Thanksgiving Resources

I know we have covered Thanksgiving in our history already but it's such a great holiday that we are going to spending some time on it again over the next few weeks here at Loften Academy. Scholastic has a content rich site that includes virtual field trips. Enjoy!

Mayflower On Our Street

Using some of Janel's great links for the Mayflower, on the math worksheet I found dimensions of the Mayflower - it was 90 feet long and 26 feet wide.  First we started in our driveway with a 25 foot measuring tape, sidewalk chalk and cones.

Our driveway was long enough just not wide enough.

Next stop: the street.  He's writing 26 - I was trying to get in a bit of handwriting, does chalk count?

Below he's outlining the bow of the ship.

And little sister?  She was happy playing in the mulch of one of my potted jalapenos.

After tracing an outline of the ship, we talked about how many people were on the boat (102 edit: 128, counting the crew) and where  or how those people would sleep.  I traced a "bed" for him. K'nex in the pants - optional.

We duplicated this approximately 10 times across the street, with hopes of making a 10x10 matrix.  Quickly we realized that the Pilgrims' beds were smaller that what we were drawing (or there's another sleeping configuration that we'll investigate later today).

And Sister moved from potted plant to pulling weeds.

-Julie

Mayflower cross-section credit

from MayflowerHistory.com: The Gun Deck, sometimes referred to by the Pilgrims as "betwixt the decks" or the "tween deck," is where the Pilgrims lived for most of the voyage.  They occasionally ventured to the upper deck, especially during calmer weather when they would be less likely to get in the way of the seamen and there was less danger of being swept overboard.  The gun deck had about four gun ports on either side of the ship for cannon.  Even though the Mayflower was a merchant ship, it needed to be able to defend itself from pirates, and needed to be prepared for the possibility of conscription (when England was at war, the King or Queen could turn merchant ships into military vessels.)  The height of the gun deck was around five and a half feet.

The Mayflower for Kids

This week's topic is fairly easy to flesh out--the net is full of related topics. Here are a few links to get you started!

Here's a video from the History Channel with illustrations and music; if you let it continue to play, there are ten other related videos. There's another on the History Channel's site with lies debunked about the Mayflower that includes some ship footage. I have not previewed all of these.

ProTeacher.com had a long list of lesson plans and activity ideas; Scholastic.com also had some neat resources, including printables, as well as these for teachers. These links from the University of Missouri also included a number of interesting links, including a copy of the Mayflower Compact, a list of the passengers, an activity to show how crowded it was, mazes, crafts, etc. This site has an account by William Bradford about the voyage.Your kids may also enjoy looking around on Mayflowerhistory.com. This Scholastic.com interview with children's author Kate Waters had some interesting facts to help kids picture life on the Mayflower, and Education.com helps your kids decide whether they would sign the Mayflower Compact. They also have a related math worksheet. You might also check out this site by the Smithsonian.

Thanksgiving resources for kids

National Geographic for kids has this article with photos on the first Thanksgiving. Here's a brief, more historical video; and an animated video on William Bradford in ten or so two-minute parts from the Discovery Channel, starting here.

Martha Stewart had cute pilgrim hats and a sail centerpiece for kids in this month's magazine--even some finger puppet favors, too. Here are the best Thanksgiving crafts from Disney's Family Fun magazine, too, in case you just had way too much time on your hands (or needed the kids to have a little less on theirs).