Fourth Grade Experiences Colonial Crafts First Hand

This past week the fourth grade spent a day experiencing what life was like for a child and their family in colonial America. The class traveled to the meetinghouse on campus to participate in a Colonial Craft Workshop Day. Many parent volunteers and teachers were on hand to lead the workshops in the crafts of the 18th century. The morning started with corn husk doll making and segued into creating clothes and cutting patterns to dress them. The students particularly enjoyed choosing from the myriad of fabrics and patterns at their disposal with some inventing their own period embellishments.

The students then traveled in groups of four or five to experience a variety of crafts. At the workshops, they learned of the historical context and then got to dive right in and experience first hand by making and doing.
The weather was perfect for candle making and the discovery of how long it takes to make a hand dipped candle gave the students a greater appreciation for them and electricity.

  

The students made their own designs as they attempted to perfect their stitches while embroidering.
Paper quilling, a decorative art for the wealthier class during the 1700's was intriguing and took great concentration.

Quill pen calligraphy was most challenging for the students as they discovered how difficult it actually was. A persistent question... "How did they do this?"

Silhouette tracing enabled students to understand how important a steady hand was to get a true likeness as drawing, painting and silhouettes were the only way at that time to record a person's image at the time.

Colonial games allowed the students an opportunity to run and play and discover that many of the games from the 18th century are just as much fun today. They also realized how many chores children had to do on a daily basis before they would be able to play!