[plank]

I will be planning all the social studies and science for second grade this year. I am looking for good sites or lessons on planning a Colonial America unit and special day with our kids. Any ideas??? Peggy

[Cherrie28]

I worked in a school that created a live Colonial Museum. They worked hard researching for a couple months. Then they made each room into different rooms from the Colonial period...such as kitchen, school, tool house. Each student was assigned a role and had to dress and act the part. Parents were invited to come tour and one other grade level came through. It was fantastic. Also, they had a day where each class chose a colonial activity such as a game or craft and the students chose the activities they wanted to do and they ended it with a food celebration.

[ecsmom]

I like the Colonial Williamsburg website. It has some games for kids as well as lots of info for teachers. Our 4th graders do a wax museum. They chose a historical figure, do a written report , dress in costume and memorize a short presentation about their character. We usually do this in the spring after testing.

[timpea2]

I also teach 2nd grade and we do a big colonial unit. I also use the Colonial Williamsburg website. The big activity that we do is a Colonial Tea Party. We invite the students to dress as if it were colonial times. The kids do a great job! We also read from one of the American girl books that discusses manners and conversation at a tea party. (Even the boys get into this.) We have the students bring in a tea cup and saucer. I also talk with our music teacher and we integrate music and we teach the kids the minute dance. I do a little program. . .

*Send home invitations for parents to come to tea party
*2 kids stand at door and welcome parents to the tea party and pass out a little program(they love to see their child's name on the program)
**I do a comparison writing on today vs. colonial. Several students read colonial times. Then several others read today's times.
*Students serve tea and cookies (I serve cold tea--no ice and shortbread cookies.) I also put my students desks together to make little tables.
*I pair up students to dance the minute and I have a classical CD that has a minute.
*Students then ask a parent or another student to dance with them.

While the students are talking, serving and dancing I'm taking pictures. The students are in charge of the tea party. They do a great job!!!
2nd graders start asking about our tea party on the first day of school.

[Meggin]

Check out the links at this website:
http://www.mce.k12tn.net/units/american_history.htm

They are written mostly for 4th grade, but you should be able to get some good ideas.

[Pirate_Andi]

You might could use some of what I have here for 2nd graders.

I tought 4th grade last year and we did " A Colonial Christmas". A boy and a girl in colonial dress would go to a classroom and tell them about their outfits and why they live where they do. They passed out numbers to each students. They would then escort the class of students to our room where they would go to the numbered station that matched their number. Every 3 to 4 min. they would rotate to the next station.

I brought my sewing machine to school and the girls made their own long skirts out of sheets. We made bonnets out of paper doillies. The boys wore vests and hats.

We brought somewhere around 200 students through. My students felt so proud of themselves.

Stations:

1. Welcome Center: Home decorations made during Colonial times.
2. Pomander ball: information and demonstration on how and why.
3. School: How to make a hornbook and what it was used for.
4. Writing: Quill pens and ink...everyone was allowed to make a line
with a quil pen.
5. Toys: Handmade stuffed doll, playing cards, marbles
6. Money: Pieces of eight
7. Quilts: How to make a quilt
8. Candles: How to make a candle (students dipped a wick in wax)
9. Butter Making: Had a churn for display. Shook whipping cream to
make butter served it on crackers for visiting
students.
10. Refreshments: Apple juice, Johnny Cakes, and Gingerbread.

Let me know anyone if you would like to see some pictures!!

[plank]

These are great ideas!!!!!!! Thanks so much. I will share these with my team! Peggy

[3grteacher]

We do a huge Colonial American Unit too. We do something VERY similar to the live colonial museum mentioned above.

We also tie in a Thanksgiving feast and make homemade butter using baby jars, whipping cream and salt. Yummy.

The third main part is a book:

We have Five teachers so we each took a topic from the book: History Pockets: Colonial America. It's by Evan Moore and made for 4-6 grade. I teach 3rd so we picked through and found plenty of activities that they could do.

We ended up with 6 pockets: One in home class...rotate to the 4 other classes, then back to home class for the last pocket.

We put them together into these awesome books using brown poster board and rope. They were GREAT!!

When all was send and done, they have a great experience learning about Colonial America, the parents love the presentations, and they have tangable work to take home.

[plank]

I will definitely look into those Histroy Pockets! Peg