Worksheet

Routes Across the Early Colonies

Read about early exploration routes and colonial settlement sites, then use a route graph to explain how land and water shaped choices.

Grade 5Social StudiesInteractive · Printable

Aligned toGEO.5.4

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1 C3 Framework standard
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15 questions
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Details

Format: Interactive · Printable
Grade: Grade 5
Subject: Social Studies
Question types: Fill in the blank, Multiple choice, Circle the answer, Sorting, Short answer

About this worksheet

What students practice

Students explain how coasts, rivers, harbors, and mountains influenced exploration routes.
Students connect geographic features to where colonists established settlements.
Students use a route graph and passage evidence to support geographic explanations.

How to use

Read the passage together, study the route graph, and ask students to cite specific geographic features when explaining their answers.

Curriculum

C3 Framework standard covered

GEO.5.4

Explain how geography influenced exploration routes and where colonists settled.

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Routes Across the Early Colonies

Use geography clues to explain travel routes and settlement choices.

Read about routes and sites

Read the passage. Think about how land and water affected where people traveled and settled.

Following Water and Finding Land

1During the 1500s and 1600s, European explorers crossed the Atlantic Ocean to reach North America. Ocean travel was difficult, so ships often followed coastlines and entered bays, sounds, and river mouths. Water could carry people and supplies more easily than rough land trails. Explorers also used rivers to travel inland, although rapids, shoals, and waterfalls could stop boats.

2Geography influenced the places where colonists built settlements. Jamestown was founded in 1607 along the James River in the Chesapeake region. The river gave ships access to the settlement and provided a route for moving supplies. The site was also near lands used by the Powhatan people, a powerful Native political alliance. Relations between the colonists and Powhatan communities changed over time and included both trade and conflict.

3In 1620, the English Separatists known as the Pilgrims established Plymouth near a harbor in present-day Massachusetts. A harbor offered ships a place to anchor and helped connect the settlement to Atlantic travel. Farther south, Philadelphia was founded in 1682 near the meeting of the Delaware and Schuylkill Rivers. Its location offered water routes in several directions.

4The Appalachian Mountains formed a major barrier west of the coastal plain. Trails through gaps and valleys could guide travelers, but crossing the mountains was slower and harder than traveling by water or along level ground. For this reason, many early English settlements were concentrated near the Atlantic coast and its rivers. These sites were not empty lands: Native nations already lived throughout the region, and colonists' arrival changed the lives and lands of those communities.

What is the main idea of the passage?

A. Early colonists usually avoided places near rivers.
B. Mountain trails made Atlantic travel unnecessary for explorers.
C. Coasts, rivers, harbors, and mountains shaped routes and settlement locations.
D. The first settlements were built in lands with no Native communities.

Why would an explorer enter a river mouth after crossing the Atlantic?

A. A river could provide a water route toward the interior.
B. A river guaranteed that the land was uninhabited.
C. A river removed the need to carry food and supplies.
D. A river made mountain crossings short and level.

Which geographic feature most directly helped ships reach Jamestown?

A. The Appalachian Mountains
B. A trail through a mountain gap
C. A waterfall above the coastal plain
D. The James River

How did Plymouth's harbor and Philadelphia's rivers offer a similar advantage?

A. Both places were far beyond the Appalachian Mountains.
B. Both gave people access to water routes for ships or supplies.
C. Both were chosen because no Native people lived nearby.
D. Both made travel across the Atlantic unnecessary.

Underline the sentence that best supports the idea that mountains could slow westward travel.

Explorers also used rivers to travel inland, although rapids, shoals, and waterfalls could stop boats.The site was also near lands used by the Powhatan people, a powerful Native political alliance.A harbor offered ships a place to anchor and helped connect the settlement to Atlantic travel.Trails through gaps and valleys could guide travelers, but crossing the mountains was slower and harder than traveling by water or along level ground.

Use a route model

Study the bar graph. It shows the number of days in a classroom route model from the Atlantic to four colonial sites. The model gives shorter times to routes with easier water or coastal access; it is not a record of exact historical travel times.

According to the route model, which site had the fewest model days?

Word bank: Jamestown · Plymouth · Philadelphia · New Amsterdam

Which explanation best connects the graph to the passage?

A. New Amsterdam's model route may have been shorter because coastal access helped ships reach it.
B. New Amsterdam's model route was shorter because mountains made ships travel faster.
C. Jamestown's model route was longest because rivers could not carry supplies.
D. Plymouth's model route was shorter because harbors prevented ships from anchoring.

Sort each feature by how it affected travel in the passage.

A navigable riverA harborA mountain barrierRapids and waterfallsAn Atlantic coastline

Could help people travel or move supplies	Could make travel more difficult

Underline the graph detail that is evidence that New Amsterdam had the easiest modeled route of the four sites.

New Amsterdam is shown with 3 model days.Philadelphia is near two rivers.Plymouth is near a harbor.Jamestown is along the James River.

Apply the geographic ideas

Use the passage and graph to reason about new settlement and route choices.

10.

A group plans to build a settlement far inland, west of the Appalachian Mountains, with no river route or mountain gap nearby. Which problem would geography most likely create?

A. Ships would have an easier place to anchor beside the settlement.
B. Atlantic winds would carry supplies directly to the settlement.
C. A harbor would connect the settlement to several ocean routes.
D. Moving people and supplies over land would take more effort.

11.

Two possible settlement sites are available. Site A is beside a navigable river near the coast. Site B is on a high, steep ridge far from a river. Why might colonists have preferred Site A?

A. The river would provide a route for ships and supplies.
B. The river would guarantee peaceful relations with nearby peoples.
C. The coast would make farming unnecessary at the settlement.
D. The ridge would make travel to the site faster than a river.

12.

Underline the passage sentence that gives evidence that early English settlements often stayed near the Atlantic coast.

Ocean travel was difficult, so ships often followed coastlines and entered bays, sounds, and river mouths.The river gave ships access to the settlement and provided a route for moving supplies.Its location offered water routes in several directions.For this reason, many early English settlements were concentrated near the Atlantic coast and its rivers.

13.

Which route would most likely help an explorer move from the Atlantic toward the interior?