Early Settlers

Studying history is an essential part of understanding theworld we live in today.The history of the United States

includes the experiences and accomplishments of diversepeoples, from Native Americans and immigrants to thedescendants of European settlers and of Africans broughthere by force.Key events such as the Revolutionary War, thewriting of the Constitution and the EmancipationProclamation influenced how the nation developed. Thestudy of history also involves facing painful aspects of thecountry’s past, such as slavery and the treatment of NativeAmericans. Over time, songs, holidays and other observanc-es have shaped and reflected how Americans see them-selves and their country. History provides a framework forinterpreting and living in the ever-changing present.

Grades K–4

T E AC H E R ’ S G U I D E T E AC H E R ’ S G U I D E

• Get the class to generate a list of all of the foods that NativeAmericans taught colonists to grow and that were unknown inEurope until the discovery of America.Then ask each student tobring one recipe from home that includes corn as an ingredientto see how many differing recipes emerge from the class.Students can each write their recipe on a piece of paper, whichthey decorate. The class then assembles a recipe book.

• Have students make a map of the colonies along the Atlanticcoast, and ask them to locate and label the several colonies, andto do the same for the towns and cities that existed at the time.An excellent colorful map can be found on this site:www.socialstudiesforkids.com/graphics/13mapnew.htm

Suggested Internet ResourcesPeriodically, Internet Resources are updated on our web site atwww.LibraryVideo.com• www.mayflowerhistory.com

Created and maintained by a descendant of a Mayflower passen-ger, this web site contains a depth of information about the shipand its passengers, including passenger biographies and links toother sites of interest.

• www.mce.k12tn.net/colonial_times/colonial_america.htmMaintained by the Mountain City Elementary School, this sitecontains extensive information on the early colonies, includingtime lines, lessons and class activities.

• www.rootsweb.com/~mosmd/This study guide includes links to an extensive variety of infor-mation on the Pilgrims and Plymouth Colony.

• www.baccalieu.com/squantum/This site contains interesting information about Squanto andlinks to several episodes of his life.

• www.nnp.org/newvtour/regions/Manhattan/new-amsterdam.html# An excellent site for a virtual tour of New Amsterdam with linksto Wall Street and other neighborhoods.

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Suggested Print Resources• Doak, Robin Santos. Smith: John Smith and the Settlement of

Jamestown. Compass Point Books, Minneapolis, MN; 2003.• Erickson, Paul. Daily Life in the Pilgrim Colony, 1636. Clarion

Books, New York, NY; 2001.• O’Neill Grace, Catherine, et al. Mayflower 1620:A New Look at a

Pilgrim Voyage. National Geographic,Washington, D.C.; 2003.• Sateren, Shelley Swanson. Going to School in Colonial America.

Blue Earth Books, Mankato, MN.; 2001.• Whitcraft, Melissa. Mayflower Compact. Children’s Press, New

York, NY; 2003.

Emily Cruse, M.Ed.Curriculum Specialist, Schlessinger Media

Rudolph LeaHistorian

TEACHER’S GUIDE

• NATIVE AMERICAN LIFE• EARLY SETTLERS• AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE• UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION• AFRICAN AMERICAN LIFE• EQUAL RIGHTS FOR ALL

• UNITED STATES FLAG• UNITED STATES EXPANSION• IMMIGRATION TO THE U.S.• WASHINGTON, D.C.• NATIONAL OBSERVANCES• U.S. SONGS AND POEMS

TITLES

Teacher’s Guide Copyright 2004 by Schlessinger Media,a division of Library Video Company

P.O. Box 580,Wynnewood, PA 19096 • 800-843-3620 Executive Producer:Andrew Schlessinger

Programs produced and directed by Fabian-Baber, Inc.All rights reserved

800-843-3620Teacher’s Guides Includedand Available Online at:

K6632V7162

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plantation — A large farm where many slaves lived and worked tofarm the land.Powhatan Confederacy — A group of Native American nations inVirginia united for a common purpose.town stock — A framework used as punishment by the Puritans inMassachusetts to lock in a person’s ankles and wrists and exhibithim in the town square.

Pre-viewing Discussion• Ask students what places come to mind when they hear the words

“American colonies.” Do they know who was in America beforeEuropean settlers came? What do they know about how thesepeople lived? How was life was different then from now?

• Ask students to imagine a first encounter between NativeAmericans and European settlers, and to imagine what each groupthought when it first saw the other.

• Discuss with students what the reasons could have been to causefamilies in Europe to leave their homes and to take the huge risksof sailing to and settling in an unknown land.

