New England Colonies
Massachusetts (post Plymouth Colony), New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut
This link is a terrific Colonial Unit lesson plan and stands alone for someone wanting to really dig into the colonies. Lesson 3 (and then 4 for the next two New England colonies) has an abundance of wonderful activity ideas. If I had the time and inclination I would have done it pretty much as written adding a few videos and links I found. As it was I have cut out much of it because we spent so long on the Wampanoag and Plymouth Colony.
We will begin with this video. I’m going to have to emphasize certain points with the boys but I think I’ll include this video series anyway because they are quite good at pointing out the differences in the various colonies and their individual history.
To stress important points I made a small storybook using information from the Colonial America lesson plans also linked above together with this site which has great pictures and information about life specifically in each part of the colonies. I used copy and pastes of the photos (pop ups) with captions and my own additional information and images from google searches for our little booklet.
Activity we used:
I think I will make the first homes using the ideas from this plan to make “mud” homes as these were apparently much like the thatched huts the Puritans created and I had no idea. I found the information and images on this site. The resources and lesson plans from that link look really good for older kids I thought.
Some alternative activity ideas:
New England Primer with berry ink and quill on coffee or tea stained paper.
Instruction Link and quill pen link and idea link. Note: When I do this in a later unit (Revolutionary War likely) I probably won't make a quill pen. I plan to use a straw cut to a tip or maybe a toothpick instead.
Wax for sealing a letter.
Make dipped candles. There are lots of instructions online.
Closing:
We’ll map the colonies and maybe play the penny game mentioned in the Colonial Unit lesson plan link.
Middle Colonies
New Amsterdam/New Netherlands (Later New York), Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania
We’ll watch this video (again, I’ll need to reemphasize the main points).
I’m reading the story in American Pioneers and Patriots book about the Dutch New Amsterdam Colony. I really like this book, especially for this unit and for westward expansion later.
I’ve created a story about the middle colonies using some materials from this site and the things I wanted to stress. I particularly wanted to stress the Quakers, William Penn, and the founding of the Pennsylvania Colony as well as the transfer of power between countries in these colonies. We’ll look at this artwork and discuss the message it sends and message sent to Quakers from many countries.
Activities:
These were known as the Bread colonies so we’ll make bread and butter today as our activity. This emphasizes both the animals the settlers brought across the ocean and the land being suited for this type of farming/production.
We will also make a windmill to reinforce the original dutch colonization as well as the diversity in these colonies compared to the others.
Closing:
Map the colonies.
Southern Colonies
Virginia (originally Jamestown settlement which we’ve already covered and I’ll review briefly at this point—see lesson with model and my story), the Carolinas, and Georgia
Watch video.
Again, I’m using these materials and other information to put together a storybook about the Southern Colonies.
I’m touching some on the slave trade in this unit. Note: Interactive 3-D Maps has a slave trade mapping exercise and an exercise for the Roanoke Virgina and Jamestown Virginia settlements.
“Tour” a plantation online—the pictures are clickable for a larger view or sometimes an inside view of a structure.
Activity:
Make soap. I’m going to do this safe/kid friendly and easy form of soap making.
But we’ll talk about how they would have done it long ago in a much more involved process.
Alternate Activity:
You could make a hornbook here though I’m saving it for a future pioneers lesson. Link and link and link all with different patterns, pictures, or instructions.
Closing:
Map the colonies.
French Settlers
We’ll read the story about the French settlements in American Pioneers and Patriots book.
Unfortunately, my video links no longer work for the most part. This book makes an excellent base for the lesson all on it’s own. A person could also just talk about this.
I had some neat videos that I can't seem to either link (links reroute to main page now) or find on the site again. I'm going to list the links that no longer work—in case they can be found again by someone. I can't find them. I tried. I suspect they aren't gone because some still pop up with google searches for example but I can't figure out how to search within the site and now the links directly to the site (mine or google) just re-route to the main page.
This is (was...it won't link in anymore) a video of French Explorers and the Fur Trade. I'll leave the whole text of the link as it will simply link to the main page now.
http://videos.howstuffworks.com/hsw/24102-french-explorers-father-marquette-and-the-fur-trade-video.htm
There are (were...) quite a few informative videos about French explorers—a series. http://videos.howstuffworks.com/search.php?media=video&terms=French+explorers
And this one covers (covered...) the cities founded by the French explorers. http://videos.howstuffworks.com/history/american-pioneer-videos-playlist.htm#video-5696
Activity:
Talk about relationships with Native Americans and the fur trade. This is a picture of a beaver fur hat.
We’ll make canoes. This emphasizes the use of waterway transportation and relationships with the Native Americans including trade.
Mock bartering for fur trade—use canoes and add river they sailed on along with supplies and furs. I plan to use much of the materials here for this lesson even though it wasn’t intended for this time in history.
Closing:
We will map England Colonies, French Claims, and the Spanish Claims.
This video is a nice way to sum up the colonies and adds in French and post French/Indian War information.
Next topics in history for us are the French and Indian War and then the Revolutionary War.
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Arctic and Antarctic Region Ideas
Not long ago we took a detour because one mine is very interested in penguins. I gathered some materials to go with Mr. Popper’s Penguins as our read aloud. Some of this dovetails with Core Knowledge objectives on habitats (my lesson plan here) so I thought I'd share since I have it. We had a really fun time with this unit.
I'm sorry for the lack of organization. It seems that if I wait to have something altogether the way I would like I don't get it posted at all so I'm just going to post "as is" for this.
Fun song on video highlighting Arctic/Antarctic differences
Antarctica scenery video
Really neat blue whale interactive
Animals and more Animals videos (here is another that may have some overlap)
Note: of course preview first--some great information but both have some things like birth, mention of death, etc. that some kids could be too sensitive for possibly. The second video linked covers the penguin life cycle well and talks about the protective oil on penguin feathers.
