Original Field Trip Lessons

During my student teaching I had the opportunity of going on a field trip.   I felt pre and post lessons were important to ensure students the most educationally sound experience.  The field trip took place at Naper Settlement.  This outside community teaches children about life during the earlier settlement days.  Children have the opportunity to learn trades of this time, such as the life of a blacksmith, a silversmith, or a tailor.  The entire staff is dressed in the traditional clothing of the time period to emphasis the experience.  Students walk through an entire re-created town with real buildings designed to look and feel as though they were in the earlier days of the country.  At one point, the girls and boys are separated to learn specific chores they would perform if they lived during that time period.  The boys learned how to chop wood, while the girls learned how to make butter and beat dust out of rugs.  The whole field trip is designed to be hands on discovery learning, which helps students fully understand that time period. 

At the time of our field trip, we had just completed a social studies unit on the Northeastern region, which was a great lead into this field trip.  Students already had a small understanding of what had happened to create the United States and the tough lives the colonists lived before the end of British rule.  

I created four lesson plans, which are found below in the order in which they were taught.  They are all original lessons created by myself.  The first two are activities the class participated in before going to Naper Settlement and the last two we worked on after we returned to solidify the experience.