Georgia SS3H3.a
The Standard
Identify key reasons why the New England, Mid-Atlantic, and Southern colonies were founded (religious freedom and profit).
Georgia Standards of Excellence for Social Studies · Explain the factors that shaped British Colonial America.
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students connect each colonial region to the main motives behind settlement. They use details about worship, trade, farming, and cash crops to tell whether religion, profit, or both drove settlement.
What Mastery Looks Like
- Students can read a short account and identify the likely region and motive. They can explain their choice with one accurate detail and recognize that some colonies had more than one motive.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may think every colonist came for religious freedom or that each region had only one motive. They may also confuse religious freedom with equal rights for every faith.
How to Assess It
- Give this exit ticket: “Settlers built tobacco plantations and sold crops overseas. Which region fits best, and what motive does the evidence show?”
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Give pairs a blank colonial regions map and cards labeled worship, trade, tobacco, farming, and wealth to sort and place.
Ask students to write: “Would religion or profit be more likely to influence where a settler lived, and why?”
Play Motive Match by having teams pair short colony clues with New England, Mid-Atlantic, Southern, religion, or profit cards.
Compare colonial settlement motives with reasons people move today, such as jobs, family, safety, or the freedom to practice a religion.
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Printable SS3H3.a Worksheet
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Related Standards
- SS3H3.b
Compare and contrast colonial life in the New England, Mid-Atlantic, and Southern colonies (education, economy, and religion).
- SS3G3.c
Explain how the physical geography of the New England, Mid-Atlantic, and Southern colonies helped determine economic activities.
- SS8H1.b
Explain reasons for European exploration and settlement of North America, with emphasis on the interests of the Spanish and British in the Southeastern area.
- SS3H3
Explain the factors that shaped British Colonial America.
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