Early Settlements Unit–Part 2, Plymouth Colony

The colonial era is by far my favorite.  I always manage to work Plymouth and the Pilgrims in every year around Thanksgiving.  I guess when the girls graduate they’ll be experts on the topic.  

We started off this unit with a study of what it took to get ready for the voyage.   It wasn’t like they just ran to Wal-mart and picked up a few things for the journey.  Then we made our own Mayflower.   This is of course the party Mayflower, not the dull drab one you see portrayed in all the books.

See what I mean?   I really liked how Lindsey painted the bottom of her ship blue/white to make it look like waves.

We also studied the Mayflower Compact and learned about how the laws and rules were different than they had been in England.

Even though it was a bit below grade level, I incorporated this cute Pilgrims book from Enchanted Learning.

We  used a Reading Comprehension workbook from ABCTeach.  You can get these on several different reading levels depending on the age/ability of your child.

We studied Squanto’s life in depth and learned about his gardening and fishing skills.

Like all of you, we have studied Pilgrims in the past.  If you’d like to check out some of the resources we used before you can check out this post on a Mini-Thanksgiving Unit, or this Weekly Wrap Up from 2012, or this unit on Squanto.

Library Resources:

The Mayflower and the Pilgrims New World; by Nathaniel Philbrick
The Mayflower, A Primary Source History of the Pilgrims Journey to the New World; by J. Poolos
The Mayflower Compact; by Philip Brooks
The Plymouth Colony; by Pamela Dell
The Plymouth Colony; by Andrew Santella
Eating the Plates, A Pilgrim Book of Food and Manners; by Lucille Recht Penner
William Bradford, Governor of Plymouth Colony; by Arthur M. Schlesigner, Jr.
Miles Standish, Colonial Leader; by Barbara Witteman
The Adventures of Myles Standish, and the Amazing-But-True Survival Story of Plymouth Colony; by Cheryl Harness
Pilgrims; by Mary Pope Osborne and Natalie Pope Boyce
Sarah Morton’s Day, A Day in the Life of a Pilgrim Girl; by Kate Waters
Mary of Plymouth; by James Otis
Squanto, Friend of the Pilgrims; by Clyde Robert Bulla
Squanto’s Journey; by Joseph Bruchac
Squanto and the Miracle of Thanksgiving; by Eric Metaxas
Squanto 1585?-1622; by Arlene B. Hirschfelder
Squanto’s Garden; by Bill Heid (eBook)

Thanksgiving Mini-Unit

I really wanted to focus on being thankful more than on pilgrims and turkeys this year.   I found some really easy but good Bible verse crafts at Christian Preschool Printables.

I gave the girls a few pieces of construction paper and the directive to make their own rendition of the Mayflower sailing the ocean.   This is what they came up with.   Lindsey added lots of clouds, and then we added a poem as well.

We also worked on a small Pilgrim booklet from Enchanted Learning.

If you’d like to check out one of our more in depth unit studies from a few years back check out this post and this one.

Books we used:

Miles Standish, Colonial Leader; by Barbara Witteman
Sarah Morton’s Day; by Kate Waters
Squanto’s Journey; by Joseph Burchac
Squanto and the Miracle of Thanksgiving; by Eric Metaxas
Squanto Friend of the Pilgrims; by Clyde Robert Bulla

Happy Thanksgiving to each of you!!

Weekly Wrap Up – The Pre-Thanksgiving Edition

Oh.my.gosh!  I am exhausted after this week, seriously!  Monday was a “normal” day.  Tuesday was normal, other than adding the baby to it. Wednesday was a regular school day, plus piano, followed by a 2 hour ballet practice followed by 2 hours of Awana.  Thursday was school, plus Ellie, plus PEACH (Ellie wasn’t allowed in the nursery, so I had her in class with my 9 5-year olds) plus 4-H.  Friday was a short school day…yeah.  So when that was finished I had to catch up on the laundry and housework, make cookies for a bake sale for the dance company, followed by a meeting for our Sunday School directors, and them more baking snacks for a jewelry party for Saturday night.    Did I mention EXHAUSTED???

Ok, enough whining…on with the wrap up.

History:  I took the easy way out and reviewed some of our Thanksgiving work from years gone by.   We reviewed our study of Squanto, including the timeline we made of his life.

We also reviewed our previous study of the Wampanoag, including this lovely replica of the Wampanoag home.

We spent a lot of time reading about Thanksgiving.  Books we read included:

Squanto Fried of the Pilgrims; by Clyde Robert Bulla
Squanto and the Miracle of Thanksgiving; by Eric Metaxas
Sarah Morton’s Day, A Day in the Life of a Pilgrim Girl; by Kate Waters
Thanksgiving Day at Our House; by Nancy White Carlstrom

We made our own Thanksgiving fact books.  We included a map of the Mayflower journey, vocabulary, copy work, poetry, turkeys, pilgrims, poetry and Native Americans.  I’m sure it would have made a lovely lapbook, but hey there’s something to be said for printing on regular paper and slapping a cover on it!

