America the Beautiful

The Notgrass History America the Beautiful curriculum is a one-year American history, geography, and literature course designed for students in grades 5-8. It combines the flexibility and richness of a unit study with the simplicity of a textbook-based approach to history. Daily lessons guide your middle-school student chronologically through American history, with an emphasis on key events, people, and places.

The 2-volume text includes the course instructions and easy-to-follow daily directions that children are often able to follow independently. Each of the thirty units has five lessons. You can complete the curriculum in one year by doing one lesson per day for 150 days during your school year. Depending on how many activities you assign, most students will need 45-90 minutes to complete one lesson. While this course is designed for children in grades 5-8, younger children can listen to the lessons and participate in the family activities.

Lessons can be read by children independently or used as a read-aloud. Chapters features color and black-and-white historical photographs, illustrations, and artwork. At the end of each lesson, four to six activities are provided from which parents can choose which they'd like to assign. One special family activity, like an arts and crafts project, recipe, or other multi-age activity, is also assigned each week.

Activities vary from day to day and may include:

  • Thinking Biblically
  • Map work in Maps of America the Beautiful
  • Vocabulary
  • Entries in Timeline of America the Beautiful
  • Reading assignments from We the People (excerpts from letters, speeches, poems, newspaper articles, and other primary sources)
  • Reading assignments in the literature titles
  • Creative writing
  • Assignments in the Student Workbook or Lesson Review

This kit includes:

  • Two hardcover student textbooks
  • We the People book of primary resources
  • Timeline of America the Beautiful
  • Maps of America the Beautiful
  • Answer key

2nd Edition Updates:

Please note that the 1st and 2nd editions are not compatible with each other - none of the old books can be used with the new and vice versa.

The 2nd Edition of America the Beautiful keeps the same core philosophy and methodology as the 1st edition. In the first edition of America the Beautiful, some units had two lessons of the same type; in this 2nd edition, the focus of some lessons has changed, and others have been swapped out so that each unit has one of each type of lesson. The length of the lesson has also been standardized. There have also been improvements to the historical images and photographs and layout. In the second volume of the student texts, five lessons from the first few units were removed to make room for additional lessons at the end. There were also two literature substitutions: Growing Up Dakota by Charles Eastman instead of The Sign of the Beaver and Katy's Box by Mary Evelyn Notgrass McCurdy - instead of Katy.

The Notgrass History America the Beautifulcurriculum is a one-year American history, geography, and literature course designed for students in grades 5-8. It combines the flexibility and richness of a unit study with the simplicity of a textbook-based approach to history. Daily lessons guide your middle-school student chronologically through American history, with an emphasis on key events, people, and places.

The full series is 2 volumes; this item includes only Volume 1 (Volume 2 is sold-separately or as a set). It includes the course instructions and easy-to-follow daily directions that children are often able to follow independently. Each of the thirty units has five lessons.

This single text will cover the first semester. You can complete the curriculum (both volumes) in one year by doing one lesson per day for 150 days during the school year. Depending on how many activities you assign, most students will need 45-90 minutes to complete one lesson. While this course is designed for children in grades 5-8, younger children can listen to the lessons and participate in the family activities.

Lessons can be read by children independently or used as a read-aloud. Chapters features color and black-and-white historical photographs, illustrations, and artwork. At the end of each lesson four to six activities are provided from which parents can choose which they'd like to assign. One special family activity - i.e. an crafts and arts project, recipe, and other multi-age activities - is also assigned each week.

Activities vary from day to day and may include:

  • Thinking Biblically

  • Map work in Maps of America the Beautiful (sold-separately)
  • Vocabulary
  • Entries in Timeline of America the Beautiful (sold-separately)
  • Reading assignments from We the People (sold-separately - includes excerpts from letters, speeches, poems, newspaper articles, and other primary sources)
  • Reading assignments in the literature titles (sold-separately)
  • Creative writing
  • Assignments in the Student Workbook or Lesson Review (both sold-separately)

Softcover Text. Grades 5-8.