Arctic and Antarctic Animals videos (penguins and leopard seals particularly mentioned)
Penguins video
I've got a few other videos in the plans as I go on.
When Scholastic has their dollar days deals they typically put their Penguins Make and Learn Projects on sale for a dollar. I would not pay full price for this but it's more than worth $1 I think.
When I found that I stopped a lot of my own planning and used much of what I found in the download. But here are some links I found and saved in my planning to that point:
Penguin mask. We covered purpose of the penguin beak with this and characteristics of penguins compared to other birds as well.
oil protection (sidebar)
Experiment type demonstrations here and here
Species of penguins in this link. Pictures of species in a component of this lapbook to paste on a map perhaps. Page 12 of this link has a map of the Southern Hemisphere and the whole site (including species information) is really good. Note that 11 has a neat alternative to cover species.
Life cycle and food chain lapbook type components here.
Nice printable here as well. And this site has some food chain information and activities.
This site talks about penguin movement and this video was very good for showing that movement. This video has longer tobogganing and here is another. I am using the fun movement lesson plan ideas from a combination of these two sites to cover the topic in an active way.
Habitat resources:
Arctic and Antarctic animals in this video. Note: there are predator/prey relationships and a polar bear dies for lack of food and penguin death is mentioned as well.
Neat habitat introduction activity here.
This is a great video series (I think 5 part). Some will portions repeat from videos above but we watched it all and the boys seemed to like seeing it again even with some repeat.
This link includes an activity to cover polar bear blubber.
Inuit people:
I’m Using Children Just Like Me as it highlights a couple of children (one Inuit, one from Northern/remote Alaska).
This site was used for much of my lesson basis and our ending activities (scrimshaw and inuksuk).
Videos:
Intuit Music (and some art) and more throat singing
This link has some game ideas and historical information.
These are clips (need previewed possibly—I didn’t watch all--some animal death is shown) from an intuit documentary. I like that it focused on a modern Inuit family whose father is teaching his son traditional activities. I wanted my boys to get that history but also see that the modern life has similarities to their own.
Eskimo Hunting 1949 (not modern...and involves animal hunting/death obviously) This is US Eskimo so I think the term use is ok.
We did a scrimshaw and inuksuk to finish this particular lesson as indicated in the links above.
I'm sorry for the lack of organization. It seems that if I wait to have something altogether the way I would like I don't get it posted at all so I'm just going to post "as is" for this.
Fun song on video highlighting Arctic/Antarctic differences
Antarctica scenery video
Really neat blue whale interactive
Animals and more Animals videos (here is another that may have some overlap)
Note: of course preview first--some great information but both have some things like birth, mention of death, etc. that some kids could be too sensitive for possibly. The second video linked covers the penguin life cycle well and talks about the protective oil on penguin feathers.
Arctic and Antarctic Animals videos (penguins and leopard seals particularly mentioned)
Penguins video
I've got a few other videos in the plans as I go on.
When Scholastic has their dollar days deals they typically put their Penguins Make and Learn Projects on sale for a dollar. I would not pay full price for this but it's more than worth $1 I think.
When I found that I stopped a lot of my own planning and used much of what I found in the download. But here are some links I found and saved in my planning to that point:
Penguin mask. We covered purpose of the penguin beak with this and characteristics of penguins compared to other birds as well.
oil protection (sidebar)
Experiment type demonstrations here and here
Species of penguins in this link. Pictures of species in a component of this lapbook to paste on a map perhaps. Page 12 of this link has a map of the Southern Hemisphere and the whole site (including species information) is really good. Note that 11 has a neat alternative to cover species.
Life cycle and food chain lapbook type components here.
Nice printable here as well. And this site has some food chain information and activities.
This site talks about penguin movement and this video was very good for showing that movement. This video has longer tobogganing and here is another. I am using the fun movement lesson plan ideas from a combination of these two sites to cover the topic in an active way.
Habitat resources:
Arctic and Antarctic animals in this video. Note: there are predator/prey relationships and a polar bear dies for lack of food and penguin death is mentioned as well.
Neat habitat introduction activity here.
This is a great video series (I think 5 part). Some will portions repeat from videos above but we watched it all and the boys seemed to like seeing it again even with some repeat.
This link includes an activity to cover polar bear blubber.
Inuit people:
I’m Using Children Just Like Me as it highlights a couple of children (one Inuit, one from Northern/remote Alaska).
This site was used for much of my lesson basis and our ending activities (scrimshaw and inuksuk).
Videos:
Intuit Music (and some art) and more throat singing
This link has some game ideas and historical information.
These are clips (need previewed possibly—I didn’t watch all--some animal death is shown) from an intuit documentary. I like that it focused on a modern Inuit family whose father is teaching his son traditional activities. I wanted my boys to get that history but also see that the modern life has similarities to their own.
Eskimo Hunting 1949 (not modern...and involves animal hunting/death obviously) This is US Eskimo so I think the term use is ok.
We did a scrimshaw and inuksuk to finish this particular lesson as indicated in the links above.
Saturday, November 6, 2010
Peter Rabbit Suggestion and General
I've created plans for the 13 colonies which will begin very soon I hope.
I've been sick and then had laryngitis for well over a week. Thankfully my boys love audio books and stories and so we had an extremely literature rich couple of weeks despite my lack of voice!
It's worth noting for those with a weak library system that for almost all the core knowledge literature selections I've been able to find online versions of the stories. Almost always I can find text and often illustrations as well. Often I can find nicely done audio or video versions. We did the core knowledge objectives for many fairy tales while I've been sick and I was able to find audio versions at sites like kiddierecords.com for nearly all for example. If a search was particularly hard I'll try to post what I found as we do the lessons. I used this link for Issun-boshi as it was all I found but most had multiple choices.