 

As part of our Thanksgiving studies, we took note of how blessed we are, to excess at times.  We found a great local program called The Big Give, and spent time going through our GOOD things to make donations.  We’re also scheduling a day to go and help set up items as well.

Math:  I need a “bang head here” sign.  I’m seriously looking forward to a break from math next week. 

Language Arts:  We didn't do any spelling, or First Language Lessons this week. 

Science:   Um, yeah…nothing here either.

Latin:   Ahhh, now see, we DID do Latin!  Lesson 13 is a review week.  So we spent time working on vocabulary, singular/plurals and using those things in every day language.

I had several reasons for such a “relaxed” week.  Most of those reasons being that ALL of our extra curricular activities hit this week (as noted in my opening rant paragraph).  They just so happened to ALSO land on days when Eliana was here.  GAH!

Activity Day:   Dr. Seuss is such a fun theme for this age group.  Read all about the “Foot Book” activity day here.

4-H:  This was a bit disappointing.  After the 30 minute commute into the boonies we found out the guest speaker had backed out and the kids spent the evening playing “train wreck”.  Grrr…

Piano:   Moving right along.

Ballet:   This week was the beginning of intensive Nutcracker practice.   Olivia had a 2 hour practice on Wednesday night.  Saturday will be another 2 hour practice.  Oh, and the shirts for the dancers are in.  Aren’t these great!

Awana:  The girls took their Operation Christmas Child shoe boxes to Awana for collection.   Olivia memorized two new verse and Lindsey continued working on the two she learned last week but didn’t get to recite.

Life Skills:   Olivia learned how to feed and burp the baby.  The burping was funny, but I had to be a lot closer in case of accident, so I couldn’t get photos of that.

I do hope everyone else had a great week!  Be sure to check out the Weekly Wrap Up! 

Squanto Wrap Up

My husband had abdominal surgery on Monday, so it was ruled a no school day.  I spent most of the day at the hospital.  My mother-in-law spent the night with us Sunday so that she could watch the girls for us on Monday.  There was some learning involved (she says with a tone).  Olivia learned that her grandmother doesn't know how to start a gas cookstove; and grandma learned that Olivia was willing to do it for her.  THANKFULLY the MIL had enough common sense to boycott this idea and use the microwave when needed.  (In my defense, I attempted to show her how to use the stove and she declined.)  

We spent most of this week learning about Squanto.  Squanto was Patuxet; however Chief Massasoit of the Wampanoag invited him to join them after his entire village died of disease.   The girls created a very  large timeline of  important events of Squanto's life.

Squanto was kidnapped several times.  The photo below depicts him being taken captive and taken to England.  The details in the photo are a bit fuzzy, but in the upper left corner, Squanto is on the left, with his hands tied.   In the bottom right corner of the boat is a VERY dejected looking Squanto as he travels to England (which is the very small area to the right of the boat...I guess if you're looking at it from a distance, it could be very small....)

After returning to North America in 1614, you'd think Squanto would have avoided the newcomers.  But noooooooo!  Later that same year he was kidnapped and taken to Spain and sold as a slave.   This lovely group of colorful Monks helped him.

Squanto returned to North America in 1619, to find all of his people had died.  Chief Massasoit of the Wampanoag's invited Squanto to live with them.   In Spring of 1621, Squanto met the Pilgrims (to be honest, there is no way in the world I'd have gotten anywhere NEAR a white person after all that kidnapping!)    Maybe he was attracted by the colorful garb of William Bradford below?

In the fall of 1621 the Wampanoag and the Pilgrims had a three day feast to celebrate the harvest and having survived another year.   Here you'll see several Wampanoag brave's carrying a deer in for the feast.  (Please note, the deer has it's legs tied to a pole and is upside down.  The deer's head/antlers are at the bottom of the drawing.)

Books we used:

Squanto's Journey, by Joseph Bruchac
Squanto and the Miracle of Thanksgiving, by Eric Metaxasz
Squanto Friend of the Pilgrims, by Clyde Robert Bulla

Movies we used:
Squanto, A Warriors Tale, by Walt Disney

We also worked on the usual, reading, writing, Latin, math and Bible.   This was a three day week for us.  Monday, as I stated was a hospital kind of day.  Friday we're playing hooky from co-op and heading out of town to hear Kenneth and Gloria Copeland preach.

I hope everyone's week went well.  Special thanks to Krsi at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers for posting my Weekly Wrap Up while I was away.