COLONIAL LIFE – HELPFUL WEB SITES
RESOURCES FOR COLONIAL JOBS/LIFE RESEARCH
None of these require your email address or passwords (but that means they will have some ads)
TRADES, TRADESMEN, CRAFTSMEN, ARTISANS
These are jobs where the people make something/produce something.
Many of your occupations are trades – particularly if it ends in …smith
➢ : Takes you directly to a list of different trades – jobs where the people make something/produce something. Many of your occupations are trades. Pick your trade and read the information.
➢On each individual trade page, there are links to additional information under “Related Info” and “Multimedia”—slideshows, podcasts (with transcripts).
➢ -- Good middle ground, not as much as Williamsburg, but more than below.
➢ Very brief definition of several common trades & occupations. Start here if got too confused with all the info at the Williamsburg site.
➢These coloring pages show scenes from several normal activities for a variety of jobs as well as children’s and women’s activities and can be downloaded:
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➢Additional Blacksmith information:
❖ you have learned about a blacksmith’s tools, play this game to make sure you understand which tool does what.
➢Additional Bricklayer information:
○ First help place each important step in its correct order - then watch the fascinating art of brickmaking in action
➢ This link takes you directly to a list of different tools for various trades. Good pictures.
➢Gunsmith: How a flintlock gun is assembled & how it works, photos & videos.
OTHER ASPECTS OF COLONIAL LIFE
Clothing; Women’s roles & lives; Dame School/Education & Boys & Girls lives; Doctors/medicine; & Town Crier; COP (Constable on Patrol); Minister/Clergyman; Innkeeper:
● General information about colonial life for kids and adults: –religion, school, food.
● brief one page overview of colonial life
● : about children’s lives; there are lots of ads on this site. Ignore them. List of additional articles of interest runs along the right hand side of the page including kid’s clothes, school, and games.
● Part of the site for the 2004 PBS series Colonial House, this site shows panoramic views of land and house interiors. You can spin the photo around to see the whole room and look at some typical homes and furnishings.
● Information about food and meals.
● (This is a file that might not open if you don’t have adobe or if you have a Mac. ) Explains & has diagrams of some of the GAMES kids played and also has a small set of paper dolls with colonial clothing.
● Although this is actually a lesson plan for a teacher, if you click on the student handouts and the background essay, it will tell you about colonial life in VA for some men, women and children.
Innkeeper/Tavernkeeper – also Colonial Travel:
● Pictures of various carts and wagons used for people and/or goods. Although there is no helpful text, the photos do a good job of showing you the different types of vehicles that you might call a wagon or a carriage.
● If you need to know about money. When the Time Machine Activity opens up choose 1667 & start the “trip”.
CLOTHING (including shoemakers, wigmakers & milliners):
● Links to sections and photos on the colonial Williamsburg site ofmen’s and women’s clothing and how different occupations and incomes wore very different clothing
● More information and photos about men’s and women’s clothing. This is a game but definitely has good information.
● - A picture and short descriptions of various items of clothing for MEN.
● This tutorial explains how a young girl from a well-to-do family would have dressed for going visiting.
● Just for fun--select the correct hat for each colonial figure.
WOMEN’S ROLES & ACTIVITIES
● like a good, informative source, but not sure who wrote it so it isn’t the most reliable.
● - Easy to understand info about women’s roles.
● how hard women’s lives were.
● The way it was supposed to be and the way it actually often really was.
● : some of the women who lived in Colonial Williamsburg, lives of housewives.
● (This is a file that might not open if you don’t have adobe or if you have a Mac. ) IF YOU ARE DOING WOMEN”S ROLE --- Scroll down to page 5 to the section about “Women as Caregivers” to see the role women played in health care for their family & community.
SCHOOL TEACHERS & CHILDREN’S LIVES & ACTIVITIES
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● Boys & girls chores & education
● paragraph about the Dame School.
● Tutor’s role
● Scroll to Colonial America section to see an overview, but its not written for kids so pretty hard to understand. You may want to try this only if you can’t find what you need anywhere else.
DOCTORS/MEDICINE: (look at apothecary also)
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● (This is a file that might not open if you don’t have adobe or if you have a Mac. ) A good, detailed overview especially page 9 for a vocabulary list of unfamiliar medical terms, and pages 14-16 for a list of tools & what they were used for. Skim the entire article even though it wasn’t really written for elementary students so you probably won’t understand all of it without help.
MINISTER / CLERGYMAN / PARSON:
● : The first two paragraphs discuss the different religions of the colonies and the status of the minister especially in New England. Not written at a level for Elementary School students, but has a little good information so look it over and get help understanding it if it seems like information you haven’t already gotten from the books.
TOWN CRIER:
If you can’t find enough under town crier, ask your teacher if you can include Night Watchman since they also called out information.
● History & roll of the crier. Really begins after the first paragraph,
● Has a 1 minute movie clip reenacting a town crier.
CONSTABLE ON PATROL (COP):
For this topic you will need to read at least generally about the constable in England since that is where the ideas about a constable came from.
● The first 4 short paragraphs (especially the 4th) give a brief but good overview of the history & duties of the position of constable.
● Good details about responsibilities. Start at the 1st full paragraph (2nd one on page) and read until the next section on Judicial System.
● Read until Western Frontier discussion. Possibly some new info. May not need.
➢If you prefer to learn through watching a video, you might try:
a 24 minute discussion of colonial life.
WORLD BOOK - STUDENT Level: the article, “Colonial Life in America”
Use the Contents drop box to go to the part of the (very long) article that will be most useful to you: →
The user name & password for is
ID#/User Name: woredwood (all lowercase letters) password: redwood
TRUE FLIX
This online ebook resource has a book on each of the 13 colonies. The 3rd chapter of each, Life in .., has some information about how people lived in that area during colonial times:
You can get to TRUEFLIX through the library web page OR by going directly to: .
The User Name and Password are both reswoboe
Colonial history web sites - checked Jan 2016
1 1/26/2016