When I finally got my voice back we covered Beatrix Potter stories as specified in the Core Knowledge curriculum. However, I wanted to post because I have a book The True Story of Peter Rabbit that worked so nicely with these lessons. It recounts the story of Beatrix Potter's letter to Noel Moore which later became the Peter Rabbit story. This was neat because Noel realizes Miss Potter modeled Peter after him. This further emphasized that she gave human characteristics to animals (a core knowledge objective) and, even better, why and who she might have had in mind for the character! The afterward told more about the resulting books and Noel Moore and the book includes picture reproductions of the original letters as well.
We talked about the Salk vaccine (Noel Moore had polio) for polio and vaccines generally. This allowed us to talk about the smallpox vaccine and eradication as well which ties it to some of our current history in terms of diseases of the time.
I've been sick and then had laryngitis for well over a week. Thankfully my boys love audio books and stories and so we had an extremely literature rich couple of weeks despite my lack of voice!
It's worth noting for those with a weak library system that for almost all the core knowledge literature selections I've been able to find online versions of the stories. Almost always I can find text and often illustrations as well. Often I can find nicely done audio or video versions. We did the core knowledge objectives for many fairy tales while I've been sick and I was able to find audio versions at sites like kiddierecords.com for nearly all for example. If a search was particularly hard I'll try to post what I found as we do the lessons. I used this link for Issun-boshi as it was all I found but most had multiple choices.
When I finally got my voice back we covered Beatrix Potter stories as specified in the Core Knowledge curriculum. However, I wanted to post because I have a book The True Story of Peter Rabbit that worked so nicely with these lessons. It recounts the story of Beatrix Potter's letter to Noel Moore which later became the Peter Rabbit story. This was neat because Noel realizes Miss Potter modeled Peter after him. This further emphasized that she gave human characteristics to animals (a core knowledge objective) and, even better, why and who she might have had in mind for the character! The afterward told more about the resulting books and Noel Moore and the book includes picture reproductions of the original letters as well.
We talked about the Salk vaccine (Noel Moore had polio) for polio and vaccines generally. This allowed us to talk about the smallpox vaccine and eradication as well which ties it to some of our current history in terms of diseases of the time.
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Plymouth Colony Unit
I've been adjusting my lesson plans for this unit as we go through them. We've had lots of illness and life interruptions and so this unit is taking longer than I had expected to work through. So we're still in process and the plans aren't what they might have been but I wanted to post them anyway. Some of these were typed in future tense and then modified in past tense so the tenses may switch around mid lesson unintentionally.
In our history sequence this unit followed the Wampanoag Unit but the two could have easily been combined into one unit.
Lesson 1--The Journey
I began with a general "why and how it started" history of the journey the pilgrims made.
The websites I’m linking in the following lessons do a very nice job with all except the motivation for the journey.
A friend loaned me the book If You Sailed on the Mayflower which I used for the background and information parts of this unit. I suspect many library systems have it. This book would be great for this particular lesson I suspect. However, I found this wonderful colonial unit which has a “main points” section for each lesson that provide you with all the information you would need if books aren't available. Lesson 2 for example gives what you might want to use to introduce why the pilgrims left just like the book linked above.
After that brief introduction we’re going to explore the Mayflower and how it felt to make this long journey.
We'll explore the ship using the tour the ship portion of this site. As we view particular areas we will "experience" the Mayflower using activities from Lesson 2 of these plans. My kids like the back and forth but another child might be better served going through all the site and then experiencing it with the activities. Examples:
1. After the section covering food we discussed the food and why it was either salted or dried. We talked about spoilage and shortages as the journey went on. Then I planned to sample jerky, dried fruit (prunes), and cheese. Hardtack would work well here. This website contains a hardtack recipe. I did not use hardtack in this unit as it "shows up" in many units we'll be covering beyond this such as the Revolutionary and even Civil wars. I actually did this section last even though, I believe, it is number two on the diagram.
Note: The cook fed the crew but did not make food for the passengers based on my research. So I believe this site is incorrect in that area. They cooked when possible and otherwise ate food that didn't need to be cooked. I used these interviews for my own research as they were by people from Plimoth.org and I know they are knowledgeable. They might be nice for an older child to use directly in some way.
2. As the site talked about the living conditions we first recreated the waves using the activity described in the link with a water bottle and plastic to represent the ship rocking among the waves inside. We talked about how it would feel to be tossed about on the ship and the seasickness.
3. We "experienced" the crowding as described on the link. I adjusted the dimensions provided (8 x 8 feet for 11 people) for our family size.
4. We talked about the fact that there was no room for kids to run. We talked about lots of sitting, little fresh air with the smells, and what they did do to pass time (riddles, singing, maybe marbles or cat's cradle). We sat in our little "ship" portion and tried some of that as we talked. It would be nice to have wave sounds in the background. After we did the unit someone who used these plans told me she cleared out a small closet to use! I really like that idea.
5. This site for Columbus activities has a make a quadrant idea though I didn't do that for this lesson.
6. At the end we talked about the length of the journey and counted 66 days off on the calendar.
Then we made a model of the ship. Options I found for this portion are here:
a black and white three dimensional model
a colorful cut out and paste picture (note: because of the masts this one is more challenging to cut out)
another option is here
Then we watched this link following the journey. A friend told me the intended destination and specifics about how and why they ended up in Massachusetts is unclear and there are many theories. This link says Virgina was the intended destination. Other links that also seem trustworthy will mention the New York (Hudson) area. Lies My Teacher Told Me lays out many possibilities including a hijacking. It's certainly worth reading. Basically, I don't think it's clear though it's presented that way in the link.
We did watch this but only the first half today. I thought it did a nice job of dramatizing the danger and conditions experienced. My boys enjoyed it a lot.
Then we created postcards as if they were passengers on the Mayflower. This is a printable postcard template.
