The third and fourth graders this fall have begun to learn about the history of the 13 Colonies. We started this unit by reading a book titled Small Wolf by Nathaniel Benchley. In this book, a young native boy discovers people on Manhattan Island that he has never seen before and we used this to bridge our study of Native Americans last year to our study of people traveling to the “New World” this year.
As we continued learning about these people that came from Europe, we’ve been exploring the Mayflower and pilgrims of Plymouth Rock. Students are learning about the size of the ship, why people would risk their lives on a “cargo” ship to cross the ocean and what it was like to be in the “New World” that first winter and spring. We will continue our exploration of the history and life of these Europeans and compare them to Native Americans as well as our present day lives.
