Colonial America Lesson Plans

Plimoth Planation

Week #1 - Lesson Plans for Early Settlements

Teacher Information

When these lessons were originally created, they could be followed day-by-day. This is no longer true. Here's why.

  • These lesson plans were originally written for a different set of Tennessee Standards. Some lessons are spot on with the new standards and others are not.
  • I have stripped the lessons plans of textbook pages numbers (since different school systems use different textbooks and the pages are different in the updated textbooks).
  • Broken links that originally went to information, games, and videos have been deleted.
  • So that my website does not repeat information, I have placed links to texts on my website for students to read. I left the bulleted points in the first few lessons.
  • In place of providing instructions for activities, I have also added links to locations on my website where instructions can be found. (Google doesn't like websites that repeat information.)

Due to the deletions, some lessons appear really long and others really short.

Day 1 The Lost Colony & The Jamestown Colony

Vocabulary
  • cash crop
  • colonial
  • Mayflower Compact
  • tolerance
Lecture - Reasons why English came to America (Lesson 1)
  • to practice religion they choose

  • to bring Christ to "savages"

  • British judges sent people who had commented crimes

  • business people came to buy items like furs and tobacco

  • farmers - chance to have own land

Lecture on Jamestown (Lesson 2)
****Stress the reasons for locating Jamestown on the James River.

First Colony in America that Survived

  • Virginia Company sent three ships of settlers to New World in December 1607
  • in Virginia named settlement Jamestown in honor of English King James
  • came to set up trade between New World and England
  • 105 men and boys led by John Smith
  • built a fort near river that flowed in Chesapeake Bay
  • named river James after King James
  • fort was built on a swamp which contained mosquitoes carrying a deadly malaria virus
  • Powhatan Indians lived in that part of Virginia
  • 14,000 Indians lived in Chesapeake Bay when English came
  • settlers did not build permanent houses or grow food, not good hunters
  • many English died from disease and starvation
  • 1608 Smith elected president of colony's council
  • more settlers came
  • Smith went back to England in 1609 after being badly burnt in a gun powder explosion
  • suffered worst winter (fire, drought, disease, Indian attacks, and little food)
  • almost destroyed the colony
  • Pocahontas brought the settlers corn to eat
  • 1610 Thomas De La Warr, new governor arrived with 3 ships of supplies
  • wanted more settlers to come
  • gave new settlers 50 acres of free land
  • Indians unhappy with this
  • Pocahontas captured and held in Jamestown
  • converted to Christianity
  • 8 year peace came with the marriage of Pocahontas to John Rolfe, a tobacco grower in 1614
  • John Rolfe and Pocahontas visited London
  • Pocahontas died before returning to her home
Activities (Pocahontas)
  • Read about Pocahontas
    • Book - Pocahontas Princess of the River Tribes
  • Show 500 Nations video about Pocahontas (15 minutes)
  • Sequence story of Pocahontas with sentence strips (from Literature Unit Pocahontas pages 12-13)
    OR
    Have students retell the story using stick puppets (from Literature Unit Pocahontas pages 18-19).
  • Coloring picture of Pocahontas, Captain Smith, and Powhatan from Educational Coloring Book of the Colonies
Activities (Jamestown)

Day 2 The Plymouth Colony  (Pilgrims) Lesson 3

Vocabulary
  • cash crop
  • colonial
  • Mayflower Compact
  • tolerance
Lecture on or read sections of the book . . . If You Sailed on the Mayflower in 1620 (Pages 10-26)
  • Pilgrims wanted to break away from the Church of England.
  • Pilgrims were jailed and fined in England for starting their own church.
  • Pilgrims were afraid to stay in England so went to Holland in 1608.
  • lived in Holland 12 years
  • not happy in Hollandbought ship Speedwell to go to America
  • ship small and old
  • needed second ship
  • so made an agreement with businessmen in England
  • businessmen got Pilgrims a ship Mayflower and bought food and supplies
  • in return Pilgrims agreed to work for the businessmen for 7 years
  • agreed to send furs and lumber from the New World
  • 102 people left from England
  • given land in what is now New York
  • Speedwell became leaky and had to return to England
  • some passengers stayed behind in England - others crowded on Mayflower
Activities

#1 BrainPop http://www.brainpop.com/socialstudies/culture/thanksgiving/

#2 What was it like to travel on the Mayflower?

