Grade 3 Social Studies Curriculum: Teacher Guide
Revolutionary Period
Key Concepts
• Colonies were ruled by the
British
• Not all colonists were in
favor of British control,
leading to conflict and
ultimately to war
• Danbury stored goods
important to the war effort
Vocabulary
• laws
• taxes
• separate
LA Connections:
• Use stickies or highlighters
to model determining
importance by noting the
details that support the main
idea of ‘Danbury, the Supply
Depot.’
• Use the captions for this text
to show how they extend the
information in the passage.
Information Technology
Use Mapquest or Google to
locate the British headquarters
and where the fire started on
Main Street. How different does
the area look today?
Danbury Public Schools, January 2007
Additional information:
Danbury had a military road that
connected to Hartford. British
headquarters were on the corner of
South and Stone Street. The area of
colonial Danbury that burned was along
the South and Main Street corridor.
The fire started near the old
courthouse on Main Street. 20 to 40
buildings were burned during the raid.
General Wooster was mortally
wounded during the Ridgebury Road
battle. Benedict Arnold took over the
fighting when Wooster was shot.
Wooster was buried in the town
cemetery, but later moved to Wooster
Cemetery on Ellsworth Avenue.
Danbury citizens who lost their
homes in the fire were given land in
northern Ohio, the Western Reserve.
See
w w w.dky web.net/~channy/dan raid.html
for mo re detailed info rmation
CMT Connections:
General Understanding:
• The first paragraph is mostly a
description of…
• If the author had added another
paragraph to the article, ‘The
Beginning of Our Independence’
what would it most likely describe?
page 1
Grade 3 Social Studies Curriculum: Teacher Guide
Revolutionary Period
Key Concepts
• The British burned Danbury
because it was a supply
depot
• British spared Tory homes
• Some Tories perceived the
burning as unfair, and
became Patriots
Vocabulary
• mission
• raid
• banded
LA Connections:
• Use “Danbury, the Supply
Depot’ to model identifying
one fact and one opinion.
They you might use this
article for active engagement
of locating fact/opinion (last
paragraph)
• Text can be used as a model
of sequence of events
structure.
Information Technology
• Continue to record the
changes that are taking
place (transportation,
economy, education,
population, and clothing of
the period)
Danbury Public Schools, January 2007
Additional information:
The military supplies were not kept
in one location. They were spread
amongst individual homes, churches,
and artificer camps. Their objective was
to steal the supplies and shut the depot
down permanently. The British had
short term success when they burned
the supplies, but within six months, the
artificers recreated the supplies.
The colonial militia was successful
in driving the British out of the area.
However, the battle was not fought in
Danbury, but in neighboring Ridgefield.
Benedict Arnold continued the
fighting after Wooster, and chased the
British back to their ships. He wanted to
prevent them from escaping. However
due to British reinforcements, much of
the Patriot militia dispersed. Arnold
was the last man to retreat. He
continued to try to muster the troops
but was unsuccessful.
•
•
CMT Connections:
General Understanding: Briefly
summarize the main events in
this passage in the order that
they occur.
Developing an Interpretation:
Write one fact and one opinion
from the last paragraph.
page 2
Grade 3 Social Studies Curriculum: Teacher Guide
Revolutionary Period
Key Concepts
• Each person can make a
difference
• As a result of Danbury’s
burning, the economy shifted
from agriculture to the
growth of trade
Vocabulary
• attracted
• gather
• event
LA Connections:
• Text features: Use the map,
photo, captions to discuss
purpose of features.
• Danbury Rebuilds can be
used to model thinking
inferentially about what
might happen in the next
time period based upon
clues given.
• Use ‘Sybil Sounds the
Alarm’ to model writing a
brief summary beginning
with a “big-idea” statement.
Information Technology
Learn more about Sybil on the
Danbury history website.
Danbury Public Schools, January 2007
Additional information:
Sybil is often referred to as the
female Paul Revere. She rode more
than twice the distance of Paul Revere
in Boston and was only 16 years old.
Comfort Starr left money in his will
for Danbury’s first publik school. The
school was built on Wooster Street. It
was later called the Danbury Academy.
Students had to pay to attend this
school and it was only for boys. From
that, the public school system
expanded.
CMT Connections:
• Making Connections: Think about
someone who did something
courageous. Tell how that
experience was like the
experience of Sybil in the article.
• Developing Interpretation: What is
one of the author’s purposes in
this passage?
• Examining Content and Structure:
Imagery is the use of words that
make the reader imagine what the
characters see, hear, taste, touch,
or smell. Choose two words or
phrases from the article (Sybil
Sounds the Alarm) that help you
imagine Sybil’s ride.
page 3
Grade 3 Social Studies Curriculum: Teacher Guide
Revolutionary Period
Key Concepts
• Crosy and Arnold influenced
the outcome of the war
•
•
•
•
•
Vocabulary
service
spying
ambitious
traitor
political
LA Connections:
• Explain that the phrase
“Benedict Arnold” is an idiom
(or figure of speech) You
might discuss other idioms.
• ‘Food Anyone?’ has a main
idea that is not explicitly
stated. Model using the
information in the article to
formulate a main idea
statement.
Information Technology
Use the Danbury history website
to locate additional information
about the revolutionary period in
Danbury. Listen to the video from
the Danbury Museum and
research people of the times.
Danbury Public Schools, January 2007
Additional information:
Benedict Arnold was a ‘druggist’ in New
Haven before the Revolutionary War.
He fought under the command of Ethan
Allen during the war and had
conversations with George
Washington. During the battle in
Ridgefield, two horses were shot under
Benedict Arnold as he rode them. In
1878 he married his second wife, a
Tory, Margaret Shippen. He socialized
with Tories. In 1781 he went to London
on a visit and eventually he moved to
England and died an unhappy man.
CMT Connections:
• Making Connections: If (Crosby;
Arnold; Sybil) were alive today,
what would you most like to ask
him/her? Use information in the
article to support your answer.
• Developing Interpretation: What
type of a person do you think
Enoch Crosby was? Use details
from the passage to support your
answer.
• Examining Content and Structure:
Using the information in the
article, write a paragraph that
could have appeared in (Crosby or
Arnold’s) Journal.
page 4