American Story 1 Theme Introduction

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Experience a One-of-a-Kind Journey — Live the American Story!

Introducing the all-new American Story – now featuring a full-color premium journal of more than 600 interactive pages! Your family will eagerly dive into studies of Colonial America, the Revolution & Westward Expansion. Your family will crowd around each story – one that shares tales of heroes, villains & the amazing people in our country’s past. The learning doesn’t stop there! See your family delve into activity resources, where they will assemble a colonial village, construct flip-and-fold maps, play traditional games, try out period recipes, explore virtual tours of early American places, and make fun hands-on projects like coonskin caps or Lewis and Clark’s keelboat.

Join us this year on a memory-making adventure through early American history.

**PLEASE NOTE: The final part of the reading text and the 3rd part of the student journal is in the final stages of development and therefore will be sent out in early May.**

Our New Beautifully Illustrated AS1 Brings You Everything Charlotte Mason!

Built Around Living Books

You will be venturing in to our usual set of adventure readers, this time selecting from three lists based upon your students’ ages. Titles include classics such as “The Sign of the Beaver,” and new titles like “Regina Silsby’s Secret War,” to take you inside the history and culture of early America. In addition, our book, The American Story, provides a living experience all its own. It brings together what you’re learning in other living books, providing a complete learning experience with its wealth of historical detail. Students will hear from shopkeepers and tradesmen how they run their colonial businesses, hear from Paul Revere and Samuel Adams how they stirred Americans to action during the Revolution, and so much more! This book enables you to have the full range of CM experience with no prep for your family — just a great learn-together year!

Daily Interactive Journaling

Our huge 500+ page journal provides interactive, wonderfully illustrated pages that take the learning another step. Many pages require students to use what they’ve learned to make decisions or draw conclusions, like a page that asks students to decide what shipbuilding tool to use based upon the need for the tools of that trade. There are so many pages, that there will be plenty to engage every learning style!

Focused Narration

Many parents integrate oral narration into their daily studies and review, but we’ve gone a step further to provide a notebook all ready for students to dive into! Each page is interactive and wonderfully illustrated, and provide students a way to “narrate back” what they’ve learned in a written format!

Nature Study & Science

Each week provides a nature study or science experience or experiment for students that is linked to their historical and cultural studies. In colonial times, they try Benjamin Franklin experiments, and as they journey with Lewis & Clark, they discover the natural world that these explorers beheld for the first time!

Short Instruction Periods

The other resources we provide allow students a wealth of different learning experiences, so each is kept streamlined. Live the American Story offers many unique things to try and do related to the culture of early America, including patterns to use, period crafts to try, and even virtual tours and videos to view! Meanwhile, Build the American Story is a resource that allows students to build a colonial village large enough to re-enact key events in colonial history or narrate about what each shopkeeper in town does and how, based upon their reading. This resource allows each learning style to engage with it differently!

Interested to see what our resources looks like? Below are samples of some of the highlighted resources in this program!

To see samples of the teacher’s guide click here!

To see an extensive sample of our amazing journaling resource click on the links here! PART 1 PART 2 PART 3 PART 4

To see samples of the “Live the American Story” activity resource click here!

To see samples of the “Build the American Story” resource click here!

Getting To Know American Story 1

Introducing Our Early American Story

Introducing Our American Story 1

Get ready for an adventure as you learn about life in America from its Native American culture, to its discovery by Europeans and exciting growth as a nation. You’ll love our full color reading text that tells the stories of colonists and their work, the events that brought about the Revolutionary War, and how this young nation became a unified country. You’ll travel with pioneers and the Lewis and Clark Expedition as they travel west meeting Native Americans and the land that soon would become their home.

This full color reading text is perfect for a variety of ages as the material will grab the attention of both younger and older students. Younger students will love the color and illustrations. We have also structured this reading text to look in-depth at concrete topics that younger students will remember and love. Older students will enjoy the full color text with their younger siblings or on their own. Again the concrete topics covered within the program make it easy for older students to absorb tons of information. We also have more difficult pages that cover broad movements and time periods in American history that affected our history. These topics are not as concrete and so older students will enjoy how discovering how the concrete topics covered fit into these larger movements in our history. Some of these topics include: the story of tea and other trade goods, the Age of Enlightenment, the Triangle Trade, Westward Expansion, developing and establishing our government and its policies, and the Antebellum South.

