Lesson 6:
“A Journey to Plimoth Plantation”


Our Wampanoag Home Site
Our group loved the bunny!
Corn (otherwise known as "Maize")

Our English village
Working hard with Miss Milen
A video tour of Plimoth

Grade Level: Third

Time Frame: 45 minutes 

Broad Goals:

Students will understand the daily activities Plimoth Plantation.

Students will appreciate why Plimoth Plantation was chosen as a National Park/Historic Site.

Students will summarize and illustrate an important facts they have learned about Plimoth Plantation. 

Social Studies Goals:

State Goal 16: Understand events, trends, individuals and movements shaping the history of Illinois, the United States, and other nations.

Learning Standard A: Apply the skills of historical analysis and interpretation.

Benchmark 16.A.1a: Explain the difference between past, present, and future time; place themselves in time. 

State Goal 17: Understand World Geography and the effects of geography on society, with an emphasis on the United States.

Learning Standard D: Understand the historical signigicance of geography.

Benchmark 17.D.1: Identify changes in geographic characteristics of a local region (e.g. town, community.) 

Lesson Objective:

During the lesson the students will be able to:

Materials:

“Welcome to Plimoth Plantation” sign

Colored pencils/crayons

Pencil

Computer

Wetu background

Crop background

Colonial house background 

Resources: 

Focusing Activity:

There will be a sign that says, “Welcome to Plimoth Plantation” on the door to the room. “Boys and girls, today, we are very lucky! We are going to take a trip all the way to Massachusetts. What could we possibly want to visit in Massachusetts? (Plimoth Plantation is in Massachusetts!) Right! Plimoth Plantation is in Massachusetts and today we’re going to head to the park and take a look around! Look! There is a sign! Can someone read what it says? (Welcome to Plimoth Plantation.) Wow! Plimoth Plantation is right behind those doors, let’s go in!”

Purpose & Importance of Lesson:

“Since we have been learning so much information about Plimoth Plantation, it is important that we can take all the information we have learned and tell other people about all the great history of the park and what it has to offer to visitors. We want to be able to be third grade experts on our park, so we must be able to explain the past, present, and future of our park. By taking this field trip to our park, we’re going to be able to learn more about the park itself!”

Content Knowledge:

“Welcome boys & girls, ladies & gentlemen to Plimoth Plantation. My name is Remember Allerton. I am named after my relative by the same name. She was at the first harvest festival. I heard you have learned about that festival. Can anyone tell me where that first harvest festival took place? (Here! At Plimoth Plantation!) That would be correct! Right here at Plimoth Plantation, the Wampanoag and the English colonists sat and enjoyed the festival. Do you remember how long that festival lasted? (Three days.) Yes, the harvest festival lasted for three long days. The colonists and the Wampanoag people enjoyed food and games to celebrate the good harvest we had that year. What year was that again? (1621). My! You all seem like experts, maybe you can tell me more about what you know about Plimoth Plantation as we walk on the grounds.

Before we start our tour, let me introduce you to my fellow tour guide, Dancing Bear. She is a Wampanoag native. She will be helping us on our tour today. First, we are going to learn a little more about the history of the park. Let’s take a seat before we visit our historical sites.

Plimoth Plantation was settled originally by the native people of the land, the Wampanoag. In 1620, more people came to area of Massachusetts. Who were these people? (The Pilgrims) Very good, the Pilgrims, or as we call them here at Plimoth Plantation English colonists, came to what is present-day Plymouth, Massachusetts. What does that word “present-day” mean? (It means today.) That’s right, “present-day” refers to what is happening now. Let’s keep track of our new words we learn today. I am going to give you this piece of paper on the left hand side we are going to write a new word that we learned. On the right hand side we are going to write what that new word means. Another term we need to know is “past.” Past refers to something that has already happened. Let’s write down that word and its meaning. Finally, when we talk about the future, we mean something that will happen.

Today, Plimoth Plantation is a living museum.  Have any of you ever been to a museum? (Yes.) Which museums have you been to? (St. Louis Arch Museum, Field Museum, Museum of Science and Industry.) These are all museums that have things inside them such as animals that have died, experiments, and lots of information about people. Do you think this is a good word for us to write down on our new words sheet? (Yes.)

