History & Geography

About this course

Fifth grade attempts the whole story in one year. The first three units cover the ancient world (Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, Rome, China, Israel, and the civilizations of the Americas), then the fall of Rome through feudalism, the medieval church, the Crusades, the Black Death, the Renaissance, and Luther's Reformation, then the Age of Exploration including the spice trade, the Columbian Exchange, and the effects of contact on indigenous peoples. The next seven units run through American history: colonial settlement and the Revolution, the Articles of Confederation and the writing of the Constitution, the Louisiana Purchase, the War of 1812, Indian removal and the Missouri Compromise, Manifest Destiny and the trails west, the abolitionists including Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman, Seneca Falls, the Civil War from secession to Appomattox, Reconstruction, industrialization and the labor movement, the two world wars including the Holocaust, the Depression and the New Deal, the Cold War, Korea and Vietnam, the Civil Rights Movement, the Space Race, and September 11. The final two units step out of chronology for world geography (map projections and scale, climate and physical maps, biomes, population, time zones, global trade, and an overview of the major world religions) and for civics (the Constitution in action, the three branches in depth, state and local government, how a bill becomes law, the electoral process, and foreign policy).

There are 120 lessons, twelve units of ten, at about 30 minutes each. The lesson format is consistent and denser than fourth grade: an opening paragraph that sets the scene, a Key Terms line defining five or six vocabulary words, three or four paragraphs of narrative with real figures and direct quotations, a short list of the important people and events with their dates, and a closing paragraph tying the lesson to a King James passage. About twenty of the lessons carry a period photograph or portrait alongside the text. Every lesson ends with a ten-question multiple-choice quiz that grades itself, and the questions are drawn from the details, not just the headlines.

This is a reading-heavy course and it assumes a student who can work through roughly a thousand words of dense nonfiction alone and keep names, dates, and terms straight. The hardest subjects are handled honestly and soberly, without graphic description: the Black Death lesson gives the real death toll and notes that Jewish communities were falsely blamed, and the Holocaust lesson states the numbers plainly and spends most of its space on the Confessing Church, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and Corrie ten Boom. The peace-church view of history shows up openly, most clearly in the lesson on Martin Luther King Jr., which treats his nonviolence as rooted in the Sermon on the Mount. If this is your student's first exposure to the ancient world, plan on going slower through the opening units than the rest.

What the course covers

• Ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, Rome, China, and Israel
• The Middle Ages, the Crusades, the Black Death, and the Renaissance
• The Reformation and the Age of Exploration
• Colonial America, the Revolution, and the Constitution
• Westward expansion, abolition, and the reform movements
• The Civil War, Reconstruction, and industrial America
• World War I, the Depression, World War II, and the Holocaust
• The Cold War, Civil Rights, the Space Race, and modern America
• World geography: projections, biomes, time zones, and trade
• The Constitution, the three branches, elections, and foreign policy

What your student will be able to do

• Place world and American events on one continuous timeline
• Define and use the vocabulary of each historical era correctly
• Explain the causes and consequences of a major war or movement
• Read a map projection, a climate map, and a time zone chart
• Describe how a bill becomes law and how a president is elected
• Draw on primary quotations when explaining what a historical figure believed

Scope and sequence

All 12 units of History & Geography for Grade 5, in the order they are taught.

Inside the course

These photographs appear in the lessons themselves, not just on this page. Every one is freely licensed and credited to its photographer at the foot of this page.

Every lesson, by title

All 120 lesson titles are listed here — nothing is withheld until you download. Open a unit to read its contents.

One whole lesson, exactly as it comes

This is a real lesson taken from the middle of the course — the teaching text, the practice, the homework, and the first three quiz questions with their answers. It is not a marketing excerpt.

Unit 7: The Civil War · Lesson 1

Causes of the Civil War

30 minutesPencilPaperCrayons or colored pencils

What this lesson is for

• Students will learn about Causes of the civil war
• Students will understand how people live together in communities

Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.

Matthew 5:9

Causes of the Civil War

The American Civil War (1861–1865) was the most costly conflict in American history — over 620,000 soldiers died, more than in all other American wars combined. The war had many causes that built over decades, but at the heart was the institution of slavery — a system so morally wrong that the nation could not remain "half slave and half free," as Abraham Lincoln said. Understanding the war's causes helps us see both the tragedy of American sin and the long-delayed work of justice.

Key Terms: slavery — the practice of owning human beings as property, forcing them to labor without pay or freedom; abolitionism — the movement to end slavery; states' rights — the argument that states have the right to make their own decisions on issues like slavery; sectionalism — the growing differences between Northern and Southern ways of life; the Missouri Compromise (1820) and Compromise of 1850 — legislative deals that tried to balance slave and free states.

The United States was founded with a terrible contradiction: the Declaration of Independence proclaimed all men equal, yet the Constitution protected slavery. The Southern economy depended on enslaved labor for cotton, tobacco, and rice plantations. The North industrialized rapidly, with paid labor and a growing moral movement against slavery. The abolitionist movement — led by figures like Frederick Douglass (an escaped slave) and William Lloyd Garrison — argued that slavery was a grave sin against God and humanity. Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel "Uncle Tom's Cabin" (1852) brought the reality of slavery to Northern readers in unforgettable terms.

Political compromise became impossible. The Missouri Compromise (1820), the Compromise of 1850, and the Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854) all tried to balance slave and free states but only delayed conflict. "Bleeding Kansas" — violent clashes between pro-slavery and anti-slavery settlers in Kansas — showed the nation was heading toward violence. The Supreme Court's Dred Scott decision (1857) — ruling that enslaved people were property with no rights — outraged the North. When Abraham Lincoln, who opposed the spread of slavery, won the presidency in November 1860, seven Southern states seceded before he even took office.

Important People/Events:

• Frederick Douglass (1818–1895) — escaped slave, brilliant author and orator, leading abolitionist
• Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811–1896) — author of "Uncle Tom's Cabin" (1852), which turned Northern opinion against slavery
• The Dred Scott Decision (1857) — Supreme Court ruling that enslaved people had no rights; shocked the North

Proverbs 14:34 states: "Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people." Slavery was a national sin — a "reproach" that could not stand forever. Abolitionists like Sojourner Truth and Frederick Douglass quoted the Bible constantly: "Are not all men brothers? Did not God create all of one blood?" (Acts 17:26). Many Christians on both sides of the war believed God was on their side. Lincoln famously asked in his Second Inaugural: "Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God." He saw the war as God's judgment on the nation for the sin of slavery.

Homework

Answer the review questions about Causes of the civil war.

Note for the parent

Today's lesson covers Causes of the Civil War. Estimated time: 30 minutes. Encourage independent work but be available for questions.

The first three of this lesson's 10 questions

What was at the heart of the Civil War's causes?

1. Disputes over trade routes
2. The institution of slavery
3. Arguments over taxation
4. Who should be president

Show the answer

Answer: The institution of slavery

How many soldiers died in the Civil War?

1. About 100,000
2. About 300,000
3. Over 620,000
4. About 1 million

Show the answer

Answer: Over 620,000

What is abolitionism?

1. The movement to expand slavery
2. The movement for women's voting rights
3. The Southern states' rights movement
4. The movement to end slavery

Show the answer

Answer: The movement to end slavery

Another 7 questions follow in the lesson itself, each one graded the moment it is answered.

What you will need

Drawn from the materials named across all 120 lessons of this course. Most families already own most of it.