Plimoth Plantation: Virtual Fieldtrip

Confession: If I were looking for a career and could have any job I wanted I would choose to role play at a living history museum. Odd, I know, but so it is.  When I was younger I thought I was horrible at history and social studies because I have never been good with names and dates.  But I loved presentation days when children would bring in reports about different countries or cultures and we would look at pictures and sample foods we had never tried before. I used to check out collections of folk tales from different cultures before I even knew what folklore was and I was always anxious for the bookmobile to return so I could get my hands on more.  It wasn't until I was in my junior year of college that I learned what folklore is (in a nut shell, the study of traditions) and that you could actually get a degree studying it, which I did.  I am fascinated with the everyday life of people from all different times and places and I have found that most children are too.  If you are looking to make the history of the first thanksgiving come alive for your children you must visit Scholastic's Thanksgiving page, where they have collaborated with Plimoth Plantation to present some beautiful virtual fieldtrips. The next best thing to visiting (or role playing) at the museum yourself.

After viewing the virtual field trips, my boys created a ven diagram, comparing and contrasting the pilgrims and the Wampanoag people.  I was really impressed with what they were able to pick up on.  Tomorrow we plan to go through an interactive portion of the site titled "Daily Life." Children can click on links comparing the food, chores, clothing, schooling, housing and games of pilgrim and Wampanoag children. Even my tiny boys can click on the speaker icon to have the captions read to them and so they will be able to explore for themselves.  I will then have them pretend to be either a Wampanoag or pilgrim child and they will dictate a short story to me to record in their in their notebooks.

http://www.eatyourplanet.com/2010/11/22/food-of-the-first-thanksgiving/

 To get a little more hands on, I'm sure my boys would love to burn logs to create canoes but they may have to settle for grinding corn. We'll grind our corn in our mortar and pestle, though a flat rock would work as well.