Enter your search terms Submit search form
	Web www.homeschoolshare.com

Sarah Morton’s Day: A Day in the Life of a Pilgrim Girl
 

Unit prepared by Susan Marie

Go Along Books

Samuel Eaton’s Day: A Day in the Life of a Pilgrim Boy by Kate Waters.

Read Aloud-  Rebekah In Danger: Peril At Plymouth Colony by Colleen L. Reece. Eleven- year old Rebekah does chores and tends to the sick during the pilgrims first winter in Plymouth Colony (1621). A Sisters in Time series book.
Turkey’s Pilgrims and Indian Corn: The Story of the Thanksgiving Symbols by Edna Barth

About the Activities in this Unit

Chose activities to suit your student.

Most students will enjoy doing one activity a day for the length of the unit.

Before You Read

Talk about what you know about the life of the pilgrims. What did they wear? Eat?  How did they dress? What kind of chores did they do? Did the pilgrim children go to school? What kind of games did they play? What did the Pilgrims houses look like?
 

Notebook or Lapbook Cover Activity

Students notebooking or lapbooking this unit should design a cover for their notebook or lapbook.

Your cover should include:

Pictures of scenes or items from the Unit Study Book

(Those students who own or can borrow Draw Write Now Book Three on Native Americans, North America and The Pilgrims might get ideas for drawings from this wonderful learn to draw book.)

The title of the book you read

The full name of the author

The full name of the illustrator

The words Poster board book by and then write your name

The word age and then write your age 
 

Social Studies

History Discussion (consider doing this lesson before you read the book or after the first day)
Is Sarah Morton a real pilgrim ?

Sarah Morton was a real pilgrim child who was nine years old in 1627. She lived in Plymouth, Massachusetts; she did not come to Plymouth on the Mayflower, but on a ship called The Anne. The girl in the story is not the real Sarah Morton, the real Sarah Morton died many years ago. The girl in the story is Amelia Poole, she is pretending to be Sarah Morton.

How do we know what Sarah Morton’s life was like?

We know what Sarah Morton’s life was like back in 1627 because of the journals, letters and books written by some of the pilgrims. We call historical, original writings by people who were really there in history, primary source writings.

William Bradford the second Governor of Plymouth Plantation, wrote a journal, now famous, called Of Plymouth Plantation, his journal talks about the pilgrim’s experiences at Plymouth from 1620-1647. Even today people can read William Bradford’s original journal. A recent book called Of Plymouth Plantation has been published, here is the link to the book
 

PLEASE NOTE:  The next lessons are for Social Studies and Language Arts

Pilgrim Culture

1.  What did the pilgrims eat?

During the voyage over to the New World the pilgrims ate dried pork and beef, like jerky today. They also ate hard tack or stale, dry biscuits. They didn’t drink much fresh water but instead drank beer!

After the pilgrims spring in the New World, the pilgrims learned what kinds of foods were available in their new land and even grew some foods from seeds they brought with them and found. Pilgrims in Sarah Morton’s time, 1627 would eat deer meat called venison, wild turkey. geese and duck, fish, lobster, calms and oysters. They also ate corn, pumpkins, beans, berries and nuts. These were probably the foods of the first thanksgiving.

By 1622, five years before Sarah Morton’s time, the pilgrims sent for chickens, goats and later sheep from England. The first pilgrims that came on the Mayflower did not bring any animals with them, except for two dogs. Sarah Morton lives in a more established village than the first pilgrims did.

Read more about the Pilgrims food here
 

Activity: Write a Menu

Look through the book and pay careful attention to the foods Sarah Morton prepares and eats.

For breakfast she has hasty pudding, a porridge of cornmeal or oatmeal, cheese, bread and goat’s milk.

For her midday meal or lunch, Sarah and her family eat cornmeal cakes, pottage which is a rich stew and it looks like duck too is on the table.

For the evening meal, Sarah tells us her family has pottage reheated and probably goat’s milk.

Using the Menu Mini Book, students should write a menu for Sarah Morton’s Day.

The menu should include a cover page with the student’s name and age and

a title that reads Sarah Morton’s Menu on the twelfth day of November 1627.

The first page of the menu should include the word breakfast and what Sarah ate, listed above.