In addition, the wonderful benefit of having this reading text and activity resources created by WP, is how everything works together each week. As you study these topics you and your students will understand the flow of our early American history. You’ll see how events and ideas built on each other. Students will understand and remember what they’ve studied with the structure of this resource.

Our new full color journal (roughly 600 pages long!), includes fun games, interactive journaling pages, paper crafts you can build, and more! You and your student will build a boat used by Lewis and Clark and other fun things to assemble. There are so many fun ready to use activities and hands-on crafts within the resources in this program such as: Live the American Story, Build the American Story, and the Flip & Fold activity book. There will be no end to the hands-on and journaling fun!

This American Story program will be a journey like no other! Everything you need to study history, culture, geography, and science is included in this program. You won’t want to miss it!

Why You’ll Love Experiencing Our American Story

You’ll Enjoy Lingering in Full Color History Resources

Look out across the Atlantic Ocean, get a first glimpse of the New World, scan Revolutionary battlefields, and study the new-fangled Erie canal — all in the picture-filled pages and historical figures to lead the way through our American reading text. Designed to work with a wide range of ages, American Story shows you what history is all about with paintings, illustrations, drawings, maps & photographs.

Your Family Will Enjoy the History Notebooking

This year’s Early American Journal is in full color! Large maps, interactive color pages,respond to questions, create artwork, solve puzzles, and other paper activities throughout the year. You’ll try out Norse math, pick an original Thanksgiving menu, make a colonial business sign, draw a colonial postal route, decode a message about Benedict Arnold, and more! You’ll make a colonial board game, send secret messages through the Culper Spy Ring,and meet new Native Tribes with Lewis and Clark.

They’ll Learn & Remember 100 Key Events and Their Importance!

We’ve assembled 100 dates from this year’s timeline dates and created a reinforcement Timeline Card set that you can copy and use for games and drill. On one side is the “EVENT” and on the reverse is the “DATE” and “HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE” of the event, to maximize learning and retention!

You’ll Make Memories with a Wealth of Easy-to-Complete Activities

You’ll enjoy so many activity resources to give your family even more choices each week. One of these resources is an “Build the American Story,” where students can build colonial homes, tradesmen and craftsmen buildings, and many more! The “Flip & Fold” resource will help your student visualize the geography of important events like Paul Revere’s ride, the Erie Canal or trails to the West.

What Unique Hands-On Activities Await Us?

Play Traditional Games, Such As:

The Preacher’s Cat

I Love My Love

Initials

Nine Digits

Sentence Relay

Hands-On Activities, Such As:

Grow 18th-Century Crops

Make Christmas Stamps

Read a Historical Newspaper

Make a Family Journal

Candle Dipping

Coonskin Cap

Try Surveying

Plains Teepee

Make a Quill Pen

Buffalo Mask

Try Early American Recipes, Such As:

Gingerbread Cake

Chicken Pudding

Colonial Tea

Boiled Pudding

Sioux Wojapi

Take Virtual Tours, Such As:

Native American Earthlodge

Jamestown Fort

Working Gristmill

Presidential Portraits

A Working Steamboat

Watch Recommended DVDs or Online Video, Such As:

America Through Native Eyes

American Spymaster

George Washington & Benedict Arnold

Live Wildlife Cams

Try Online Games, Such As:

Life in a Colonial Town

Making a Colonial Product

Investigate Colonial Punishments

A Blacksmith and His Tools

What Will We Study?

You’ll study the history of America in stories of explorers, colonists, revolutionists, and frontiersmen. You’ll discover the amazing trades and crafts in colonial towns, heroes that fought in the Revolutionary War, smart presidents who led our country in its first years as a nation, and the pioneers and forty-niners that pushed into the West!

