How I Teach It: The Texas Revolution

Welcome back for some more Texas history fun! Today I am focusing in on how I teach the Texas Revolution to fourth graders!

This is always a really exciting time in history for students because they know a little bit about it and are eager to learn more. As with most of our larger units I like to let my students explore the information a bit for themselves. This means that I have another freebie for you to help your students explore with some QR codes!

After giving students the time to explore on their own we dive right into our learning. This begins by discussing why colonists wanted to be their own country and no longer part of Mexico. We make a T-chart describing the differences between colonists and their Mexican counterparts. This is usually really eye opening to students, because they begin to draw connections to why the revolution began. 

Then, we start out timeline. Which begins with the Battle of Gonzales and the all too famous "Come and Get it Flag." Many students have seen the flag, but have no idea how it originated. We continue on through our timeline studying and making anchor charts for each stop on our timeline. 

An important stop on this "Road to Revolution" is the Battle of the Alamo. We spend a few days on different activities and then test our knowledge using Alamo Task Cards. 

After studying the different battles we review our knowledge using the Causes and Effects of the Texas Revolution fold-up for our interactive journals. 

Another important part of the Texas Revolution is the people that enacted it. This is where some of my favorite research comes in. Students are each assigned an important person to research and complete a fold-up on. Each student then presents their person and we create a "Revolution Hall of Fame" with all of our fold-ups. 

After our classmates have educated us, we are ready to review our knowledge using the People of the Texas Revolution I Have... Who has...? 

Finally, we are ready to review our knowledge of the whole Texas Revolution using some more activities that can be completed in stations, whole group, or individually. 

   

Have fun on the "Road to Revolution," and keep an eye out for anchor charts and more activities as I teach it this year!