The Boston Tea Party & Intolerable Acts | U.S. History FREE Readers Theater Script

Boston Tea Party & Intolerable Acts — Grades 3-8 Readers Theater

Re-enact the night colonists tipped tea into Boston Harbor and felt the sting of the Intolerable Acts. This differentiated script (Grades 3-5 & 6-8) pairs lively narration with famous voices like Samuel Adams and Paul Revere, giving every reader a part while boosting fluency and sparking debate on fair taxation.

• Grade bands: 3-5 · 6-8
• Characters: 10 – 16
• Word count: 900 – 1250
• Read time: ~20 min (plus 25 min prep & discussion)

Perfect For

• American Revolution units or centers
• Lessons on taxation and civic rights
• Sub-day activities that need no props
• Collaborative classroom drama

What’s Included

• Grades 3-5 version (900 words, 9 pages, ~10 roles)
• Grades 6-8 version (1250 words, 10 pages, ~16 roles)
• Student & teacher tips (editable DOCX & PDF)
• 10 short-answer questions & 10 vocabulary words
• Theme and discussion prompts

Skills Addressed

• Reading fluency and comprehension
• Historical analysis of protest & legislation
• Collaborative performance and discussion
• Vocabulary development with textual evidence

Teaching Notes

• Print double-sided scripts or share the DOCX in Google Docs.
• Combine or split roles to match class size; minor parts have 1-2 lines.
• Plan an extra 25 minutes for vocabulary review or short-answer work.

 

Want More Social Studies Activities?

Perfect for sub plans, sick days, supplemental activities, review stations, Friday fun days or even build an entire emergency curriculum with these 4 bundles below:

BUNDLE #1 Colonial America and the Early Republic (1587 – 1811)

1. The Lost Colony of Roanoke (1587)
2. King Philip’s War (1675–1676) [FREE DOWNLOAD!]
3. The First Great Awakening (1730s–1740s)
4. Proclamation of 1763 (1763)
5. The Northwest Ordinance (1787)
6. The Alien and Sedition Acts (1798)
7. The Barbary Wars (1801–1805)
8. Lewis and Clark Expedition (1804–1806)
9. Tecumseh’s Resistance (1809–1811)
10. The Embargo Act of 1807 (1807)

Bundle #2 Westward Expansion (1801 – 1865)

1. The Missouri Compromise (1820) [FREE DOWNLOAD!]
2. The Monroe Doctrine (1823)
3. The Second Great Awakening (1820s–1830s)
4. Oregon Trail Migration (1840s)
5. The Fugitive Slave Act (1850)
6. Bleeding Kansas (1854–1856)
7. John Brown’s Raid on Harpers Ferry (1859)
8. The Pony Express (1860–1861)
9. The Battle of Antietam (1862)
10. The 13th Amendment (1865)

Bundle #3 Revolutionary War (1773 – 1804)

1. The Boston Tea Party (1773–1774) [FREE DOWNLOAD!]
2. United We Stand: The First Continental Congress (1774)
3. Liberty or Death: Patrick Henry's Speech (1775)
4. Midnight Ride and Paul Revere (1775)
5. Green Mountain Boys and Bunker Hill (1775)
6. The Second Continental Congress (1775)
7. Common Sense and the Declaration of Independence (1776)
8. Crossing the Delaware and Trenton Victory (1776)
9. Valley Forge and The American Crisis (1777–1778)
10. Foreign Allies: Lafayette and France (1777–1778)
11. Sybil Ludington and Molly Pitcher (1777)
12. Hamilton and His Duel (1780s–1804)
13. Yorktown and the Treaty of Paris (1781–1783)
14. Washington Steps Down: The Man Who Would Be King (1783)
15. Slavery and the Revolution (1770s–1780s)

• NOTE 1: These 15 scripts do not include Google Docs or Slides but the docx file can easily be uploaded to Google Docs and distributed digitally if desired.
• NOTE 2: These 15 scripts also include a G3-5 reading level of each script for diverse language ability classrooms.

Bundle #4 Reconstruction (1865 – 1877)

1. The Assassination of Lincoln (1865) [FREE DOWNLOAD!]
2. Presidential vs. Radical Reconstruction (1865–1867)
3. The Freedmen’s Bureau (1865–1872)
4. The 14th and 15th Amendments (1868–1870)
5. Black Political Participation (1867–1877)
6. The Ku Klux Klan and Resistance (1866–1871)
7. The Impeachment of Andrew Johnson (1868)
8. The Compromise of 1877 (1877)

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