Fifth Grade Travels Back to the Colonial Times
By: Morgan Hirschorn, Head Teacher, Birch Room
Over the past month fifth graders traveled back to the Colonial era. They studied all about Colonial America and embarked on a research project about specific colonial jobs. Students learned all about the origin of the first settlements in America as well as what it was like to live in Colonial America and participate in daily activities. Students learned about their daily lives, including their jobs, clothing they wore, types of homes they lived in, and many more! For their research projects, students primarily focused on colonial jobs, such as brickmakers, wigmakers, wheelwrights, tailors, apothecaries, and others! They used multiple sources of research materials such as dictionaries, books, and the internet to conduct research about the specific jobs that they chose to learn more about. They conducted research on their specific jobs using books from the library, computers in technology class, as well as dictionaries in the classroom. They learned all about what they wore during the colonial period, what tools they used, the people that performed their job, their responsibilities, and the importance of their job for their community and families.
Colonial Day took place on Wednesday, March 16th. A full day was planned for students to truly get a feel for and be a part of the life and culture of the Colonial period. Students dressed up and brought in tools that applied to their occupation that they researched. Students were no longer children in the Birch Room, but they were young adults who had jobs! Each student transformed into the role they had studied for the research project, and embarked on the task of interviewing fellow peers. During this time, they learned information about all of the various occupations. Then, students entered “Plymouth Rock” and “Virginia” by visiting “Plymouth Crock” to make corn bread and homemade butter, “Virginia Threading Company” to make a quilt, and “Mancolony” to play mancala. The fifth graders worked so hard and had such a great time immersing themselves into the daily life of colonists, making it a truly invaluable experience!
