Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation
What Was Everyday Life like in Colonial Virginia?
What was everyday life like in Colonial Virginia? To find the answer cooperative groups work collaboratively to read an informational handout and complete a graphic organizer. The speaker of the group then shares their new-found...
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Colonial Trades and Apprenticeships
Learners examine and analyze culturally significant objects from colonial Boston. They construct a story around the life and work of Nathaniel Hurd from a list of keywords excerpted from a passage about Nathaniel Hurd. In addition, they...
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Colonial Currency
Fifth graders develop a common currency. For this colonial currency lesson, 5th graders exchange beads, rice, coins, and paper bills for goods and services. Students explore web tools to research ways colonists used money, even if it was...
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Examining Passenger Lists Lesson Plan
Students learn about the colonists that settled in the New World. In this famous explorers instructional activity, students learn about famous explorers and how they used to keep diaries about their travels. Students read passenger...
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Jobs and Immigration
Students discuss colonial America and the jobs and trades that immigrants had to have to have a society that flourished. In this immigration jobs lesson plan, students also discuss the role of women in these times.
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Reasons for Settling the New World
After studying the reasons settlers entered the New World, primary learners try to persuade others to enter this new land. Class members present their arguments in a variety of ways including posters, writings, and charts. Richly...
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Web of Interdependence
Students investigate the colonial era and the crafts practiced in each of the trades as an expression of the interdependence the colonists had on each other. The impact of emigration from an American colonial town is experienced as...
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When Travelers Meet
Students research life in Colonial America then write and stage a play about life in Colonial times. creating a variety of characters who might have lived at that time. They, in groups, generate seperate lists of characters who would...
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Growing Up
Students examine the definitions of philantrophy and common good. They identify non-profit organizations in their community and research organizations that existed in colonial times with the same goal in mind. They create a timeline for...
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A Trip to Sully Plantation
Fourth graders have a better understanding of life in colonial Virginia. The students compare and contrast their life today with the life of colonial Students. Each child or small group of students design a project comparing the two time...
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College Education
What do Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg have in common? They're both billionaires, and neither one has a college degree! Using the website, scholars explore whether having a college education is truly worth the money it costs. They read...
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The Slave Market: Not Just a Southern Institution
Fourth graders analyze the existence of slavery in the North. In this slavery instructional activity, 4th graders research primary and secondary sources regarding Dutch colonial slavery in New York. Students consider how archeology made...
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Jamestown Hardships
Students demonstrate knowledge of the first permanent English settlement in America by describing the hardships faced by settlers at Jamestown and the changes that took place to ensure survival.
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What is an American?
Students investigate how the definition of being American has changed over the years using online primary source documents.