United States Studies: Beginnings to the Industrial Revolution

  • 1.

    Locate the boundaries of the United States on a map of North America; recognize state lines on a map and locate the state of Alabama; identify the location of major rivers, lakes, and mountain ranges, including Mobile Bay, the Mississippi River, the Great Lakes, and the Appalachian and Rocky Mountains.SS.AAS.5.1

  • 2.

    Demonstrate an understanding that people often move from one place to another; recognize why people move from one place to another and how that applies to the early migration to North America.SS.AAS.5.2

  • 3.

    Recognize that there were many American Indian cultures in North America.SS.AAS.5.3

  • 4.

    Locate North America and Europe on a world map to illustrate journey; identify primary early European explorers, including Columbus, De Soto, and Magellan; recognize that European explorers sailed to America for economic, religious, and personal gain.SS.AAS.5.4

  • 5.

    Classify the American colonies into three regions, each with distinct climates and natural resources (South: farming, warm climate, Middle: farming, trading, moderate climate, New England: subsistence farming, trade, shipbuilding, cold climate); recognize characteristics of early colonial life in North America.SS.AAS.5.5

  • 6.

    Identify what was called Triangular Trade and on a map, show the triangular trade route and slave trade route.SS.AAS.5.6

  • 7a.

    Define revolution; recognize causes and events that led to the American Revolution including the Stamp Act and Boston Tea Party.SS.AAS.5.7a

  • 8.

    Identify why the people in the American colonies separated and declared independence from Great Britain and eventually became the United States; recognize at least one important factor contributing to American independence including key battles, influential leaders, and the efforts of ordinary men and women including the Battles of Lexington and Concord, Saratoga, and Yorktown, George Washington, and the Minutemen.SS.AAS.5.8

  • 9.

    Define constitution as a plan of government; identify the three branches of government; identify the major freedoms of the Bill of Rights, including speech, religion, press, right to bear arms, and assembly.SS.AAS.5.9

    1. 9a.

      Recognize George Washington as the first president of the United States.SS.AAS.5.9a

  • 10.

    Recognize reasons people would move from their homes to new land in the west and the impact westward expansion had on American Indians; identify at least one or more people, movements, and events involved in America’s early westward expansion, including Lewis and Clark, Sacagawea, the Indian Removal Act, and the gold rush; identify the inventions that aided westward expansion, including the railroad and the steamboat; illustrate the completion of the contiguous United States on a map.SS.AAS.5.10

  • 11.

    Define civil war; recognize one or more key figures of the Civil War, including Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis; label a map of the United States with Southern and Northern states involved in the Civil War.SS.AAS.5.11

    1. 11a.

      Identifying Alabama’s role in the Civil War. Example: Montgomery was the first Confederate capitol.SS.AAS.5.11a

  • 12.

    Define the Reconstruction as the rebuilding of the South and its reintegration into the United States; identify at least one success and one failure of the reconstruction era, including the successes of the thirteenth through fifteenth Amendments, the Freedmen’s Bureau, Jim Crow laws, sharecropping, tenant farming, the election of African American politicians, and the failures of Black Codes.SS.AAS.5.12

  • 13a.

    Identify natural resources and geographic features of the American West, Grand Canyon, Rocky Mountains, and Colorado River; illustrate the completion of the territorial United States on a map; recognize farmers and ranchers as major groups involved in westward expansion; explain the impact of westward expansion on American Indians.SS.AAS.5.13a

Frequently asked questions

What grade levels do these standards cover?
Grade 5
Where can I read the official document?
SOCIAL STUDIES ALTERNATE ACHIEVEMENT STANDARDS 2018