The Notgrass History America the Beautifulcurriculum is a one-year American history, geography, and literature course designed for students in grades 5-8. It combines the flexibility and richness of a unit study with the simplicity of a textbook-based approach to history. Daily lessons guide your middle-school student chronologically through American history, with an emphasis on key events, people, and places.

The full series is 2 volumes; this item includes only Volume 2 (Volume 1 is sold-separately or as a set). It includes the course instructions and easy-to-follow daily directions that children are often able to follow independently. Each of the thirty units has five lessons.

This single text will cover the second semester. You can complete the curriculum (both volumes) in one year by doing one lesson per day for 150 days during the school year. Depending on how many activities you assign, most students will need 45-90 minutes to complete one lesson. While this course is designed for children in grades 5-8, younger children can listen to the lessons and participate in the family activities.

Lessons can be read by children independently or used as a read-aloud. Chapters features color and black-and-white historical photographs, illustrations, and artwork. At the end of each lesson four to six activities are provided from which parents can choose which they'd like to assign. One special family activity - i.e. an crafts and arts project, recipe, and other multi-age activities - is also assigned each week.

Activities vary from day to day and may include:

  • Thinking Biblically

  • Map work in Maps of America the Beautiful (sold-separately)
  • Vocabulary
  • Entries in Timeline of America the Beautiful (sold-separately)
  • Reading assignments from We the People (sold-separately - includes excerpts from letters, speeches, poems, newspaper articles, and other primary sources)
  • Reading assignments in the literature titles (sold-separately)
  • Creative writing
  • Assignments in the Student Workbook or Lesson Review (both sold-separately)

Softcover Text. Grades 5-8.

This lesson review book is part of Notgrass History's America the Beautiful 2nd Edition curriculum. Daily questions, weekly quizzes, and a literature review are included; after reading their lesson, students answer the five review questions, and after completing a unit, take the quiz. After each literature title is finished, students can complete the literature review questions. Lesson review questions are all short answer/short essay, and quizzes are in a variety of multiple-choice formats. Pages are NOT reproducible for multiple children. This lesson review book is designed for students in grades 7-8. Answers are NOT included (they're in the answer key, sold-separately).

This workbook is part of Notgrass Company's America the Beautiful 2nd Edition curriculum. Designed to be used alongside the student textbooks (sold-separately), fun activities include word searches, fill-in-the-blanks, crosswords, matching, timeline exercises, codes, word scrambles, drawing, and other enjoyable review exercises. This workbook is designed for students in grades 5 and 6 to help with review and retention. Unit tests included in the back of the book. Answers not included (they're in the Answer Key, also sold-separately).

This answer key is designed to be used with the Notgrass History America the Beautiful Curriculum (2020 Edition). The first section of this book has notes on each of the literature titles suggested for the curriculum with notes on language or violence or anything else parents might want to discuss or be aware of beforehand.

An answer key follows the literature guide. Answers are organized by lesson and contain answers for the Timeline of America the Beautiful, Student Workbook, Lesson Review, and the vocabulary assignments at the end of the lessons in America the Beautiful. It also includes answers to the questions for literature titles.

Growing up Dakota is an autobiographical account of the boyhood of Ohiyesa, also known as Charles Eastman, a member of the Dakota nation. Used in Units 4-5 of the America the Beautiful curriculum. Grades 5-8.

The Rise of Silas Lapham was first published in 1885 and was one of the first novels to explore the topic of the American businessman. Set in Boston during the Victorian era, the story follows the financial and romantic upheavals of the Lapham family, with a focus on the personal development of the title character as his rise unfolds.

This book is used in Notgrass History's Exploring Economics curriculum during units 4-7. (the rest of the curriculum is sold-separately)

Exploring Economics is a one-semester high school curriculum | Grades 9-12.