Jamestown  
Jamestown for Teachers & Students!
                            
Teachers - while you are certainly welcome to purchase, I did not add mouseovers to most of the images on this page, so feel free to print them out and use for educational purposes.  The purpose of this page is to further education and to give resources for teachers and students.
               
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 All images taken by and copyright protected by Kara Stewart. Any unauthorized use will be punishable by law.

The following photographs were taken on a trip to Jamestown, VA in May, 2007 during their 400 year commemoration.  This collection of photographs is not meant as fine art - this collection is published here specifically to aid teachers in their instruction about Jamestown.  Again, these are not art photographs, these are trip photographs that fellow teachers requested be posted to help them in their instruction.  A picture really is worth a thousand words to teachers!  Glad to assist.

I am not an expert by any means on history or Jamestown - what I write here as information on the photos is only as accurate as my memory from my trip and as the interpreters.  I've been purposely short on historical details for that reason, and also because, as a teacher myself, I recognize that here is a "teachable moment". Students can take what I have given and research on their own to find answers to their (or their instructor's) questions.  For accurate information on Jamestown, please visit sites specifically about Jamestown, such as Jamestown 2007 - America's 400th Anniversary, and the National Geographic site Jamestown and the Powhatan - America in 1607. 

As a teacher myself, I ask that teachers educate themselves on both points of view of the Jamestown experience, European and Indian.  One way to do that is to research children's literature and internet sites and how to think critically about their validity.  This essay in Debbie Reese's American Indians in Children's Literature blog is a good starting point, as is her entire blog.  Avoiding American Indian Stereotypes is another essay that I hope will help on this point.


Jamestown's Anniversary Park entrance is lined with American flags, which led the way into the venue.  The main stage for musicians is located here, with a number of large screens around the seating area so that all can see the performers.  Food vendors, information booths, VA product booths and others rounded out Anniversary Park.

The museum at the Visitor's Center is fabulous.  Not only does it give details about this particular moment in history (1607) at this particular place (Jamestown), but it puts things in context by giving information about the state of the world at that time, the time leading up to it (which helps understand the causes) and the time afterward (effects).  Teachers - cause and effect framework. 

This particular document caught my attention at the museum
as worthy of classroom discussion:

Full document Negros & Indians Advocate link - Thanks, Andy!


Jamestown Settlement is a recreation of where the English lived. 


 




You can board the English ship and learn about the cross-Atlantic voyage.

Learning about English navigation tools:

The majority of the English sailors were illiterate, so they came up with a system by which the sailors could pinpoint their location at the end of their watch in order to pass the information on to the navigator and those on the next watch.  They put the pegs in the holes at the appropriate point around the compass rose (see Traverse Board below).

Navigation Tools Links:
 NASA Fact Sheet on Early Explorers & Navigation Tools, Susan Constant, Discovery & Godspeed

Student Packet with Compass Rose, Astrolabe, Traverse Board & Keeping a Ship's Log

                                                      Traverse Board Navigational Instrument (above)

The blacksmith shop in Jamestown Settlement (the European living area) was very interesting.  Here the blacksmith is shaping a nail - he has a form they used to give them the right shape and size nails.

         

       

       

     


 
                               Next to the blacksmith is the sword               In the settlement center, child-size
                               maker. Here, he fashions a falchion               armor replicas are available for kids to 
                               based on a historical drawing of                    try on to get a feel for the weight and 
                               John Smith with such a weapon.                    heft of the armor. 

              



The bread ovens:

Half of this building houses the kitchen and the other half houses a men's barracks:



A shield in the men's barracks:



The kitchen:

Mincemeat and other pies:
   


  

The English were able to bring some things, like chickens, with them from England.



Wooden casks were used to store ale and other goods.

The munitions storage building holds drying tobacco hanging from the ceiling
in addtion to munitions:
      

Musician.  Notice he is playing two instruments simultaneously:
  



                                                      A mock duel:

One way the Jamestown experience could be improved would be if the Native American village were given the extent of substance and depth that the English Settlement is given. I'd like to see more Native re-enactors/interpreters (as opposed to non-Natives portraying Natives), and I'd like for them to give their interpretations more depth, especially in regards to family and social dynamics between and among clans and tribes and Native political dynamics.  While those topics are evident on the English side, they are lacking on the Native American side.  However, they do show Native housing, food, hunting and weapons (all of which to me are the usual topics, but the depth and substance of family relations and political dynamics within and between tribes is missing).


Below are storage shelves and containers inside of a Native American home.
Basketry made from rushes and containers carved from
cultivated gourds (link 2)were common.

Here you can see the beds inside a Native American home:

Food

Common crops included, but were not limited to, corn, beans and squash
(also known as the Three Sisters).

Why are these planted this way (in mounds with corn, beans and squash together
in each mound)?  Click here.

Want to try growing your own?  Click here. 

Want some recipes using these ingredients?  Click here for the Oneida Nation's Three Sisters Cookbook.  Yummy!

Teachers, want a WebQuest on this topic (you can integrate science, social studies, reading and technology)? 
Click here.   Wow!  Cool beans (pun intended).

Teachers, want Creation Story and Three Sisters lesson plans?  Click here. 

One caveat for teaching about Native Americans is that you must make sure that in addition to focusing on the past and history, you teach about contemporary Native Americans.  There should be an equal balance between what you teach about the past and Native Americans and what you teach about contemporary Native Americans. See the links at the bottom of this page to help get you started.  Research, research, research.  Inform yourselves and your students.  It's the right thing to do.


The cooking fire in the Native American village was actually not just one fire, but quite a large fire ring delineated with rocks with several small fires cooking different food within the large ring.  Here you can see the fire with the beans cooking in a clay pot, and at the top of the photo you can see another fire cooking another food item:

Corn was a staple used to create many different food dishes. 
Here, corn cakes are cooking on a flat slate rock heated to a high temperature:

I think the interpreter said that these were actually game hens (photo below), and in 1607, the Native population typically would not have had chickens.  Turkeys were abundant in that time and in that area, however, and were a significant food source,
as were passenger pigeons (now extinct) and deer. 

Helpful and Interesting Links:

Teachers, please preview all sites and supervise surfing students. The links are not all intended for student use. Some links are suitable for students, others are intended as resources for teachers.

* = suitable for older students

Official Sappony website

North Carolina Commission of Indian Affairs for information on NC's Indian tribes

American Indians in Children's Literature  informative blog by Debbie Reese

Images of Indians in Children's Books  another informative Debbie Reese blog

ReadWriteThink 3-5 Lesson Plan, Native Americans Today, by Debbie Reese 

Social Systems - Haudenosaunee*

Native Tech, Native American Technology & Art

Native Tech Online Interactive Games

Indian Country Today*

Native Youth Magazine

National Museum of the American Indian

NMAI Native Writers Series

Techniques for Evaluating American Indian Websites

Native Peoples Magazine

Teaching Young Children About Native Americansby Debbie Reese

Oyate

Rethinking Schools Article- Diversity

Greenfield Community College - Race/Politics/Culture -wide variety of links to essays, articles, sites

White Privilege:  Unpacking the Invisible Knapsackby Peggy McIntosh

Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching - background on above article

Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching - Diversity and Inclusive Teaching

North Carolina 4th Grade Social Studies Standard Course of Study

North Carolina 8th Grade Social Studies Standard Course of Study

North Carolina Standard Course of Study, American Indian Studies

NativeWeb*

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