Here is a link to a game. I didn't try it. It did give me an idea just now though. As an alternative to the postcard a child could make their own Mayflower game using this one as a guide but putting events they remember in the spaces. So they could have the beam crack--move back three spaces, get seasick--move back one space, storms stop and sails are opened--move ahead two spaces, etc.
Lesson 2--Arrival and Housing
We talked about the journey from yesterday and then I told the boys we were going to begin to learn about their lives off the ship. First, we listened to talk like a pilgrim here.
Then we watched this video. Note that it covers Plymouth Rock (a Core Knowledge Objective; I presented it as legend as described below) and the Mayflower Compact and leads nicely into talking about their day to day life. That said, it is so fast paced that I didn't find it terribly helpful. That's too bad because it is filmed as a field trip to Plimoth Plantation and so more time and detail would have been neat. If I found something better that would have covered Plymouth Rock in some measure I would have likely used it instead. Here is another video of Plymouth Rock. We didn't use it.
If I were planning this again I might just skip the above video. Too late for this lesson I found this site which I would have likely used in planning if I had found it. This shows pictures of and talks about Plymouth Rock. That would have been all I needed I think. It looks like there is a lot of helpful material on the site.
I explained that Plymouth Rock is a legend which allowed us to review what a legend was and purposes (for lack of a better term) of legends. This purpose was a little different than legends we've explored previously so that was nice. For parent information this radio program on Plymouth Rock is interesting. The link for Plymouth Rock is toward the bottom. Here is an article with a little less specific information and talking more about it’s symbolism.
Then we moved to actual life material. I emphasized that, while the pilgrims likely did not step on Plymouth Rock, we do know they took corn from a Native American storage pit. There is a bit about that here I played along with the perspectives presented to that point. We talked about the viewpoints of Wampanoag vs. Plymouth Colonists for each point and it was a good discussion. If I were planning it again I might have fleshed this out a little maybe be acting out the action and then discussing how it was viewed by both sides. That and interesting information on a variety of topics including housing is from plimoth.org via this site. They talk about the bulrush/cattails/thatch swelling with water and so being waterproof for Wampanoag homes and Pilgrim roofs for example. That site I found too late has housing pictures and information as well.
THEN:
I read American Pioneers and Patriots, Story of Pioneers in Plymouth because I have that book on hand. Many library books on the topics would do fine here as would just using information and pictures from the internet. I placed Samuel Eaton’s Day and Sarah Morton’s Day on interlibrary loan for example but I got them a little late for our unit.
We’re focusing on housing today which is the theme in the book I’ve got.
Here is a link on housing we viewed and this alone is fine I think especially combined with some discussion.
We made sample Plymouth homes. I really debated on how to approach this. I thought about using those foam mat type pieces to form the frame and then use pipe cleaner "poles" to "raise the walls" as they would have done but ultimately I didn't. I also thought about using actual sticks or rolled paper logs and clay to make a mock chimney as they would have done. That would have been fun I think. I saw an idea to use toothpicks for the thatched roof.
We're extremely busy this week though so instead I just used this pattern adding our windows and doors. The boys enjoyed it even though it wasn't as neat as it could have been.
In most cases they used oiled paper for windows instead of glass. So we made oiled paper for windows. After they dried we held them up to our own windows to compare the sunlight coming through the oiled vs. not oiled paper.
Here is a coloring page of the village.
Lesson 3--Clothing
We viewed the clothing portion of this site.
I planned to use plant based dyes (blueberry, beets, strong tea, and onions) to dye cotton. Well, in our case "painting" on paper towels. There are dye recipes all over the internet but this link contains some. Here are instructions for onion dye.
I found a video of the process involved in getting dressed (at least in the 1770's--so not exactly "right" but close) here. We viewed it because I felt it really cemented the time consuming nature of dressing in those days as well as contrasts well with the Wampanoag dressing process. This site is "colonial" rather than specific to this specific time period and place. I used ideas in this pdf (toward end) to approximate a costume and this seems to have lots of links to possible instructions as well.
My kids like to make and wear hats and I knew the typical “pilgrim hat” was not commonly worn. I found this site about proper clothing that included male hat information. A girl would be easy I think but the making of a male cap which would have been the most commonly worn was beyond what I was willing to tackle. For someone who can sew well it’s probably easy and would be good for kids to help with perhaps! Here is a site that shows how to make the common cap and then another hat that I felt resembled one of the pictures in the previous site. We made one that resembled that hat with construction paper and I felt it worked well.
The boys dressed up and spontaneously named themselves Pilgrims Samuel and Applegate (I have no clue on the Applegate). It occurred to me that to invite a child to come up with a Pilgrim name from the start of this unit might be fun.
I found but didn't use these paper dolls. They aren't exactly "right" in all ways but might be fun to use anyway.
Lesson 4--Chores and Education
We'll view links on chores and school.
Note: Bathing is mentioned on this site in the pot on the chair "clickable" and is worth listening to at some point my opinion. You can also watch the chores (pot on floor) and look at the home interior. The other “clickable” links seemed better suited for a Thanksgiving type discussion. We will talk about the chore that hauling water for a bath would be and why water was precious. This can work in this section. I read that Squanto encouraged the Pilgrims to bathe more often. I imagine they smelled! So this discussion could work in the lesson on Squanto as well.
Our plan is to stuff craft feathers in mini-mattresses. I’m just stitching cloth napkins together. Now that I think of it we should have used the plant dye for these! The pilgrims would have used feathers, corn husks, or even pine needles. We’ll collect some pine needles outside and talk about how much work the collection process would be and talk about how comfortable a pine needle stuffed mattress might be!
Pilgrim boys would work with their father to build the homes and other construction projects so we’re making a birdhouse. I should say my husband and the boys will make a birdhouse. There are lots of plans online and kits to purchase as well. My husband felt this looked doable and inexpensive.
Food prep fits well in this section. I used a “corn” grinding activity on a later day that would work here as would actual dinner prep responsibilities which is what I will do instead.
