trace U.S. exploration, migration, and westward expansion using maps and primary/secondary sources, examining how geography shaped routes and how expansion brought opportunity for some and loss and harm—especially for Indigenous peoples.

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Grade 5 Social Studies Units

Unit Plan 31 (Grade 5 Social Studies): Civic Debate—Rights Then and Now

Students explore liberty, equality, and rights through founding documents, analyze past and present debates, and practice civil discourse in a structured class debate using evidence from the Declaration, Constitution, and Bill of Rights.

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Grade 5 Social Studies Units

Unit Plan 30 (Grade 5 Social Studies): Work, Money, and Markets

Students investigate how early Americans earned, saved, spent, and invested by analyzing budgets, ledgers, maps, and artifacts—connecting household money choices to markets, mercantilism, and the wider economic systems that shaped everyday life.

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Grade 5 Social Studies Units

Unit Plan 29 (Grade 5 Social Studies): Trade and Interdependence

Students map Atlantic and domestic trade routes, explore interdependence among regions, and analyze how resources, taxes, and boycotts shaped early American trade—showing how goods, people, and ideas moved across the Atlantic world and the growing United States.

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Grade 5 Social Studies Units

Unit Plan 28 (Grade 5 Social Studies): Scarcity and Choice in a Growing Nation

Students investigate how scarcity, landforms, waterways, and climate shaped early American settlement and expansion—analyzing choices like docks vs. roads or coast vs. frontier and explaining each decision’s opportunity cost using maps, scenarios, and case studies.

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Grade 5 Social Studies Units

Unit Plan 27 (Grade 5 Social Studies): Midyear Synthesis — “Building a Nation” Exhibit

Students create a “Building a Nation” exhibit by developing inquiry questions, analyzing sources, and crafting evidence-based claims that connect founding ideals, early leaders, government structures, and the new nation’s economy in an engaging, civics-focused display.

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Grade 5 Social Studies Units

Unit Plan 26 (Grade 5 Social Studies): The Economy of a New Nation

Students discover how the early United States built its economy by examining scarcity, opportunity cost, regional specializations, trade, and money choices—connecting early American producers and consumers to real-world earning, saving, spending, and investing.

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Grade 5 Social Studies Units

Unit Plan 25 (Grade 5 Social Studies): Early Presidents and Leadership

Students investigate how George Washington and John Adams shaped the early republic—setting precedents, managing crises, and facing disagreement—to understand how leadership and civic responsibility worked in America’s first presidencies.

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Grade 5 Social Studies Units

Unit Plan 24 (Grade 5 Social Studies): Levels of Government

Teach students how local, state, and federal governments share powers and services by comparing real-world examples—like roads, parks, schools, and national programs—and guiding them to decide which level should address community issues using clear evidence and reasoning.

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Grade 5 Social Studies Units

Unit Plan 23 (Grade 5 Social Studies): Rights and Responsibilities of Citizens

Students learn how rights and responsibilities work together in a democracy, exploring how everyday actions—like following rules, showing respect, helping others, and participating in school decisions—support the common good.

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Grade 5 Social Studies Units

Unit Plan 22 (Grade 5 Social Studies): The Bill of Rights

Students learn the meaning of the first ten amendments by paraphrasing key rights and applying them to real-world school and community scenarios through evidence-based “Rights in Action” briefs.

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Grade 5 Social Studies Units

Unit Plan 21 (Grade 5 Social Studies): Principles of the Constitution

Students learn how separation of powers, checks and balances, and federalism divide and limit government power, using real-world scenarios to identify each principle in action.

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Grade 5 Social Studies Units

Unit Plan 20 (Grade 5 Social Studies): Writing the Constitution

Students explore why the Articles failed, how delegates debated representation and power at the Constitutional Convention, and how key compromises created the stronger, three-branch government outlined in the U.S. Constitution.

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Grade 5 Social Studies Units

Unit Plan 19 (Grade 5 Social Studies): The Articles of Confederation

Students examine the strengths and weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation and learn why its problems—like money, trade, and national defense—led leaders to call for a stronger Constitution.

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Grade 5 Social Studies Units

Unit Plan 18 (Grade 5 Social Studies): Midyear Inquiry Project — “Why Revolution?”

Students investigate multiple causes of the American Revolution and craft a clear, evidence-based claim—using sources, perspectives, and reasoning—to explain what most drove colonists toward independence.

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Grade 5 Social Studies Units

Unit Plan 17 (Grade 5 Social Studies): International Allies and Global Impact

Students explore how France, Spain, and other international allies transformed the Revolution into a global conflict, using maps and sources to see how worldwide support helped secure American independence.

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Grade 5 Social Studies Units

Unit Plan 16 (Grade 5 Social Studies): Major Battles and Turning Points

Students map major Revolutionary War battles and explain why Saratoga, Valley Forge, and Yorktown became key turning points that shaped the path to American independence.

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Grade 5 Social Studies Units

Unit Plan 15 (Grade 5 Social Studies): Patriots, Loyalists, and Perspectives

A 5th-grade unit where students compare Patriot, Loyalist, and marginalized perspectives to see how background and experience shaped views of the American Revolution.

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Grade 5 Social Studies Units

Unit Plan 14 (Grade 5 Social Studies): The Declaration of Independence

The unit teaches students to decode key excerpts from the Declaration of Independence, uncover Enlightenment ideals like natural rights and consent of the governed, and explain why the document marked a major turning point in American history.

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Grade 5 Social Studies Units

Unit Plan 13 (Grade 5 Social Studies): The Road to Revolution

Colonial events from the French & Indian War to the Declaration of Independence are sequenced to reveal how conflicts, taxes, protests, and shifting ideas gradually pushed colonists toward revolution.

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Grade 5 Social Studies Units

Unit Plan 12 (Grade 5 Social Studies): Protests and Boycotts

Colonial protests and boycotts—shaped by taxes, trade laws, and competing perspectives—show how everyday choices and persuasive arguments helped colonists challenge British policies and push tensions toward revolution.