Tape off an area 8 by 8 feet on the floor.

Have eleven children stand in the space.

Discuss how crowded they feel.

Next serve a meal of beef jerky, soda crackers, cheese and water. Tell the students that the Pilgrims ate a lot of dried salted meat, hard crackers called hard tack, and cheese on the Mayflower. Discuss that preserving food was necessary and that slating and drying were the best methods available in 1620.

Continue lecture or continue reading . . . If You Sailed on the Mayflower in 1620 (Pages 27 - 30)

Show poster of the Mayflower.

  • journey took 66 days
  • ship blown off course
Activity

Fill a one-liter plastic bottle about half full with mineral oil. Add a few drops of food coloring, and then fill the rest of the bottle with water. Add a small plastic object to represent the Mayflower.

Screw the top on tightly and tape.

Ask the students to make waves by shaking, rocking, and rolling the bottle.

Discussion

Does the plastic object ride the waves or sink?

How do you think the Pilgrims felt during the storms they had while on the Mayflower?

Continue Lecture
  • Pilgrims landed near Cape Cod in Massachusetts
  • settlement started in 1620
  • leader William Bradford

Have students read the mini-book The Pilgrims by Barnacle, Ship's Cat of the Mayflower.

Show the video American History for Children:  Early Settlers:  The Pilgrims and the Mayflower.

Lecture on the Mayflower Compact

Once the people aboard the Mayflower realized that the terms of their agreement applied to Virginia, and not to New England, where they were, the leaders wrote the Mayflower Compact. The document was signed on ship within sight of land. The compact stated

  • that they would remain united
  • make laws for the general good of the new colony
  • promised to obey laws

The Mayflower Compact was a form of government for the colony.Show Video American History for Children:  Early Settlers:  The Story of the Mayflower Compact Make Pilgrim costumes (coif for girls and hat for boys)Lecture or continue reading . . . If You Sailed on the Mayflower in 1620 (Pages 43 - 56, 72, 74-80)

  • on November 11, 1620 after 66 days Pilgrims came to Cape Cod
  • first winter struggled to build shelter
  • in two or three months half of the people died
  • half the people who survived were children
  • only four women lived
  • called new settlement Plimoth Plantation
 
Additional Activities

Make Pilgrim costumes (coif for girls and hat for boys).

Show one of the following videos

  • Plimoth Plantation (30 minutes)
  • Inspector Gadget's Fieldtrip Plimoth Plantation 15 minutes (excellent)
  • Animated Hero Classics:  The Story of Thanksgiving (30 minutes)
  • American History for Children:  Early Settlers:  Squanto and the First Thanksgiving

Read play and act out play in costumes A Native American Welcome

Coloring picture of Pilgrims from Educational Coloring Book of the Colonies

 

Day 3 Massachusetts Bay Colony (Puritans) Lesson 4

Vocabulary
  • cash crop
  • colonial
  • Mayflower Compact
  • tolerance
Lecture Notes
  • Puritans wanted to "purify" or make clean the Church of England

  • did not want to move away from the church (as the Pilgrims) wanted to change some of its ways

  • treated badly in England because of beliefs

  • came to Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1630

  • Puritans wanted only one religion to be practiced in the New World

  • some Puritans thought their leaders were acting just as badly as the King of England

  • John Mason took group of people from Massachusetts Bay Colony to find more fertile farming land (too rocky in Massachusetts) and to worship freely

  • settled in Portsmouth and found New Hampshire Colony

Activities

Day 4 New Netherland & New France

Vocabulary
  • cash crop
  • colonial
  • Mayflower Compact
  • tolerance
Read Text (found in Explorers Unit)

Learn about the beaver. What was this animal like? Why was its fur so highly prized? What did the French make from the beavers' fur?

Map Activities
    • Instructional Fair, Inc. #IF8552 U. S. Map Skills pages 15-17
    • United States and Its Neighbors Chapter 7, Building Geography Skills page 47
    • Life in Colonial America "Land Claims in North America by 1670"
Bartering
Activity
 

Make a model of a canoe

Day 5 Review and Test

Review
Test

 

Go to Week #2