Discoverers & Explorers

Native Americans
The Sea-Going Vikings
Explorers Discover Amaierca
Spanish Conquest
Explorers Map the Americas
Explorers Brave the East Coast

Colonists in Colonial America

First American Colonies
Establishing Colonies
Colonial Health and Faith
Everyday Life for Colonists
Colonial Clothing & Pastimes
Colonial Craftsmanship
Slaves Come to the Colonies

Revolutionaries

The French & Indian War
The English Anger the Colonists
Revolutionaries Want Independence
The Revolutionary War
Revolutionary Spycraft
Americans Win the War!

Founding Fathers, New Americans

Coming Together as a Country
Framers of the Constitution
First Presidents

Corps of Discovery

Lewis & Clark’s Great Journey
Going Along the Missouri River
Lewis & Clark Head for the Ocean
Lewis & Clark Make It Home

Western Settlers

Life of a Pioneer
At Work in the West
The Frontiersmen, or Furs, Forts & Sports
Wagons Go West
Cowboys, Cavalry & Cattlemen
“Forty-Niners” Rush for Gold

People in Changing Times

Native Americans Lose Their Lands
Ingenious Americans
Railroad Men & Canal-Builders
Pony Express Gallops West!
Lives of Slaves & Abolitionists

What’s in the Guide?

What’s in the American Story 1 Guide?

Your American Story 1 guide will come alongside you to help you keep your school days organized. It is designed to be easy to follow, with each week’s assignments laid out on just one page! The introduction to the guide offers you oodles of teaching helps that may feel like Charlotte Mason just “friended” you — like advice she’d give you on how to grade student work! It’s all here!

A 36-week, 4-day schedule is laid out clearly in a grid-style on just one page
Introductory material helps you mentor and “learn together” with your student
Supply lists and other helps make planning quick and painless
Narration ideas in the front of the guide help you prompt your student through the year
Weekly schedule page reduces your paperwork and is easy to follow, with clear notes
Resources offer a focus on activities that are “Open & Go!”
Ratings systems for activities help you find the ones you want!
Independent study schedules for older students eliminate writing out homework lists
100 Timeline Cards and games provide fun drill to retain key events
Website and DVD suggestions take your family back to early American times
Above all, WP offers a practical, “Can-Do-and-Want-To-Do!” approach
Additional library Suggestions
Multiple age level Adventure Reading scheduled

What Materials Are Included?

This program is designed for students from K – 7th grades.

WinterPromise Exclusives You’ll Love

Bible Study & Other Resources – These Items Included in Premium Packages or Purchased Individually

What Signature WP Experiences Await Us?

WinterPromise considers itself a curriculum that embraces the “Experience Approach,” offering Charlotte-Mason style learning opportunities with up-to-date materials that make the most of technology, too. In each WP program, you’ll encounter a lot of our signature “Experiences.” Some of them come in key resources like our “Build the American Story” resource, while others are in the guide or ready to discover in other resources.

Here are just a sampling of the experiences your student can choose to make a part of their year:

Delve into American tribes by region and discover their histories and traditions
Try a Native American Friendship Dance or Make Apache Playing Cards
Complete science experiments linked to your weekly study
Read Viking runes and sketch some yourself
Make a Viking Home, Native American Teepee & Longhouse, and boat used by Lewis & Clark
Go inside the homes and workplaces of colonial people
Build colonial shops and other buildings like a church and merchant shop
Visit the landscape of places like the California coast or the Mississippi River or Great Plains
See for Yourself What the Mayflower or Frontier Log Cabins Were Like
Visit the Jamestown Fort or Tour Plymouth Plantation
Study Benjamin Franklin’s life and discoveries with online websites and integrated science experiments
Follow heroes like Paul Revere or Lewis & Clark on maps of their adventures
Look at Early American Icons like the Liberty Bell, Mount Vernon, and Independence Hall
Try Out Colonial Occupations or Pioneer Recipes
Send Secret Revolutionary Messages, Name the Three Sisters, and Try Finger Spinning
Travel to America, Move Across the Plains, and Follow Pioneer Trails

How Do I Use Ebook Versions?

