Electronic Field Trips
Plimoth Plantation Field Trip
- Grade level:
Upper or Lower Elementary
- Subject Area: Social Studies
Brief Description
Students will visit the Plimoth Plantation web site to
learn more about how people lived in this country during the 17th century. This
lesson can provide a great supplement to traditional studies about pilgrims and
Native Americans.
Objectives
Students will:
- Use visual materials as a source of data.
- Work in collaborative groups
Materials and Resources
- Hardware requirements: A computer and modem.
- Software requirements: Web browser, preferably Netscape. [http://home.netscape.com/]
- Network/Internet requirements: Access to internet.
Activity Description
Pre-activity Preparation
As part of a larger unit on pilgrims and Native
Americans during the 17th century, discuss with children how they think our lives
today might be different from the lives of people back then. Specifically,
address how people might have dressed and what sort of houses they lived in. You
may want to record the children's predictions on a piece of chart paper. You may
also want to read two books about pilgrims to the students: Sarah Morton's Day
and Samuel Eaton's Day by Kate Waters. These books give a great background on the
lives of pilgrim children.
- Organize students into research groups. Each group will be responsible for
researching one aspect of people's lives: either dress or housing. You may want
to give students recording sheets that ask them questions such as: What did
people's clothing look like? What sorts of things do you think that they used to
make their clothes? How do their clothes look different than ours today? What
sort of materials do we use to make our clothes today? etc.
- Have students go to the
Plimoth Plantation
[http://spirit.lib.uconn.edu/ArchNet/Topical/Historic/Plimoth/Plimoth.html] and
investigate their questions. Students can be guided to specific areas of the
site-- for example housing researchers can be pointed to the links to photos of
houses-- or you can allow students to explore the site and discover resources that
will help them answer their questions.
- Gather the group back together and discuss students' findings, focusing on the
differences that students noted.
- Have children create an art project, placing themselves in the 17th century--
drawing a picture of themselves in 17th century dress or of what their house would
look like if they lived in the 17th century.
Internet Resources
- Plymouth History
[http://media3.com/plymouth/history.htm]
Information on Plymouth and many of the people who were among its early
citizens.
- America's Homepage
[http://media3.com/plymouth/]
Homepage for Plymouth, MA. Learn how Plymouth looks today!
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