• Challenge your students to imagine what they would have to do tosurvive if they had to leave their homeland with their families andsettle down on a strange shore in a relatively wild place.

• Ask your students what they eat on Thanksgiving and if they knowwhy these food items are chosen for the traditional holiday meal.

Focus Questions1. What was the route that the Pilgrims took from England to America?2.What did Pilgrims bring with them to the New World?3.Why did the Pilgrims make the Mayflower Compact, and what did

it do?4. How did Squanto and Samoset help the settlers?5.What foods were included in the first Thanksgiving?6.What was life like for children in colonial Williamsburg?7.What crops made some Virginians very rich?8.Why were Africans brought as enslaved people to the New World?9.What were some of the countries people left to settle in America?

How were the groups from these countries similar and different?

Follow-up Discussion• Challenge your students to understand why sailing across the

Atlantic Ocean in 1620 required great courage and great risk.Whatmade it so dangerous?

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• Discuss with your students the practical reasons why thePilgrim leaders on the Mayflower acted to write the MayflowerCompact before landing, and why they wrote it the way theydid.What is in it that made it a very important document inAmerican history?

• Both the Puritans and the Quakers came to the New World forfreedom of religion. Compare how they carried out their reli-gions in their colonies.Whose approach would students prefertoday and why?

• Discuss with students how differently boys and girls were raisedin colonial Williamsburg, and have them compare games theyplay today with games Williamsburg children played, and clothesthey wear today with the clothes children wore then.

• Ask your students to name as many different countries or conti-nents they can think of from which colonists came to the NewWorld. How do they think this variety affected the later growthof the United States?

Follow-up Activities• Have students make lists of items they would choose to pack

into one single suitcase if they had to accompany their parentson a trip to a new home in a far-off country.Then ask them tomake lists of the items the Pilgrims were allowed to take withthem on the voyage to the New World. Have them share the listsand come to an agreement to identify the ten most importantitems.

• Ask students to pretend that they were experts of life in theAmerican colonies, sent back to England in 1700 to help a groupof people who are about to move permanently to the NewWorld. Students can develop an advertisement encouragingpeople to move to the colonies.

• Divide the class in half and assign one half to prepare a “SurvivalGuide” for settlers about to embark on a ship to settle for goodin Jamestown,Virginia, in 1607, and the other half to do thesame for passengers about to blast off on the space shuttle for amonth’s visit to the International Space Station.Afterward, havethem compare the guides and then vote for which trip theywould prefer.

• Ask students to pair off and to imagine they are two persons ofthe same age, one growing up as the child of a tobacco planta-tion owner in the town of Williamsburg, and the other as thechild of an enslaved person working on a plantation in theVirginia countryside.Write a script for a mini-play that describestheir contrasting lives during the course of one day.

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Program OverviewIn the early 1600s, the Pilgrims left England seeking a place wherethey could practice their Puritan religion freely. Before arriving in theNew World, they wrote the Mayflower Compact that set up a govern-ment for their colony. In their colony, the Pilgrims experienced severehardships, learned from Indians about growing corn and other foods,and celebrated their survival with the first Thanksgiving feast. Latercolonists continued to come to America for many reasons, from free-dom to practice their religions to the desire to become wealthy.

VocabularyPilgrim — An English Puritan who sailed from Holland to Americato found Plymouth Colony.A pilgrim is also a person who goes on avery long journey for religious reasons.The New World — The words people in Europe used to refer toNorth and South America during the colonial period.Plymouth Rock — A large boulder at Plymouth, Massachusetts,where the Pilgrims probably landed.heritage — Traditions and customs handed down from one’s ances-tors.Mayflower Compact — The agreement for self-government madeby the Pilgrims on the Mayflower.colony — A community of settlers on a distant land, or simply theterritory itself, that is owned and ruled by the country from whichthey came.majority — More than half of a group.harvest — The gathering in of crops.Squanto — The Native American who taught the Pilgrims how togrow corn, fish and hunt.Anglicans — People belonging to the Church of EnglandPuritans — Former Anglicans who wanted to purify and change theChurch of England, and who separated from it to form their ownreligion.trade — Any skilled work done by a skilled craftsman.silversmith — A skilled craftsman who makes things out of silver.apprentice — A person who works with a skilled craftsman to learna trade.blacksmith — A skilled craftsman who works with iron, especiallyto make horseshoes and to attach them.tobacco — An American plant that grows the leaves that are used tomake cigars and cigarettes.merchant — A business person who buys and sells products forprofit.slave — A person who is forced against their will to work for nomoney.

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