"Indoors or out, no one relaxes in March, that month of wind and taxes, the wind will presently disappear, the taxes last us all the year."

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Hello Families--

No, your eyes have not deceived you. It's not Thanksgiving, though with the recurrence of cooler weather, a little comfort food seems in order. We're moving on from Colonial Jamestown to take a brief interactive tour of Plimouth Colony where we'll learn some things about the Pilgrims I'll bet we didn't know before! Below are sites we'll explore in grades 5 & 6. I encourage you to check them out; they're pretty interesting! (Some of this work will be independent, and everything will be due on Friday, March 30.)

FOR MONDAY (GRADE 6) AND TUESDAY (GRADE 5):

(I will provide a worksheet to accompany the following two activities)

First:

Go to this site and answer the following questions...

• Who were the Pilgrims?
• In what year did they begin to come to America?
• According to early Plymouth records, what were the names of the first four ships to sail to America?
• Pilgrims weren't called "Pilgrims" until the 1800s. What were the passengers from the first four ships called back in the 1620s?

Second:

Continuing the worksheet above, answer questions by reading this interesting, fun article in Muse Magazine, Vol. 5, Issue 9, November 2001, from the publishers of Cricket and Smithsonian Magazine. You can find it by clicking on:

The True Story of the First Thanksgiving.

FOR WEDNESDAY (GRADE 6) AND THURSDAY (GRADE 5):

You Are The Historian--Investigating the First Thanksgiving

Excellent Interactive Site that we'll visit together! (There is an activity to complete at the end, which each student will print off and share.)

~

Want to check out some really cool stuff?

Check out what it was like living on Plimouth Plantation by going on a Plimouth Plantation Virtual Field Trip and, if you want to "see" what it looked like back in the day, check out these 360 Degree Tours.

For Fun (and extra credit!):

Write a short conversation between two Pilgrims by visiting this site. Talk Like a Pilgrim

Make It At Home --two colonial games to make and try!

Try this recipe for Fresh Ginger Cake inspired by A Journey to the New World: The Diary of Remember Patience Whipple, Mayflower, 1620