Colonial Life
Colonial Life
• Target Audience
• 7th Gr Social Studies Classes
• Goals and Objectives
• Students will be able to build background of colonial life by
observing and handling artifacts; create a mini museum exhibit
• Assessment
• Formative assessments include answers to discovery questions
during stations, exhibit theme approval, group progress checks,
preview of exhibit tour
• Students will design and create theme-based exhibits with labels
for all artifacts: one real artifact and three or more related
“virtual” artifacts
Part 1 of Colonial Life
• Students have about 5-7 minutes with each discovery station
• Materials are passed around to next group for review
• Students fill out question sheets from each station which help
them focus on details such as the materials used, who may have
used the artifact, and how it compares to modern day life
• A scavenger hunt in the form of a bingo sheet is also provided
for those who finish questions early or have observed details
which may be bypassed or seem like trivia to others.
Artifacts
Station 1: flax strands, flax thread, wooden
needle case, linen bags, wig curler
Station 2: bullet replicas, bullet mold, cartridge sample, powder horn,
flint piece, haversack
Station 3: wooden spoon and bowl, sugar cone, soap cake, horn
spoon, tin lantern, wire fork, molasses
Station 4: deck of cards, bees wax candle, wooden dice, spinning top,
game of jacks, tabletop bowling
Station 5: various colonial dollars, Spanish milled dollar with pieces of
eight, sample of stamp tax
Station 6: newspapers of runaway ads, slave chain, quill pen, permit,
socks, handcuffs
Part 2 of Colonial Life
• Prime Time 1: Show documentary on colonial life; introduce
the rubric and objectives. Their task is to choose a theme for
their exhibit and research virtual artifacts to feature.
• Downtime: Pairs of students choose one real artifact they
would like to use in their mini museum; discuss possible
themes and virtual artifacts to include
• Prime Time 2: Relate search to colonial items from discovery
stations; provide instruction for internet search, and samples
of museum labels
Part 3 of Colonial Life
• Students may choose the category or theme of their exhibit.
For example: if they have the artifact of flax thread, they may
choose a theme of “18th Century Clothing,” or “Sewing Now
and Then.”
• After finding several items that fit the theme of their exhibit,
students will create museum labels to describe details of the
artifacts.
• Exhibits will include the one real artifact and
all the virtual artifacts, labels and pictures.
• Exhibits can be created with Power-Point or
printed for display on a board/poster
Assessment
• Discovery questions
• Rubric for mini-museum
• Virtual artifact pictures
• Labels for all artifacts
• Color, visual appeal of exhibit
• Presentations to teacher guests
and classmates
Learning Styles
•
•
•
•
Concrete – Sequential
Abstract – Sequential
Concrete – Random
Abstract – Random
Multiple Intelligences
Verbal-Linguistic
Visual-Spatial
Interpersonal
Intrapersonal
Naturalist
Bodily-Kinesthetic
Musical
Logical-Mathematic
Works Cited
Maquire, E. A., Frith, C. D., & Morris, R. G. M. (1999, October). The functional
neuroanatomy of comprehension and memory: The importance of prior
knowledge. Brain, 122, 1839-1850.
Sousa, D. (2006). How the brain learns. (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin
Press.
Mind styles - Anthony Gregorc. (n.d.). Retrieved from
http://web.cortland.edu/andersmd/learning/gregorc.htm
Photos obtained from:
*My personal files
*Http://www.history.org/Almanack/life/trades/tradehdr.cfm