K-12: Acknowledging 250 years - the US Declaration of Independence

Tom Baker - Esri Edu

This blog will be regularly updated through the remainder of 2026 to reflect available A250 instructional materials.

The US Declaration of Independence was officially signed on August 2, 1776, by most of the Continental Congress delegates, nearly a month after it was adopted on July 4, 1776. While 56 delegates eventually signed the document, most signatures were added on August 2 in Philadelphia, with others signing later. (source: National Archives)

The classroom activities and readings below will help teach the events in and around the signing of the Declaration and the American Revolution.

Thirteen colonies

• Activity: The geography of the 13 Colonies (MapMaker)
• Activity: The 13 Colonies and slave trade (MapMaker)
• Activity: The 13 Colonies – 1700s (GeoInquiry)

Pre American Revolution

• Activity: The war before independence (GeoInquiry)
• Reading: Revolutionary Boston 
• Reading: Origins of The Declaration of Independence
• Reading: The signers of the Declaration of Independence … and Enslavement

The American Revolutionary War

• Reading: Key events in the American Revolutionary War
• Map: Mapping the American Revolution
• Map: Why Yorktown

Articles of Confederation and Constitutional Convention

• Reading: The New Jersey and Virginia Plans