Life in Colonial America Stations

So, last week was a week I termed “New Teacher Hazing.” 🙂 For me, NTH means your two cohorts in crime (the other two fifth grade teachers) take 33 of your 5th graders to Williamsburg for 5 days leaving you and a substitute teacher with your other 57 friends. Also, for kicks and giggles, let’s add your first field trip as a teacher and then, to plan for the other 2 days of learning and fun. 🙂 Sound about right??

This was my life. It was kind of a terrible three days involving physical altercations, cussing, and lockdowns…but regardless of the mix of personalities in one classroom, we learned ALL about life in Colonial America. The learning was fun, interactive, and really interesting!

In case you’ll be learning about Colonial America in the coming weeks or months, here is what our week looked like!

We visited a local fort and it was awesome! We saw the blacksmith make a Kentucky Long Rifle, the candlemaker dip candles in animal fat, and the weaver spin sheep’s wool. It was such a neat experience for my kiddos. Just in case you were wondering – the blacksmith and the candlemakers were the two favorites. 🙂

The next day we started our morning with Stand Up, Hand Up, Pair Up to share about our favorite parts of the trip, as well as, what job we would have wanted. Then, we wrote about our trip and added the writings to our class blog!

After blogging, we began our Colonial Stations. My ‘BIG’ kids do not do ‘centers’ but they LOVE stations. 🙂 Here is what our stations looked like –

In the first station, students used our iPads to scan a QR code. (I find that using QR Codes to link a website is SO much easier than sending students to Google or another search engine looking for a specific topic or article.) The QR code brought students to Social Studies for Kids where students could choose what they wanted to learning about – church, school, farm, park, food. After reading the nonfiction article, students compared/contrasted that part of Colonial life to life today. {Click here to grab the recording log and QR Code for free}

Next, the BEST STATION EVER. We made butter, and “it was AWESOME!” My kids said making the butter was better than the field trip…really?!?! I placed the materials students need at the station, and then, these directions. It took each group about 15 minutes of vigorous shaking to get the final product. Then, each group sampled their hard work with saltine crackers. 🙂 {Click here to grab the directions}

Using our SMART Board, one group visited History.org’s Colonial Williamsburg to learn about the lives of specific people in Colonial Williamsburg – farm family of seven, enslaved African Americans, the fired tutor, the master’s apprentice, and the burgess.

At a fourth station, students used our If You Lived in Colonial Times book, and practiced main idea. Students read an article about crime and punishment in Williamsburg. They determined the topic, main ideas, and supporting details of the article and put it into the ‘main idea house’ we have been using.

Well friends, that is what New Teacher Hazing looked like. It was a crazy, crazy whirlwind – ha. No worries, I have already claimed a spot on the Williamsburg bus next year. 🙂 I

I hope you have a wonderful week of teaching and learning. 5 days until Fall Break…and the people said, “Amen.”