I’m doing this in a future unit instead but dipped candle making would be fun I think. A friend is cross stitching with her daughter.
I found a recipe for soap making that just called for soap flakes or grating up regular soap as working with lye was well beyond what I am willing to do! For some reason when I link it it doesn't work correctly so I'll just copy and paste and hope it works. http://www.buzzle.com/articles/easy-soap-making-recipes-for-kids.html I want to provide it because it was a little hard find something I felt comfortable with when planning a later unit.
For the school section we're going to be finding rocks that can be used like chalk.
In later units on the thirteen colonies we'll be making a hornbook and in our constitution unit we'll be making feather quill pins and either of those might be used here for the school section instead. I'll try to link them along with other links at the end of this post.
Lesson 5--Recreation
Obviously, many of these lessons could be done in any order. I did this one out of order because it fit with a particular day we had available.
We viewed the games section here.
Because marbles were common toys, we created marbles with clay. We also played marbles using those I have here since the clay must dry. There are games suggested in that link and in this one and this one and many more.
We played nine man morris (games toward end) and Earth, Air, Fire, Water. Another idea would be to play foxes and geese.
It would be neat to sing the songs they might have sung but I couldn't find any.
This link has outside game ideas (top of page) and this site (toward the end) has lots of both. We did several of them and had a lot of fun.
There are also nice instructions for a whirligig on the first link and I'm sure it's easy to find corn husk doll instructions. We'll be doing things like that in later colonial units. If this were my only unit I would do more at this point. I've linked some other games/toys to make at the end of this unit. I'm using them in later plans but might use them here if I were just planning this unit.
Lesson 6--Pilgrim and Wampanoag Interaction
Here is a virtual field trip produced and recorded last year. This was after I planned the unit so we didn't use it ourselves. We did watch it and honestly I remember it being just ok.
At this point we will review and fill the details in about the Native Americans and particularly Squanto’s help. We have previously finished the book Squanto: Friend of the Pilgrims so they have some basis. The book we’re using and, I’d assume, any book on this topic will do this nicely.
We'll watch this clip to start or, maybe, to wrap up this lesson. I like all the background and my boys really enjoyed them. Here is an alternative clip.
Here is an online Squanto story (you may need to refresh the link to begin) we will watch to review. Note: I will review the procedure Squanto shared for planting corn outlined in the Wampanoag unit--Lesson 3.
Activities:
We’ll talk about how Squanto helped them learn to find food, farm, modify housing and more. I want them to remember that without his help they likely wouldn’t have survived.
I found a science with Squanto activity combined with this plan.
We could make and eat “hasty pudding”. Grinding our own cornmeal would be neat. I think we’ll “grind cornmeal” using rocks and a corn based cereal then we’ll use regular cornmeal for the dish.
Lesson 7 "Thanksgiving"
We may view the remainder of the Wampanoag vs. Pilgrim viewpoints of 1621 on this site.
I’m going to read a book Three Young Pilgrims because I have access to that one. Again, many books would be terrific here.
We'll watch a short series of videos—part 9 is a repeat, then there is a video from another user that is labeled chapter 12 that seems to be the next step and last video combined.
I think we’ll make this little booklet.
We'll view the slideshow here.
The hyperlinks to the three foods on this site contain information about the Harvest Celebration that we think of as the First Thanksgiving.
Compare Thanksgiving foods now and then.
We will have a more legitimate to the time Thanksgiving dinner. Some recipes I plan to use are for stewed pompion and some of these dishes. I plan to use foods my kids don't typically eat.
Extra Things I'm Using Later
These are some links I'm using in other units that might fit here if this were a single unit.
New England Primer with berry ink and quill on coffee or tea stained paper. Links for how to are here and here and here (page 23). I'm using these in later units. Make hornbook. There is so much online. A couple of the links I collected are here and here. We're using this in later units.
You could use wax for sealing a letter.
Very simple model colonial kitchen.
Finally, a couple of game type things we might make at some point:
http://www.ci.tumwater.wa.us/researchjackstraws.htm
http://www.ci.tumwater.wa.us/researchwhimmydiddle.htm
In our history sequence this unit followed the Wampanoag Unit but the two could have easily been combined into one unit.
Lesson 1--The Journey
I began with a general "why and how it started" history of the journey the pilgrims made.
The websites I’m linking in the following lessons do a very nice job with all except the motivation for the journey.
A friend loaned me the book If You Sailed on the Mayflower which I used for the background and information parts of this unit. I suspect many library systems have it. This book would be great for this particular lesson I suspect. However, I found this wonderful colonial unit which has a “main points” section for each lesson that provide you with all the information you would need if books aren't available. Lesson 2 for example gives what you might want to use to introduce why the pilgrims left just like the book linked above.
After that brief introduction we’re going to explore the Mayflower and how it felt to make this long journey.
We'll explore the ship using the tour the ship portion of this site. As we view particular areas we will "experience" the Mayflower using activities from Lesson 2 of these plans. My kids like the back and forth but another child might be better served going through all the site and then experiencing it with the activities. Examples:
1. After the section covering food we discussed the food and why it was either salted or dried. We talked about spoilage and shortages as the journey went on. Then I planned to sample jerky, dried fruit (prunes), and cheese. Hardtack would work well here. This website contains a hardtack recipe. I did not use hardtack in this unit as it "shows up" in many units we'll be covering beyond this such as the Revolutionary and even Civil wars. I actually did this section last even though, I believe, it is number two on the diagram.
Note: The cook fed the crew but did not make food for the passengers based on my research. So I believe this site is incorrect in that area. They cooked when possible and otherwise ate food that didn't need to be cooked. I used these interviews for my own research as they were by people from Plimoth.org and I know they are knowledgeable. They might be nice for an older child to use directly in some way.