The second page of the menu should include the words midday meal and list what Sarah ate, included above.

The third page of the menu should include the words evening meal and list what Sarah ate, included above.

2.  What did pilgrims wear?
 

Write About Pilgrim Clothing

Pilgrims did not just wear black and gray clothes, they often wore brighter colors like red, blue, green and even purple. They did not have buckles on their shoes either. The pilgrims left wills and their belongings were listed, not a single buckle was mentioned on the list!

Read more about Pilgrim clothes and other interesting facts about the Pilgrims in this book-- Turkey’s Pilgrims and Indian Corn: The Story of the Thanksgiving Symbols by Edna Barth, illustrated by Ursula Arndt.  Read more about pilgrim clothing online
 

Using the three picture writing book and the pictures of Sarah Morton getting dressed, students can write about the items of clothing the pilgrims wore. Draw a picture of the clothing item in the picture box and use the lines below the box to write about the article of clothing. Use descriptive language in your writing. For example, say Sarah wears long, brown wool stockings. The stockings come up over her knee. Instead of saying, Sarah wears socks.

Students should include their name and age on the cover of their book.

They should also include a title that lets the reader know their book is about pilgrim clothing.

Students chose from the following items of clothing.

petticoat – skirts

stockings

garters – used to tie stocking up

Waistcoat – a vest or jacket

Coif – a bonnet or hat

apron

pocket – a little purse

shoe

Activity: Color Pilgrim Paper Dolls

Students can cut out and color pilgrim paper dolls for their lapbooks and notebooks. Pilgrim paper dolls to print, cut and color can be found here

3.  What kinds of houses did pilgrims live in?
 

Pilgrim Houses

Pilgrim houses were framed with oak, covered with pine boards  with roofs made of bulrush thatch. At Plimouth Plantation, the village shown in the book, the houses are copies of houses that stood in 1627. None of the original pilgrim houses still stand today.

Notice too in the book that the houses in the Plimouth Plantation village have stone chimney’s. The original pilgrims in 1621 did not have time to make stone chimney’s for their houses instead they used wood to make fireplaces and smeared the wood with clay.

From the pictures in the book we can also see that each homes has it’s own garden area and covered pen for animals. Notice the fence woven of branches used to keep animals in.

Read more about Pilgrim houses

Draw a Picture of a Pilgrim Village

Include and label:

houses with thatched roofs

a dirt road running through the village

a wooden fenced garden

an animal pen

chicken and goats

Color the Pilgrim House

Students can color the pilgrim house and label it’s parts:

Language Arts

Narration Activity

Students can narrate the book to their teachers. Teachers and older students write your narrations in the one picture writing book and glue your narration mini book to a lapbook or notebook page. Teachers write narrations for younger students and have them draw a picture to go with their narration in the space provided in the one picture writing book.

 

Write a Diary Entry

Sarah writes about a day in her life. She starts her Diary with the date and then tells us hello (good day), her name and tells us how she came to live at Plimouth Plantation. Her narrative or diary entry tells us all about her day including what she is wearing, what she eats, the chores she does, her lesson topics and what she does during her play time.

Write a personal narrative of a day in your life. Use the Diary Mini book.

Include:

A cover with your name, age and date.

Write about what you age for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Write about what you are wearing.

Write about your chores.

Write about what you played that day.

Write about what you learned in school that day.

Write about a friend of yours or your favorite toy.

Younger students can write just one part of a day using the one picture writing book or three parts of their day using the three picture writing book.

Dictation

Suggested sentences:

Younger Students

Pilgrim had beds made of hay.

Sarah hopes her father will make her a stool.

Sarah has the core of feeding the chickens.

Older Students

A warning gunshot sounds to let the pilgrims know a ship is arriving.

I hope to learn to read the letters mother gets from her relatives in England.

Pilgrim children enjoyed playing marbles.

Recitation or Copywork
 

First Thanksgiving of All

By Nancy Byrd Turner

Peace and Mercy and Jonathan,

And Patience (very small),

Stood by the table giving thanks

The first Thanksgiving of all.

