Social Studies Worksheet · Grades 4–6
The Lost Colony of Roanoke Worksheet
A social studies worksheet about the Roanoke colony for grades 4 through 6. Students read about the English settlement that came twenty years before Jamestown, why its governor could not get back for three years, and what the single word carved on a fence post tells us, then answer multiple choice, true/false, and fill-in-the-blank questions.
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Subject
Social Studies
Grades
Grades 4–6
Skill Focus
The Lost Colony of Roanoke, us history
Lesson Length
20 minutes
Learning Objectives
Students will read about the Roanoke colony of 1587 and answer comprehension questions about why the governor left, what the search party found three years later, and what the carved message and the missing distress mark suggest about where the colonists went.
- Place the Roanoke colony before Jamestown in the sequence of English settlement.
- Explain why the governor was unable to return for three years.
- Describe what the search party found in 1590.
- Use the carved word and the absence of the agreed distress mark as evidence about what happened.
Lesson Overview
About this worksheet
Most students meet Jamestown first and never hear that the English had already tried, and failed, twenty years earlier on a small island off the North Carolina coast. This worksheet fills that gap, and it does it with the piece of the story that makes the best classroom argument.
In 1587 about a hundred and fifteen people landed at Roanoke, families among them. Their governor, John White, sailed home for supplies nine days after his granddaughter Virginia Dare was born. He meant to be back within the year. Then Spain sent the Armada, every ship in England was needed to fight it, and he did not set foot on that island again for three years.
What he found was an empty settlement with the houses taken apart rather than burned, no bodies, no graves, and one word carved into a fence post: CROATOAN. That word was not a mystery to him. Croatoan was a nearby island whose people had been friendly. And before he left, White and the colonists had agreed on a signal: carve the name of the place if you move, and carve a cross above it if you are driven out by danger. There was no cross.
That absence is the whole lesson. It is evidence made of something that is not there, and following it is exactly what historians do. The sheet is careful not to invent an ending — what became of the colonists is still unsettled — and it points out that “the Lost Colony” is a little unfair to people who left a forwarding address.
Section A asks students to circle the best answer to four multiple choice questions. Section B asks students to write TRUE or FALSE for six statements. Section C asks students to fill in six missing words. A complete answer key is included on page 3.
How to Use This Lesson
Distribute the worksheet or display it for the class.
Have students read the passage about the Roanoke colony.
Students complete Section A (multiple choice), Section B (true/false), and Section C (fill in the blank).
Review answers together using the included answer key.
Printable Resource
A classroom-ready PDF with everything in one printable resource.
Full Member Resource · Printable PDF · 3 pages · Answer Key
The Lost Colony of Roanoke Worksheet
A social studies worksheet about the Roanoke colony for grades 4 through 6. Students read about the English settlement that came twenty years before Jamestown, why its governor could not get back for three years, and what the single word carved on a fence post tells us, then answer multiple choice, true/false, and fill-in-the-blank questions.
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