While many of our families do enjoy books, most of our ebooks would better be considered resources, rather than the types of books that families typically desire to enjoy as “books.” With all this in mind, not only might our ebooks sets be right for your family, you might just discover that they really offer you a better way to do school! And remember – most of our programs include bonus ebook resources you can’t get any other way! Take a look at the ways you could utilize our ebook resources:

Consumable materials can be printed out looseleaf, and you are able to print as many copies as you want!
Some resources are designed to function as easily flippable “Tablet Books” that look great on a tablet screen, and are in beautiful full color. They are easy to cuddle around, just like books. NOTE! These books function on any device, not just a tablet!
Some resources just offer more functionality, as they jump you to websites and more!
Ebook resources are most often in full color, and look unbelievable on your device!
Almost all resources allow you to customize your experience, whether filling in assignments or printing just the right number.

Take a look at the “American” resources below. Discover how they function as ebooks, and the advantages to making them a part of your library, and then decide!

The American Story 1 Guide in Ebook Format
This guide brings you a wealth of functionality not present in a print guide. Take a look:

Recommended websites link directly to the web on devices that have web access
Separate “Independent Study Schedules” files allow you to print off your student’s Independent Study Schedules
Guide pages are viewable in full color
You can customize your experience: select and print any pages you’d like from the guide and view others

Early American Journal
This resource is easy to print looseleaf, and can be printed as many times as you like for multiple students, offering you a great savings. By having access to this file, you can customize and print only those pages you’ll use, which is especially handy if you have younger students, or student who would rather focus on other aspects of the program. Either way, your students are using it the same way in print or ebook. This is a black and white resource, and need not be printed in color, though it is in vibrant color in the ebook format.

American Reading Text: Book 1 & 2
Students will be able to read both the American stories and discover the Native American tribes on any device. This book reads very easily on a tablet or laptop and is a great one to use on the go!

Early American Journal: Book 1, 2, & 3
This can easily be printed for one or multiple students. The many full color pages makes this an excellent resource to print in color. There are three journals, so you’ll be printing out pages from each one as you progress through the year. Look below at topics/sections covered in each journal.

Journal 1: Discovery & Colonial America
Journal 2: American Revolution
Journal 3: A New Country, Westward Expansion, & Lewis and Clark

Live the American Story
This is an activity resource that doesn’t need to be printed as you’ll only need to refer to it for activities. It can easily be viewed on a device or computer.

Build the American Story
This resource contains full color pages that you can print out as you need them each week.

Flip N Fold
This resource is black and white so the students can color it themselves. Easy resource to print on own at home.

What Items are Related to American Story 1?

Below you’ll find information on products related to American Story 1, including the consumables in the program, language arts programs you might want to consider, and what else to add to complete the learning.

Start by Deciding if You Need Extra of These Consumables in Print:

Early American Story Journal Parts 1, 2 & 3

Next, Consider if You Want to Purchase a Coordinating Language Arts Program:
Coordinating language arts programs offer scheduled readers that coordinate with this theme and typically offer creative writing or narration suggestions that coordinate with this theme as well. This theme coordinates with:

K/Adv K Syllables to Sentences
Adv K/1st Grade Paragraphs to Pages
1st/2nd Grade Stories to Short Chapters
2nd/3rd Grade Readers to Real Books
LA 3 – “Tracking Down Good Grammar”
LA 4 – “Solving the Mysteries of Grammar”
LA 5 – “Digging Into Paragraphs”
LA 6 – “Exploring Word Pictures”
LA 7 – “Exploring Great Genre Writing”

Add Your Choice of Timeline Figures
Add a Science Program – This isn’t necessary for younger and middle grade students.
Add a Math Program

And, If You Want Adventure Reading to Coordinate with American Story 1 . . .
WinterPromise has always included family reading with their themed programs, but as we’ve watched prices on these books go up, we feel it is better to offer parents the option to choose whether or not to purchase these books as part of their program. This way parents have the choice to collect new or used books, borrow them, or take advantage of the advent of personal reading devices and use ebooks on their devices.

We have three sets in this program:

We have our Older Student Set, Younger Student Set and our Combined Set.

What About Ordering?

When you’ve learned enough about American 1 resources, you can either continue on to our store explore other options or go to the “Ready to Purchase?” button above to see our packages.

What About Updates?

(2017) This program has been updated this year and is brand new!

Ready to Purchase?

See our Packages Here!