There was very little for them to eat,

Nothing special and nothing sweet;

Only bread and a little broth,

And a bit of fruit (an no tablecloth);

But Peace and Mercy and Jonathan

And Patience, in a row,

Stood up and asked a blessing on

Thanksgiving, long ago.

Thankful they were their ship had come

Safely across the sea;

Thankful they were for hearth and home,

And kin and company;

They were glad of broth to go with their bread,

Glad their apples were round and red,

Glad of the mayflowers they would bring

Out of the woods again next spring.

So Peace and Mercy and Jonathan,

And Patience  (very small),

Stood up gratefully giving thanks

The first Thanksgiving of all.

Science

Vinegar- Acids

Sarah’s favorite chore is to use vinegar and salt to polish the brass inside the cooking pot.

Salt is an abrasive, it works to scrape away the layer of dirt that forms when brass is exposed to air. The salt also reacts with the vinegar making it work quicker.

Vinegar is an acid. The word acid means sour. Acids are found in grapes, soda, car batteries even our stomach. Strong acids can burn skin. Weaker acids are safe to eat. Some weaker acids are found in fruit. Vinegar is also an acid, used to pickle foods. Using vinegar to pickle foods preserves or saves the food from rotting and kills any bacteria that might be in food.

Have you ever noticed pages in an old book that are yellow? Paper has a small amount of acid in it and over time the acid in the paper starts to come out and causes the paper to get yellow. Sunlight will spread the acid in paper quicker.

Lemon Juice Acid Experiment

Try this experiment on a sunny day. Put two paper plates outside in the sun. Soak one paper plate in lemon juice and leave the other paper plate as is. Leave both out in the sun for 4 or until the plate soaked in lemon juice is dry? What happens? The paper plate with the lemon juice (acid) should turn yellow while the other paper plate remains white.

If you have something brass at home try cleaning it with a mixture of salt and vinegar? Does it work?

Polish Pennies with Vinegar

Pennies, while not brass are copper, another metal, and they too can be cleaned with salt and vinegar. Try this experiment to see how pennies are cleaned.

Use Salt and Vinegar to Grow Crystals

Another fun experiment:  Use salt and vinegar to grow crystals.

If Sarah left the vinegar and salt in the brass pot for a few days, would crystals form?

Use Cabbage Juice to find Acids

Try this experiment with cabbage juice and salt to determine what substances are acids.

Is salt an acid?

Discover How Acids Work Over time

Or try this experiment to find out how acids can decay things over time.

Make a prediction about what you think would happen if Sarah accidentally left the vinegar in the brass pot and forgot about it for a day or two?

Math

Story Problems
 

1. Sarah Morton was a real child who was nine years old in 1627. Amelia Poole the girl in the photographs is pretending to be Sarah Morton. Amelia Poole was 10 years old and in fifth grade when the photographs in the story were taken. If the photographs were taken in 1989 the same year as Sarah Morton’s Day was published, how old would Amelia Poole be now in 2007?

Solution:

2007-1989 = 28 years old

2. Sarah Morton lived in Plimouth Village in 1627, how many years has it been since Sarah Morton lived in Plimouth Village?

Solution:

2007-1627 = 380 years

3. Sarah and her Mother used 3 cups of water and 1 cup of cornmeal to make 2 cornmeal cakes, how much water and cornmeal will Sarah and Mother need to make 6 cornmeal cakes? Hint: Sarah will need 3 times as much water and cornmeal.

Solution:

3 cups of water x3 =9 cups of water

1 cup of cornmeal x3 = 3 cups of cornmeal

2 cakes yield x3 = 6 cornmeal cakes

Bible
 

Sarah Morton was learning to memorize Psalm 100. Students may memorize the psalm or write it out for their notebook or lapbooks. Here is Psalm 100 from the Good News Bible For Children.

Psalm 100

Sing to the Lord, all the World!

Worship the Lord with joy,

Come before him with happy songs!

Acknowledge that the Lord is God.

He made us, and we belong to him;

we are his people, we are his flock.

Enter the temple gates with thanksgiving;

go into his courts with praise.

Give thanks to him and praise him.

The Lord is good;

his love is eternal

and his faithfulness lasts forever.
 

Just for Fun

Make the Indian Corn Bread Recipe (in the book) and some homemade butter to go with it!