New England Colonies Worksheets

About this resource

Teaching the New England colonies and need pages students can read, label, sort and write on? This is a complete set for grades 6-8: a map of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Connecticut drawn for this file, six short readings, word work, a timeline, a colony chart, three cut-and-paste mats, writing pages and a quiz, with answer keys and teacher records.

EVERYTHING INSIDE (41 pages)

• 26 student pages in 16 kinds of page, each with a name line and one short instruction
• 103 scored items on 20 scored pages
• 1 labeled study map (4 colonies, 8 towns, a map key, a compass rose and a scale bar), 2 label-the-map pages (8 items each: colonies, land and water features, and towns), 1 compass-directions page (6 pairs) and 1 how-far page (6 distances with a mile ruler drawn at the map's own scale)
• 6 readings of 117 to 139 words (why settlers came, who left Massachusetts and why, land and weather, making a living, daily life in a town, governing themselves), each with 2 checks (12 in all), a writing box of at least 4 lines and one of at least 2 lines
• Word work: 8 vocabulary words to match, 8 sentences to fill from a word bank, 6 who-am-I clues, 5 events to place in order by year, and 6 causes to match to effects
• 1 colony chart: who settled it and why, land and jobs, government and town life
• 3 cut-and-paste mats, 6 pieces each in a 3 by 2 grid (18 pieces): causes and effects, facts sorted by colony, and facts sorted by topic
• 6 short-answer questions across two pages (at least 4 ruled lines each), 1 claim-evidence-reasoning page, a 12-item quiz in two parts (the second part is a map) and 1 self check (8 statements)
• 4 answer keys; 1 tracker, 1 class grid, 1 team note, 1 family page, 1 filled example (an invented student) and 1 phrase bank (17 starters in 6 groups)
• Start Here and a how-to-read-a-page page

Built For The Student Holding The Page

A "My name" line, one short instruction with a small picture cue, a plain scalloped border and big ruled and answer boxes. Nothing on a student page is written for an adult: the keys and records are on separate teacher pages. The cut pages have six pieces in a strip-and-grid layout, edge to edge, so there are only a few straight cuts. The map is drawn in light colors on a plain background and prints clean in black and white.

A Short Account, Not A Full Textbook

The map is a simplified outline: modern state lines stand in for the colonies' borders, and Maine is shown as part of Massachusetts, as it was in colonial times. It is not a survey. Each reading is a plain-words summary written for this file. It does not quote any source and it is not tied to a particular standard. The Making a Living reading says plainly that enslaved people lived and worked in New England and that some merchants took part in the slave trade. Check the map and readings against your own textbook and atlas. The only student in the file is an invented example, and it says so.

Type In, Or Print

The name line, every answer box, every check box, every ruled work box and the write-in boxes on the map are type-in fields in any PDF reader: click one, type, then save. The cut pages are for a pencil and scissors: they print. Print at 100 percent so the mile ruler stays true to the map beside it. This is a fillable PDF; it is not a Google Slides or PowerPoint file.

What This Is, And What It Is Not

A set of New England colonies pages and readings with the record-keeping around it. It is not a timed test, a screener, a clinical tool, or a claim about any student's age or rate of progress. There is no IEP goal language or eligibility wording anywhere in the file, and no claim of alignment to any standard.

If You Want More

13 Colony Map Worksheets | Blank Map, Regions Sort, Readings Grades 6-8; Lewis and Clark Worksheets | Sort, Match, Timeline 6th 7th 8th Grade; Industrial Revolution Worksheets | Inventions, Sort, Timeline 6th-8th Grade.