Voyaging on the Mayflower

Happy (almost) Thanksgiving!  To celebrate the holiday and teach my sweet kiddos some essential research skills, we focused on researching the Mayflower during our two-day school week.  The students used an amazing, interactive, READ ALOUD (always a life-saver!) Scholastic website to become experts on the Mayflower voyage.  You can click HERE to get to that website.

Once the students were officially considered experts on the Mayflower voyage, they were given their task: to pretend as if they were actually a passenger on the Mayflower and write a letter to someone back home about their voyage.  Goodness gracious, did these students do a wonderful job!  They researched the actual passengers on the Mayflower to make sure their made-up names were true, made sure their heading was in the year 1620 (not 2015!), and added amazing details to make their letters informative and fun.  I was very impressed with their final products and know they will never forget all they learned about the hardships the Pilgrims endured on their journey to America.

 Here are my students working hard on their final products:

Look at the amazing writing these second graders did!

You can get this entire unit HERE!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!