The Mayflower and Pilgrims

Last week the first graders started learning about how to ask questions before and during a story to help them gain deeper meaning. We talked about "question words" and learned a song to help us remember them! We also discussed the difference between a question that can be answered "in the book" verses "in our head". If an answer can be found in the book it is considered a "right there" answer. If an inference needs to be made or a question asks for an opinion, we learned that we have to answer the question in our head with our own ideas. Being able to distinguish between the two types of questions will help students when they start to take standardized tests in later grades.

We used these questioning skills to launch our unit on The Mayflower and Pilgrims. We read a few different books this week and answered questions about this topic. Students were SO INTERESTED in the voyage that was taken to the New World back in the year 1620. We did several activities to deepen students' understanding of this major historical event. Next week students will dive into Native Americans and how they played a major role in the success that the Pilgrims had in building a community of their own.

This poster has questions students were able to answer after reading about The Mayflower.

Students unscrambled sentences about the Pilgrims' story and made their own Mayflowers!

Students were SHOCKED at how little the Pilgrims got to take along on their journey due to how packed the Mayflower was with people! They got the opportunity to discuss things they would bring along and then each decided on their top four items! Definitely have some 21st Century answers here...very difficult for the firsties to fathom that back in the 1600s iPads and other electronics were not around! :)

 My favorite thing about these sweet kids though is that all of them put they would bring their family...<3 

Finally, we wrapped up the week with a "Then vs. Now" sort where students compared things from long ago and modern day. I love how cross-curricular this unit is...we are able to mix many language arts activities with social studies standards as well! Win-win! 

Note: Many activities from this unit were found from the wonderful Deanna Jump.