2. As the site talked about the living conditions we first recreated the waves using the activity described in the link with a water bottle and plastic to represent the ship rocking among the waves inside. We talked about how it would feel to be tossed about on the ship and the seasickness.
3. We "experienced" the crowding as described on the link. I adjusted the dimensions provided (8 x 8 feet for 11 people) for our family size.
4. We talked about the fact that there was no room for kids to run. We talked about lots of sitting, little fresh air with the smells, and what they did do to pass time (riddles, singing, maybe marbles or cat's cradle). We sat in our little "ship" portion and tried some of that as we talked. It would be nice to have wave sounds in the background. After we did the unit someone who used these plans told me she cleared out a small closet to use! I really like that idea.
5. This site for Columbus activities has a make a quadrant idea though I didn't do that for this lesson.
6. At the end we talked about the length of the journey and counted 66 days off on the calendar.
Then we made a model of the ship. Options I found for this portion are here:
a black and white three dimensional model
a colorful cut out and paste picture (note: because of the masts this one is more challenging to cut out)
another option is here
Then we watched this link following the journey. A friend told me the intended destination and specifics about how and why they ended up in Massachusetts is unclear and there are many theories. This link says Virgina was the intended destination. Other links that also seem trustworthy will mention the New York (Hudson) area. Lies My Teacher Told Me lays out many possibilities including a hijacking. It's certainly worth reading. Basically, I don't think it's clear though it's presented that way in the link.
We did watch this but only the first half today. I thought it did a nice job of dramatizing the danger and conditions experienced. My boys enjoyed it a lot.
Then we created postcards as if they were passengers on the Mayflower. This is a printable postcard template.
Here is a link to a game. I didn't try it. It did give me an idea just now though. As an alternative to the postcard a child could make their own Mayflower game using this one as a guide but putting events they remember in the spaces. So they could have the beam crack--move back three spaces, get seasick--move back one space, storms stop and sails are opened--move ahead two spaces, etc.
Lesson 2--Arrival and Housing
We talked about the journey from yesterday and then I told the boys we were going to begin to learn about their lives off the ship. First, we listened to talk like a pilgrim here.
Then we watched this video. Note that it covers Plymouth Rock (a Core Knowledge Objective; I presented it as legend as described below) and the Mayflower Compact and leads nicely into talking about their day to day life. That said, it is so fast paced that I didn't find it terribly helpful. That's too bad because it is filmed as a field trip to Plimoth Plantation and so more time and detail would have been neat. If I found something better that would have covered Plymouth Rock in some measure I would have likely used it instead. Here is another video of Plymouth Rock. We didn't use it.
If I were planning this again I might just skip the above video. Too late for this lesson I found this site which I would have likely used in planning if I had found it. This shows pictures of and talks about Plymouth Rock. That would have been all I needed I think. It looks like there is a lot of helpful material on the site.
I explained that Plymouth Rock is a legend which allowed us to review what a legend was and purposes (for lack of a better term) of legends. This purpose was a little different than legends we've explored previously so that was nice. For parent information this radio program on Plymouth Rock is interesting. The link for Plymouth Rock is toward the bottom. Here is an article with a little less specific information and talking more about it’s symbolism.
Then we moved to actual life material. I emphasized that, while the pilgrims likely did not step on Plymouth Rock, we do know they took corn from a Native American storage pit. There is a bit about that here I played along with the perspectives presented to that point. We talked about the viewpoints of Wampanoag vs. Plymouth Colonists for each point and it was a good discussion. If I were planning it again I might have fleshed this out a little maybe be acting out the action and then discussing how it was viewed by both sides. That and interesting information on a variety of topics including housing is from plimoth.org via this site. They talk about the bulrush/cattails/thatch swelling with water and so being waterproof for Wampanoag homes and Pilgrim roofs for example. That site I found too late has housing pictures and information as well.
THEN:
I read American Pioneers and Patriots, Story of Pioneers in Plymouth because I have that book on hand. Many library books on the topics would do fine here as would just using information and pictures from the internet. I placed Samuel Eaton’s Day and Sarah Morton’s Day on interlibrary loan for example but I got them a little late for our unit.
We’re focusing on housing today which is the theme in the book I’ve got.
Here is a link on housing we viewed and this alone is fine I think especially combined with some discussion.
We made sample Plymouth homes. I really debated on how to approach this. I thought about using those foam mat type pieces to form the frame and then use pipe cleaner "poles" to "raise the walls" as they would have done but ultimately I didn't. I also thought about using actual sticks or rolled paper logs and clay to make a mock chimney as they would have done. That would have been fun I think. I saw an idea to use toothpicks for the thatched roof.
We're extremely busy this week though so instead I just used this pattern adding our windows and doors. The boys enjoyed it even though it wasn't as neat as it could have been.
In most cases they used oiled paper for windows instead of glass. So we made oiled paper for windows. After they dried we held them up to our own windows to compare the sunlight coming through the oiled vs. not oiled paper.
Here is a coloring page of the village.
Lesson 3--Clothing
We viewed the clothing portion of this site.
I planned to use plant based dyes (blueberry, beets, strong tea, and onions) to dye cotton. Well, in our case "painting" on paper towels. There are dye recipes all over the internet but this link contains some. Here are instructions for onion dye.
I found a video of the process involved in getting dressed (at least in the 1770's--so not exactly "right" but close) here. We viewed it because I felt it really cemented the time consuming nature of dressing in those days as well as contrasts well with the Wampanoag dressing process. This site is "colonial" rather than specific to this specific time period and place. I used ideas in this pdf (toward end) to approximate a costume and this seems to have lots of links to possible instructions as well.
My kids like to make and wear hats and I knew the typical “pilgrim hat” was not commonly worn. I found this site about proper clothing that included male hat information. A girl would be easy I think but the making of a male cap which would have been the most commonly worn was beyond what I was willing to tackle. For someone who can sew well it’s probably easy and would be good for kids to help with perhaps! Here is a site that shows how to make the common cap and then another hat that I felt resembled one of the pictures in the previous site. We made one that resembled that hat with construction paper and I felt it worked well.
