A one-year American history, geography, and literature course for 5th-8th grades, America the Beautiful combines the flexibility and richness of a unit study with the simplicity of a textbook-based approach to history. Daily lessons guide your child chronologically through American history, highlighting key events, people, and places. With 150 lessons, this curriculum is designed to be completed in one year, however we have found that with the addition of more biographies, historical fiction books, and documentaries it can easily fill two very rich years of school.
The Curriculum Set includes these six books:
America the Beautiful Part 1: America from 1000 to 1877 in hardback
America the Beautiful Part 2: America from the Late 1800s to the Present in hardback
We the People – Primary documents in hardback
Maps of America the Beautiful in paperback
Timeline of America the Beautiful in paperback
America the Beautiful Answer Key in paperback
At the beginning of each unit, an introductory page gives an overview of the unit, a list of the lessons, and a list of what additional books the student will be using while studying that particular unit. Following the unit introduction are five daily lessons, one to be read each day. Each unit typically includes one lesson in each of the following categories:
Our American Story - A lesson telling major events of the time period of the unit.
God's Wonders - A lesson about an amazing creation God placed in America that relates to the unit's time period.
An American Landmark - A lesson about an important site in American history that relates to the unit's time period.
An American Biography - A lesson about a person who lived during the time period being studied.
Daily Life - A lesson about how certain people lived and worked during the time period of the unit.
Your child can read the daily lessons on his own or you can read the lessons aloud. The lessons are richly illustrated with historical photographs and illustrations. Many lessons feature color photos and artwork. At the end of each lesson is a list of four to six activities. Students are not necessarily expected to complete all of these activities. You may choose which activities you wish to assign. Depending on how many activities you assign, most students will need 45-90 minutes to complete one lesson.
The types of activities vary from day to day. They include:
Thinking Biblically
Map work in Maps of America the Beautiful
Vocabulary
Entries in Timeline of America the Beautiful
Reading assignments from We the People and recommended literature titles
Creative writing
Assignments in the Student Workbook or Lesson Review
One special family activity is assigned each week. These include craft and art projects, recipes, and other multi-age activities.
These ten works of literature are assigned in the America the Beautiful curriculum to give your child a richer perspective on the various time periods studied.
• Growing Up Dakota by Charles Eastman (Units 2-5)
• Amos Fortune: Free Man by Elizabeth Yates (Units 6-7)
• Brady by Jean Fritz (Units 9-10)
• Bound for Oregon by Jean Van Leeuwen (Units 12-13)
• Across Five Aprils by Irene Hunt (Units 14-15)
• Little Town on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder (Units 16-18)
• All-of-a-Kind Family by Sydney Taylor (Units 19-20)
• Blue Willow by Doris Gates (Units 21-22)
• Homer Price by Robert McCloskey (Unit 23)
• Katy's Box by Mary Evelyn Notgrass McCurdy (Units 27-29)
All of these literature titles are available from Heppner’s Legacy.
Each of the 6 books in this set can be purchased separately. Purchase the set and SAVE.
