Education: Teachers - Curriculum Materials - Colonial Lifestyles

Pre- and Post-Visit Activities - Fourth Grade

Lesson Focus:
Creating A Colonial Menu

Objective:
For students to better understand seasonal food patterns and natural resources provided by the environment.

Materials:

• ‘Seasonal Colonial Foods’ list (download the pdf, make copies or a transparency)

• Writing Paper and Pencil

• Poster board and markers/transparencies and overhead markers

Instructions:

1. Share with the class the chart of seasonal Colonial foods. Ask the students if they notice any patterns: are certain months more plentiful than others, how do the different food categories change each month, etc?

2. Divide the class into cooperative groups and have each group prepare a menu for one week for one or two of the months. Make sure that each month is covered by at least one group. They can create a menu for just one meal or for both breakfast and lunch/dinner (typically dinner was leftovers from the large noontime meal).

3. Have the groups write their menu on the poster board or transparencies to share with the class.

4. After the presentations have a discussion about the diets of Colonial people. Some groups will have more elaborate menus based on a larger food supply, other groups will have small repetitive menus because fewer foodstuffs were available. Refer back to the earlier discussion about patterns they saw in food supply. How did the Colonists assure that they had food year round (by preserving food through salting or canning)?

5. Conclude the activity by asking students to write a paragraph describing how the daily Colonial menu is different from what they eat on a regular basis.

6. Extend by having students create a log of their eating habits and compare them again after one week.

The Charlotte Museum of History & Hezekiah Alexander Homesite
3500 Shamrock Drive, Charlotte, NC 28215
Phone: 704.568.1774
Contact Us  --- Join Our Eclub
Site By: EyeBenders