The boys dressed up and spontaneously named themselves Pilgrims Samuel and Applegate (I have no clue on the Applegate). It occurred to me that to invite a child to come up with a Pilgrim name from the start of this unit might be fun.
I found but didn't use these paper dolls. They aren't exactly "right" in all ways but might be fun to use anyway.
Lesson 4--Chores and Education
We'll view links on chores and school.
Note: Bathing is mentioned on this site in the pot on the chair "clickable" and is worth listening to at some point my opinion. You can also watch the chores (pot on floor) and look at the home interior. The other “clickable” links seemed better suited for a Thanksgiving type discussion. We will talk about the chore that hauling water for a bath would be and why water was precious. This can work in this section. I read that Squanto encouraged the Pilgrims to bathe more often. I imagine they smelled! So this discussion could work in the lesson on Squanto as well.
Our plan is to stuff craft feathers in mini-mattresses. I’m just stitching cloth napkins together. Now that I think of it we should have used the plant dye for these! The pilgrims would have used feathers, corn husks, or even pine needles. We’ll collect some pine needles outside and talk about how much work the collection process would be and talk about how comfortable a pine needle stuffed mattress might be!
Pilgrim boys would work with their father to build the homes and other construction projects so we’re making a birdhouse. I should say my husband and the boys will make a birdhouse. There are lots of plans online and kits to purchase as well. My husband felt this looked doable and inexpensive.
Food prep fits well in this section. I used a “corn” grinding activity on a later day that would work here as would actual dinner prep responsibilities which is what I will do instead.
I’m doing this in a future unit instead but dipped candle making would be fun I think. A friend is cross stitching with her daughter.
I found a recipe for soap making that just called for soap flakes or grating up regular soap as working with lye was well beyond what I am willing to do! For some reason when I link it it doesn't work correctly so I'll just copy and paste and hope it works. http://www.buzzle.com/articles/easy-soap-making-recipes-for-kids.html I want to provide it because it was a little hard find something I felt comfortable with when planning a later unit.
For the school section we're going to be finding rocks that can be used like chalk.
In later units on the thirteen colonies we'll be making a hornbook and in our constitution unit we'll be making feather quill pins and either of those might be used here for the school section instead. I'll try to link them along with other links at the end of this post.
Lesson 5--Recreation
Obviously, many of these lessons could be done in any order. I did this one out of order because it fit with a particular day we had available.
We viewed the games section here.
Because marbles were common toys, we created marbles with clay. We also played marbles using those I have here since the clay must dry. There are games suggested in that link and in this one and this one and many more.
We played nine man morris (games toward end) and Earth, Air, Fire, Water. Another idea would be to play foxes and geese.
It would be neat to sing the songs they might have sung but I couldn't find any.
This link has outside game ideas (top of page) and this site (toward the end) has lots of both. We did several of them and had a lot of fun.
There are also nice instructions for a whirligig on the first link and I'm sure it's easy to find corn husk doll instructions. We'll be doing things like that in later colonial units. If this were my only unit I would do more at this point. I've linked some other games/toys to make at the end of this unit. I'm using them in later plans but might use them here if I were just planning this unit.
Lesson 6--Pilgrim and Wampanoag Interaction
Here is a virtual field trip produced and recorded last year. This was after I planned the unit so we didn't use it ourselves. We did watch it and honestly I remember it being just ok.
At this point we will review and fill the details in about the Native Americans and particularly Squanto’s help. We have previously finished the book Squanto: Friend of the Pilgrims so they have some basis. The book we’re using and, I’d assume, any book on this topic will do this nicely.
We'll watch this clip to start or, maybe, to wrap up this lesson. I like all the background and my boys really enjoyed them. Here is an alternative clip.
Here is an online Squanto story (you may need to refresh the link to begin) we will watch to review. Note: I will review the procedure Squanto shared for planting corn outlined in the Wampanoag unit--Lesson 3.
Activities:
We’ll talk about how Squanto helped them learn to find food, farm, modify housing and more. I want them to remember that without his help they likely wouldn’t have survived.
I found a science with Squanto activity combined with this plan.
We could make and eat “hasty pudding”. Grinding our own cornmeal would be neat. I think we’ll “grind cornmeal” using rocks and a corn based cereal then we’ll use regular cornmeal for the dish.
Lesson 7 "Thanksgiving"
We may view the remainder of the Wampanoag vs. Pilgrim viewpoints of 1621 on this site.
I’m going to read a book Three Young Pilgrims because I have access to that one. Again, many books would be terrific here.
We'll watch a short series of videos—part 9 is a repeat, then there is a video from another user that is labeled chapter 12 that seems to be the next step and last video combined.
I think we’ll make this little booklet.
We'll view the slideshow here.
The hyperlinks to the three foods on this site contain information about the Harvest Celebration that we think of as the First Thanksgiving.
Compare Thanksgiving foods now and then.
We will have a more legitimate to the time Thanksgiving dinner. Some recipes I plan to use are for stewed pompion and some of these dishes. I plan to use foods my kids don't typically eat.
Extra Things I'm Using Later
These are some links I'm using in other units that might fit here if this were a single unit.
New England Primer with berry ink and quill on coffee or tea stained paper. Links for how to are here and here and here (page 23). I'm using these in later units. Make hornbook. There is so much online. A couple of the links I collected are here and here. We're using this in later units.
You could use wax for sealing a letter.
Very simple model colonial kitchen.
Finally, a couple of game type things we might make at some point:
http://www.ci.tumwater.wa.us/researchjackstraws.htm
http://www.ci.tumwater.wa.us/researchwhimmydiddle.htm
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Music--Peter and the Wolf by Prokofiev
The first grade core knowledge music sequence calls for introduction to instrument families, the presentation of the leader of an orchestra as conductor, and exposure to Peter and the Wolf by Sergei Prokofiev.
