Jamestown Part 3 of 4

Yesterday, we used 2 more computer sites for our Jamestown study.


We watched a wonderful video called John Smith's Voyage of Discovery. We'd been reading in Surviving Jamestown about how John Smith would keep his small boat out of arrow range while traveling down the River. I had NO idea how wide the river was! I believe the movie said it gets to be 35 miles across at its widest point. Can you imagine riding in a little boat, in unknown lands, with all of the dangers they were facing? I don't think I have explorer blood in me.


The other site was an interactive artifact dig. We pretended we were at a dig in Jamestown and we uncovered 5 artifacts. Then, we measured the artifacts, read about them, and tried to date them. At the end, we tried to decide what year these artifacts were buried. (And, we got the answer right!) There is also a building module at the same site where you try to recreate a Jamestown building from archaeological evidence.


There are several more things I want to do for Jamestown, so we're going to continue it next week. I think we'll read more about archaeology. And, we're going to pretend we are archaeologists and put together some pottery shards. I've read about an activity where you buy a ceramic vase (I think we'll hit a dollar store) and then put it in a brown paper bag and break it into pieces (I think we'll try to only make a few pieces - maybe buy several vases so we can get it right). Then, you become an archaeologist and put the pieces back together. Has anyone tried this? Any ideas or suggestions? And, any tips on what kind of glue to use with Alexandra? Thanks in advance!