Declaration Excerpts

This fill-in-the-blank worksheet supports students in Grades 4, 5, and 6 as they build reading comprehension, civic understanding, vocabulary awareness, and explanatory writing skills through simplified excerpts from the Declaration of Independence. Using a guided word bank, students complete key sentences about equality, natural rights, and government responsibility, then reflect on why colonists believed independence was necessary.

Learning Goals

• Foundational Civic Principles (Grades 4-6) – Understand core ideas such as equality, rights, and the role of government.
• Contextual Word Choice – Use a word bank to accurately complete historically meaningful sentences.
• Thematic Understanding – Identify the main purposes and messages of the Declaration of Independence.
• Historical Explanation – Explain why colonists sought independence using clear reasoning and evidence.

Instructional Benefits

• Teacher-Created Resource – Designed by educators to align with upper elementary civics, social studies, and ELA standards.
• Accessible Text Adaptation – Simplified language helps students engage confidently with a foundational document.
• Structured Skill Building – Combines sentence completion with short writing for deeper understanding.
• Flexible Use – Ideal for primary source introductions, review lessons, independent practice, or assessment.

This printable worksheet helps students strengthen comprehension of the Declaration of Independence by actively engaging with its most important ideas. By completing excerpts and explaining historical motivation, learners gain a clearer understanding of rights, governance, and the reasons behind American independence. It’s a simple, no-prep resource that works well in both classroom instruction and homeschool learning.

This worksheet is part of our Declaration of Independence collection.