COLONIAL AMERICA

Activity Ideas In the Classroom

Hello and welcome to my homepage! This is a place for teachers to find great activities for incorporating the Colonial American theme into their daily lesson plans. I teach 5th grade and I have used each of these ideas in my own classroom. My school has a Colonial Fair each year. The activities can be used for students in Kindergarten through Grade 6. I hope these ideas are helpful and have fun using them!

Making Colonial Toys: Children love to play with toys, even back in colonial times. Children from wealthier families enjoyed dolls, tea sets and soldiers imported from England. But most of all colonial children played with homemade toys. These toys included balls, dolls, tops, marbles, kites, jump ropes and rolling hoops. You can make some of these items with your students.

Have your students experiment with top making. You can use spools, jar lids, cardboard, or any other round object in which you can punch a hole in the center. Push a stick, pencil or nail through the hole. Which top spins the longest? Older students can have a design contest. Younger students can work in groups with an adult to make their tops.

Let your students show their creative ways with doll-making. During colonial times, dolls were made of all sorts of things. They were made from pine combs, corn husks, rags, and even socks. Dried apples were even sometimes used as a face. It is lots of fun to make sock-dolls with your students. Each child will need: one sock, two rubber bands, rags for stuffing, glue, scissors, buttons, ribbon, and assorted material. The students will need to cut off the old sock right above the heel. They will then stuff the sock with rags. Then they will need to pull the bottom of the sock together and close it with a rubber band. To form the neck, they will need to squeeze the sock a few inches from the end opposite the rubber band. Then they will secure a rubber band over the section being squeezed to separate the head from the body. Then they can glue the button eyes and material for clothing. Be sure to make room for your students to display the toys they created.

Making a Classroom Colonial Quilt: For colonial women quilting was not just the creation of a household item. Quilts were a thrifty use of material fragment, a form of decoration and an expression of pride. Ladies exchanged intricately designed patterns each with its name such as Crow's Foot, Chinese Puzzle, Love-knot, and Sunflower. Groups of women would gather together for several days in quilting bees, working toward one result-the creation of a beautiful quilt.

Bring your class together with the making of a class quilt...Each child will need an 8"x8" piece of white oaktag. Using crayons, markers or any other type of material, the children will need to decorate their own square. Remind the students that they will be representing themselves on this quilt so you might wish to give suggestions on how they could do this. For example, draw their favorite food, draw their name in a fancy way, if they collect stamps perhaps they can paste a stamp to their square etc. You will then need to assemble the squares together, punch holes along the edges and then use yarn to "sew" them together. I hope it comes out as great as mine did!

Designating a Class "Town Crier": It wan't until the mid-1700's that newspapers came into general use in the colonies. Prior to that some information was passed by means of postal riders or was spread by word-of-mouth. Each town had a towm crier- someone whose job was to call out the news and read official announcements to the townsfolk who gathers in a general meeting place.

Each day pick a different student to be the town crier. The child will be responsible for relating information to students. This could be as simple as announcing that it's recess or as advanced as reading aloud the assignment instructions and school bulletins.

Creating Plymouth Rock: According to popular story, the Pilgrims on the Mayflower stepped ashore a large rock when they landed in America on December 21,1620. Historians believe this rock was nearby when the Pilgrims landed and it has become a very famous American Landmark. The granite boulder has the date of the landing inscribed on it and is placed near the Plymouth waterfront in a pit protected with an iron railing.

Have your students make a model of this famous rock out of paper-mache. You can buy this mix in variety or craft stores. Wallpaper paste also works well. First the students will need to tear the sheets of newspaper into narrow strips about one-inch wide. They will then need to cover the strips with paste by pulling each strip through the paste. They will cover a shoebox with these strips. They will need to lay the strips in one direction,then lay them in the other direction so that they go across the first layer. They will need to smooth them down and continue until they have put on about six layers. Dry the project in an open place for two or more days. When dry, paint gray. When the gray paint has dried, paint "1620" with black paint. Display your rock replica for everyone to see!

Using Poor Richard's Almanac: One of the most popular and influential works printed in Colonial America was Poor Richard's Almanac. Written and published by Benjamin Franklin, the book was issued every year from 1733 to 1758. Poor Richard's Almanac featured practical advice, poems, jokes, weather predictions and proverbs. Such well-known proverbs as "A penny saved is a penny earned" and "Early to bed, early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise" were found in the almanac.

Have your students get familiar with the Poor Richard's Almanac. Have them choose their favorite proverb and display it on a piece of paper in fancy colonial calligriphic writing. Or you could even have your class make an almanac of their own. They can include class jokes, advice and proverbs. Let them be creative and have fun with this activity!

Colonial Children's Games:Colonial children played more games and had fewer toys then modern children. Any playthings that they had were homemade by themselves or adults. These games included Leap Frog, Hopscotch, Hop Skip and Jump, Squat tag, Stone Poison, Cat's Cradle and Bowling on the grass. Some of these games you may of heard of and some you may not. You might wish to try some of these games with your students. Here's how to play each one:

LEAPFROG-Play in partners. One player squats down while the other gently places his hands on the squatters back and leaps over. You can have classroom races.

HOPSCOTCH-Today's version of Hopscotch is much the same. Use a stick to mark Hopscotch squares in the dirt. Find a rock to throw as a marker.

HOP SKIP AND JUMP-Three motions are done in the order-hop, skip and jump-for distance, without a pause. Class members can take turns measuring the distance covered to determine the winner.

SQUAT TAG-A player is "safe" when in a squatting position. "It" tries to tag players not squatting.

STONE POISON-A player is "safe" when standing on a rock or stone. If you cannot collect enough stones to play, then cut "stones" from paper or cardboard to scatter on the playground.

CAT'S CRADLE-This game is also called Cratch Cradle. One player stretches a length of yarn over the extended fingers of both hands in a symmetrical form. The second player uses his fingers to remove the yarn without dropping the loops and tries to make another figure.

BOWLING ON THE GRASS-Set up empty milk cartons on the grass and roll a ball from a distance of about 15 feet. Try to knock over the cartons. Play on teams or individually scoring a point each time a carton is hit. (Of course, colonial children did not have milk cartons or the nice balls that children of today do!)

Colonial Silhouette Art: Another form of paper art was the making of portrait silhouettes. The person to be captured in the art form was seated behind white paper. A candle was lit and placed behind the sitter who's profile was then cast onto the white paper. A machine was used which marked and reduced the shadow. The reduced silhouettes was cut from black paper, mounted and framed.

It is lots of fun to make these with your students. To do this you need to seat a child in front of a piece of black constuction paper. Shine a lamp in front of the child so that a profile shadow is cast on the black paper. Trace the shadow on the paper with chalk. Cut out along the white chalkline and mount on a piece of white paper. It is lots of fun for the children to guess which silhouette belongs to which classmate!

Colonial Silverware-Making: The work of a silversmith was almost as important as that of blacksmith's. Their customers considered silverware an investment because the metal itself had a high value. Valuable silver pieces included candlesticks, platters, bowls, salt cellars and sets of tableware. The skill of the silversmith could be seen in the intricate patterns engraved into the silverware. Almost every colonial town had a silversmith but the main silversmithing centers were Boston, Philadelphia and New York City.

Have your students enjoy creating their own intricately designed silverware. Cover a sturdy paper plate with tin foil. Use a toothpick to carefully draw a design on the foil. Be careful not to press too hard or you will go through the foil. If these are made carefully, they really come out beautiful!

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  • Last updated April 13, 1997