I introduced Prokofiev first along with the concept of him as conductor. I highlighted information about him from this site and we saw pictures and listened to a bit of this piece.
The Peter and the Wolf movie is available online. I felt the second half was too traumatic for my sensitive kids to watch but we did watch the first one because I really like how it demonstrates the instrument for each character with a visual as well as auditory component. Warning: The wolf shows his teeth in a sort of scary way mid video when he’s introduced. We watched only the first video and then listened to the entire recording here--it's the first selection. I used it to initially introduce the instrument families. The wolf does eat the duck and sensitive kids might be bothered.
This is another link with instrument families introduced for this piece that I used later in the lesson.
An alternative is to just listen to the march and avoid the whole story depending on the child. I still think you'd want to introduce the animal sounds though with one of the two choices above. This is the Peter and the Wolf March.
We acted out the movement of the animals as suggested in this link and I also had a similar discussion following the story as the one described in the link.
I felt it was worth talking about wolves now or at some point given the scary presentation in so many stories. I will cover that in a literature unit later but today we did read The First Dog by Jan Brett because I have it here, it's a different viewpoint and it helped me make the point that both are fictional presentations of wolves.
Here is a unit study on wolves. They suggest creating the creatures using tanagrams. You can find tanagram patterns to make with cardstock free online if you don’t have tanagram pieces and want to try something like this. We’ve just got a single set of tanagrams and, at least with the limited amount we have, I would find this hard. So we used pattern blocks instead.
In case a person wanted to do a study on wolves I wanted to include a "learn to howl like a wolf" activity page I have linked that I will use when I cover wolves a little more in depth later. Note that there will be a loud wolf howl when this page is opened.
There are wolf crafts online if a person wanted to extend this lesson.
We did cover the various families of instruments again using this site. This is a more general one that could be used.
I introduced Prokofiev first along with the concept of him as conductor. I highlighted information about him from this site and we saw pictures and listened to a bit of this piece.
The Peter and the Wolf movie is available online. I felt the second half was too traumatic for my sensitive kids to watch but we did watch the first one because I really like how it demonstrates the instrument for each character with a visual as well as auditory component. Warning: The wolf shows his teeth in a sort of scary way mid video when he’s introduced. We watched only the first video and then listened to the entire recording here--it's the first selection. I used it to initially introduce the instrument families. The wolf does eat the duck and sensitive kids might be bothered.
This is another link with instrument families introduced for this piece that I used later in the lesson.
An alternative is to just listen to the march and avoid the whole story depending on the child. I still think you'd want to introduce the animal sounds though with one of the two choices above. This is the Peter and the Wolf March.
We acted out the movement of the animals as suggested in this link and I also had a similar discussion following the story as the one described in the link.
I felt it was worth talking about wolves now or at some point given the scary presentation in so many stories. I will cover that in a literature unit later but today we did read The First Dog by Jan Brett because I have it here, it's a different viewpoint and it helped me make the point that both are fictional presentations of wolves.
Here is a unit study on wolves. They suggest creating the creatures using tanagrams. You can find tanagram patterns to make with cardstock free online if you don’t have tanagram pieces and want to try something like this. We’ve just got a single set of tanagrams and, at least with the limited amount we have, I would find this hard. So we used pattern blocks instead.
In case a person wanted to do a study on wolves I wanted to include a "learn to howl like a wolf" activity page I have linked that I will use when I cover wolves a little more in depth later. Note that there will be a loud wolf howl when this page is opened.
There are wolf crafts online if a person wanted to extend this lesson.
We did cover the various families of instruments again using this site. This is a more general one that could be used.
Saturday, October 9, 2010
History--Were We've Been and Where We're Going
We will begin this coming week with our final/extra lesson on the Wampanoag. We will begin Pilgrims next. We’ve got “travel to see the specialist” appointments this week and so I’m not sure how far we’ll get into the Plymouth Colony lessons. I’ll post them either very soon or perhaps after we go through them so I can tweak without needing to edit the blog.
I thought this weekend I would try to post information about some of the units that came before the Wampanoag in our history sequence this year. I hadn't saved my plans but did the best I could to recall what we did and find links I used.
I think I’ll portion the basic units we've covered to this point in individual posts.
Native Americans
Columbus, Balboa, Ponce de Leon, Pizarro, Cortes
St. Augustine
The Lost Colony of Roanoke
Jamestown
Wampanoag
I thought this weekend I would try to post information about some of the units that came before the Wampanoag in our history sequence this year. I hadn't saved my plans but did the best I could to recall what we did and find links I used.
I think I’ll portion the basic units we've covered to this point in individual posts.
Native Americans
Columbus, Balboa, Ponce de Leon, Pizarro, Cortes
St. Augustine
The Lost Colony of Roanoke
Jamestown
Wampanoag
Jamestown Colony, 1607
I don’t have a book for this so I made a storybook of the settlement using google images and the following videos interspersed at appropriate points in the story.
Travel to Jamestown
A closer look at location
John Smith
At one point my story invited us to try to broker a trade between the Native Americans and Settler pointing out they couldn’t communicate verbally and the complications this might have caused. One child was the Native American and the other the Spanish settler.
Powhatan and Pocahontas
Note: there are tons of Pocahontas coloring pages available for free online.
Activity to end:
Make a model Jamestown together.
Travel to Jamestown
A closer look at location
John Smith
At one point my story invited us to try to broker a trade between the Native Americans and Settler pointing out they couldn’t communicate verbally and the complications this might have caused. One child was the Native American and the other the Spanish settler.
Powhatan and Pocahontas
Note: there are tons of Pocahontas coloring pages available for free online.
Activity to end:
Make a model Jamestown together.
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