Four teachers, 26 kids, and eight parents all arrived at Woodland Elementary at 3:45 am to begin a 5-day field trip to the Washington, DC area. We've been planning this trip for months and are so excited to get started!
This is my crew: Angel McLandsborough, Sean McPartland, and Chase McMiller. (Oops--I mean Miller!)
We've only been together an hour and already Chase is tired of photos...It's gonna be a LONG trip!
Looks like Chase has got everything under control!
Did I already say that it was going to be a long week?!?
In 1607, 13 years before the Pilgrims landed in Massachusetts, a group of 104 English men and boys made a four-and-a-half month voyage to the banks of the James River to form a settlement in Virginia. Their goal of making a profit from the resources of the New World quickly took a back seat to pure survival as they confronted the harsh realities of life in their new home. Starvation, disease, and hostile Indians wiped out nearly half the settlement in the first few months.
Our guide took us through a re-created Powhatan Indian village and expained how their chief, at the insistance of his daughter, Pocahontas, kept John Smith, the leader of the English settlement, from being killed by a Powhatan warrior. Unlike the Disney version, Pocahontas was only 11 years old at the time and never had a romance with John Smith. Years later, she did marry Englishman John Rolfe, who was instrumental in establishing tobacco as a cash crop in Virginia.
Ever seen a red-headed Indian with freckles? Me neither, but this interpreter was quite adept at starting a fire with two sticks.
The Powhatans did not live in tepees but contructed wigwams and longhouses with wooded frames and covered them with woven mats.
The original 104 inhabitants of Jamestown made the journey from England in three ships: Susan Constant, Godspeed, and Discovery. Replicas of these ships are docked on the James River and visitors are allowed to board them. Our group gets to explore the Susan Constant, the largest of the three ships.
Never a dull moment!
Hearing about the conditions endured during the four-and-a-half month journey made this group appreciate the convenience of modern modes of transportation!
In front of the Susan Constant.
After our guide explained how heavy these helmets were and how hot they become in the sun, we were not suprised to learn that many men expired from heat exhaustion!
This interpreter demonstrated the proper loading and firing of a matchlock musket.
Place the powder here...take aim...and
fire! That was LOUD!!!!
It was three years before the settlers could build a church but for their first services, they suspended an old sail between several trees to shelter the congregation and fashioned a communion rail by attaching a sapling horizontally between two trees.
The Avenue of Flags outside Historic Jamestown Settlement.
The whole gang!
Wait! What's Thomas Jefferson doing in Merchant's Square?Mr. Jefferson was a student at the College of William and Mary located just up the road. The college was chartered in 1693 and has an enrollment of more than 7000 students today. Two other future American presidents attended William and Mary: James Monroe and John Tyler. Also among its early alumni were 16 members of the Continental Congress, four signers of the Declaration of Independence, and more than 100 Supreme Court justices, U.S. senators and representatives, governors, and ministers to foreign countries.
LOVE cheese reppin the KC hat, even though he looks like a punk
ReplyDeletemy fav pic would have to be you and him in the pillory though :)