Plimoth Plantation became a museum in 1947 when Henry Hornblower, an amateur archeologist established the museum’s first exhibit called “first house.” In 1950, the museum became the village we are about to visit. In this village we will find people who are retelling stories of life on Plimoth Plantation. It is important that we know these people are not really the English colonists. Let’s stand up and follow me to the colonial village!

This is our colonial village, here we have a house and a young man inside of the house. Today, we are going to be portraying the people we meet in the village. Can I have one of you volunteer to read us a story about the life of a colonist?

(A volunteer student will read the photocopied excerpt from the book The Journal of Jasper Jonathon Pierce, a Pilgrim Boy by Ann Ranadli.)

Now that we know more about life for the colonists, let’s journey over to the crops they shared with the Wampanoag people. Can anyone tell me what kind of crops they see? (Corn.) Very good, and because you are so smart, I bet you know they Wampanoag name for corn. (Maize.) Wow! I am impressed with your knowledge third graders! I need a really good reader to volunteer to read this passage about Wampanoag food on Plimoth Plantation to us.

(A volunteer will read the attached information about the food the Wampanoag ate.)

Thank you for volunteering. Can I have someone tell us about the food the colonists ate?

(A volunteer will read the attached information about the food of the colonists.)

As you can imagine, life was not always easy for the Wampanoag or the colonists. The Wampanoag people and colonists tried as hard as they could to get along with one another, but with a language barrier it was very hard. Let’s travel to our last stop on our journey, the Wampanoag home site!

The Wampanoag people actually work here at Plimoth Plantation. Unlike the actors who retell the stories of the English colonists. Since we could not bring a Wampanoag person to our own Plimoth Plantation, we are going to listen to one from Plimoth Plantation in Massachusetts. First, let’s look at the Wampanoag homesite. What do you see here that is different from the colonial village? (The houses.) The houses are in deed different. They look different and have a very different name. Now, a little birdie told me that this group loves the name of the Wampanoag house. Can someone tell me the name of the Wampanoag house? (Wetu!) I knew you would know the name. Here we see a wetu house. These served as shelter when the Wampanoag lived in the valleys and forests in the winter as well as when the people lived by the rivers and ocean. Let’s listen to some of the Wampanoag people at Plimoth Plantation.

I would like to thank you wonderful third graders for joining us here today at Plimoth Plantation. Thank you for taking interest in our museum and come back again!”

“Boys and girls wasn’t that fun? I know we could not visit our real park, but that does not mean you could not try to convince your parents to take you to Plymouth on your next family vacation. You can teach them all about Plimoth Plantation.

We have had a lot of information about our park these past few weeks. We need to think about some of the important events and information that we have covered. We are going to write down some important words or thoughts that we have covered these past few weeks.

Response Activity:

Students will take a few minutes to write down main concepts they learned throughout the lessons we have taught. This will not be collected as its only for thought collection.

Students will also be filling out their new words and their definitions/meanings worksheet throughout the trip to Plimoth Plantation. When we recollect as a group, possibly at lab day, we will finish these worksheets.

Students will be prompted to choose one of their favorite things they learned during our six weeks of instruction to write about. Students will write a neatly written paragraph about their favorite information they learned and then illustrate a scene relating to the paragraph on the Native American response sheet.

If time allows, we will discuss the previous lessons and students will receive a feather and write one thing they learned during that lesson.

Finally, the ABC charts will be completed.

Modeling:

The teacher will model how the new words sheet is to be filled out, paying special attention to the right and left hand side of the page. The teacher will also have an example of the writing response and illustration paper, making sure to include the full paragraph and example of an illustration about our unit. The teacher will have completed feathers to show the children. As always, the ABC chart will be completed before the children add new words to it. The teacher will be writing with the students while filling in any words that the teacher did not write down. 

Conclusion:

“Boys and girls, did we have fun today at our very own Plimoth Plantation? It was important that we understand what Plimoth Plantation was in the past, is today, and will be in the future. Over the last six weeks we have learned a lot, so now we can tell our families all about what we have learned. On Thanksgiving we can impress our families with all the fun facts we have learned and maybe we can even teach even our grandmas and grandpas something they never knew before! The most important thing we do with all this information is to spread it!”

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