The Thirteen Colonies: Colonial America Worksheet
Practice matching colonial founders, recalling key terms, and comparing colonial regions in this thirteen colonies review for Grade 4 students.
15 questions · Matching · Fill in the blank · Multiple choice · Short answer · Application
This worksheet introduces Grade 4 students to the thirteen colonies — who founded them, why they were established, and how geography shaped the way people lived. Students explore three colonial regions: New England, the Middle Colonies, and the Southern Colonies, each with its own climate, economy, and way of life. The worksheet begins with matching, which tests recall of key founders and colony characteristics, then moves to fill-in-the-blank sentences that require students to remember important terms on their own. Multiple-choice questions add nuance with plausible answer choices. The final short-answer question asks students to compare two regions, building the reasoning skills they need for later study of the American Revolution. Pair this sheet with a regional map of the colonies for best results.
The Thirteen Colonies: Colonial America Worksheet — Grade 4
Answer each section about the thirteen colonies using what you have learned in class. Each section has its own directions.
Remember
- The 13 colonies were divided into three regions: New England, Middle, and Southern.
- Each colony was founded for different reasons, such as trade, religious freedom, or farming.
- Geography shaped colonial life: New England had rocky soil, while the South had rich farmland.
Part A — Match each colonial founder or place to its description
Draw a line from each item in the left column to the correct description in the right column.
Choose from
- A. founded Rhode Island for religious freedom
- B. the last of the 13 colonies to be founded, in 1733
- C. known for fishing, shipbuilding, and trade
- D. founded Pennsylvania as a home for Quakers
- E. the first permanent English settlement in America, in 1607
- 1.
William Penn
- 2.
Jamestown, Virginia
- 3.
New England colonies
- 4.
Roger Williams
- 5.
Georgia
Part B — Fill in the blank with the correct word or phrase
Write the correct word or phrase on the line to complete each sentence.
- 6.
The Pilgrims landed at Plymouth in the colony of ____ in 1620.
- 7.
Colonists in Virginia grew ____ as their most important cash crop.
- 8.
The Middle Colonies were called the 'breadbasket' because they grew large amounts of ____.
- 9.
Roger Williams founded Rhode Island so that colonists could have ____ freedom.
- 10.
In New England, colonial children often learned to read and write in a one-room ____.
Part C — Choose the best answer for each question
Circle the letter of the best answer for each question.
- 11.
Which region of the 13 colonies had the warmest climate and grew crops on large plantations?
- A.New England colonies
- B.Middle colonies
- C.Southern colonies
- D.Chesapeake colonies
- 12.
James Oglethorpe founded which colony in 1733?
- A.Maryland
- B.South Carolina
- C.Georgia
- D.North Carolina
- 13.
What was a typical task for children growing up in colonial New England?
- A.Working on large tobacco plantations
- B.Helping with fishing, farming, or household chores
- C.Attending large city schools five days a week
- D.Trading furs with Native peoples on the frontier
- 14.
Which crop was most important to the economy of colonial South Carolina?
- A.Wheat
- B.Tobacco
- C.Rice
- D.Cotton
Part D — Answer in your own words
Write one to two complete sentences to answer the question below, using what you have learned.
- 15.
How did daily life in the New England colonies differ from daily life in the Southern colonies? Give at least one example in your answer.
Answer key
Part A — Match each colonial founder or place to its description
- 1.founded Pennsylvania as a home for Quakers
- 2.the first permanent English settlement in America, in 1607
- 3.known for fishing, shipbuilding, and trade
- 4.founded Rhode Island for religious freedom
- 5.the last of the 13 colonies to be founded, in 1733
Part B — Fill in the blank with the correct word or phrase
- 6.Massachusetts
- 7.tobacco
- 8.wheat
- 9.religious
- 10.schoolhouse
Part C — Choose the best answer for each question
- 11.Southern colonies
- 12.Georgia
- 13.Helping with fishing, farming, or household chores
- 14.Rice
Part D — Answer in your own words
- 15.Example: Life in New England was different from life in the Southern colonies. New England families worked in fishing, trade, and small farms because the soil was rocky and cold. In the Southern colonies, many people worked on large plantations growing crops like tobacco or rice, and enslaved Africans were forced to do much of that work.
What this sheet teaches
- Identify the founders and reasons behind the establishment of key colonies.
- Compare how the New England, Middle, and Southern colonies differed by region.
- Explain how geography shaped daily life for colonists in different regions.
Notes for the adult
- Students often think all colonists came for religious freedom; many came for trade, land, or economic opportunity.
- Correct this by pointing out that Virginia was founded for profit in 1607, before most religious colonies were established.
- A student is ready to move on when they can sort all 13 colonies by region and name one feature of each region.
What is on the page
The Thirteen Colonies: Colonial America Worksheet is in four parts and comes to 15 exercises in total. Matching, fill-in-the-blank, multiple-choice and short-answer work, in that order, so a student who has understood the material has to show it in more than one form before the page is finished.
Part A Match each colonial founder or place to its description sets five items against five lettered options, one lettered option per item, which means the last pair can be reached by elimination. Part B Fill in the blank with the correct word or phrase gives five sentences with a blank each and no word bank, so the wording has to come from the student. Part C Choose the best answer for each question asks four multiple-choice questions with four printed options each. Part D Answer in your own words is one short-answer questions with two ruled lines between them, which is the part of the sheet that takes the longest.
Two ruled lines are printed for written answers on The Thirteen Colonies: Colonial America Worksheet, which decides how long it takes more than the question count does. The answer key prints on its own page at the end, so the sheet can be handed out without it.
What it asks of the student
The Thirteen Colonies: Colonial America Worksheet puts about 332 words of reading in front of the student — the fact box, the directions, every question, and every printed option. That is the number worth checking against a class before it goes out, because a sheet that is pitched right on the history and wrong on the reading fails for the same child either way. The longest single prompt on it runs to 25 words.
Writing runs the other way on The Thirteen Colonies: Colonial America Worksheet: two ruled lines for one of the 15 exercises, and the full answer key comes to 112 words. Everything else is answered in a blank, in a box, or on the map itself, which is why the sheet takes a lesson rather than a homework slot.
Where this one sits
The Thirteen Colonies: Colonial America Worksheet is one of ten US History: Events & Eras sheets on this site and one of 59 written for grade 4. two of them share its topic, the colonial period, which is worth knowing before printing two that overlap.
The closest things to it are The Thirteen Colonies Worksheet (grade 5) and The Great Depression Worksheet (grade 7). If The Thirteen Colonies: Colonial America Worksheet lands well, those are the ones to reach for next; if it lands badly, the application sheets a grade either side are usually the adjustment rather than a different topic altogether.
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The Colonial Period at other grades
This sheet: Grade 4, 15 questions — matching, fill in the blank, multiple choice, short answer. The same topic is also written for:
- The Thirteen Colonies Worksheet — Grade 5 · 15 questions, timeline, multiple choice, true or false, short answer · application work