Partnering for Youth Project A to Z Technology Zone The Beginning: Jamestown

Grade Level: 3 -5 Materials The Beginning: Jamestown (support material, PowerPoint) Computers with access to the Internet Pencils (one per student) Blank paper (one per student) Teacher Guide PDF (support material, for instructor) Focus The colonies cannot be explored without first understanding how the colonies began; students will watch a PowerPoint on Americas first colony, Jamestown. The PowerPoint will explore the culture and hardships of Jamestown, as well as the relationship between colonists and Native Americans. Students will then use the information from the PowerPoint to type a fictitious letter pretending to be a colonist in Jamestown. They will pretend to type about his/her life in the new world to a family member back home in England using Microsoft Word. Objectives When students complete this activity, they will be able to: Log-on to the computer using the after school programs user name and password Use information from the Jamestown PowerPoint to gain a new perspective on colonial life in the 1600s. Open the Microsoft Word program Write/type a formal letter in Microsoft Word Pretend to be a Jamestown colonist to type a letter that explains colonial life and culture. Integration of academic skills: Reading: Students will read information from the PowerPoint and their colonial letters. Writing: Students will write a rough draft letter on paper; then type their letter into MS Word. Technology: Students will use the computer and the Microsoft Word program to create and type their colonial letters. State Standards: Computer Use: Basic to Intermediate Identify parts of a computer Log on and off of the computer Open and close applications

 Recognize and use icons to perform computer functions Using Word Processing: Basic to Intermediate Start a new document Save a document Insert graphics and clip art Use spell check Format documents Inspiration Instructors, the Teacher Guide support material is a PDF that explains the history on Jamestownit may be a good idea to look over it before the lesson to get a brief overview on the first colony, Jamestown. This does not have to be shared with the students. Ask the students to take a moment and think about life in the 1600s. This does not have to be specified to the colonies, but life in general. Modern conveniencessuch as cell phones and computerswere not around then! Neither were McDonalds and WalMarts. Facilitate the discussion by asking these questions: What would [the student] do for entertainment? What type of foods would they eat? What would their clothes look like? Instructors, you can decide whether this is a vocal discussion or if you want the student to think to themselves. This should only take a couple of minutes. It is to get the student thinking of life hundreds of years ago before watching the PowerPoint on Jamestown. Exploration The students will be learning about Jamestown, the first colony in America, as well as colonial life. Set up the computer and projector to play the Jamestown: The Beginning PowerPoint (the PowerPoint is provided as support material). Read the information in the PowerPoint aloud to the students. Pay special attention to the images so the students can have time to reflect on the visuals of what Jamestown may have looked like. The above activity should take approximately 15-20 minutes. The final question on the PowerPoint has students thinking about what life would be like in Jamestown. This does not have to be discussedit is introducing the next activity. Assign each student to a computer (or allow them to choose where they sit) Pass out a pencil and paper to each of the students. Explain to the students that they will be pretending to be colonists that just sailed to the new world and have been living in Jamestown for a couple months. They will be writing a letter explaining what life is like to a family member back home in England. The students will be doing this in Microsoft Word. However, they can use the pencil and paper to write down ideas to include in their letter, and write a rough draft if they feel they need to. Have the students turn on their computers, log in, and open Microsoft Word.

To access Microsoft Word, have the students click on Start in the lower left hand corner, then click on Programs, then Microsoft or Microsoft Office, then Microsoft Word. As students work on their rough drafts or begin their letters in Microsoft, remind them of the components of a lettersuch as the date, a salutation/greeting, the body, and the closing. Students should make up a fictitious date in the year 1607!! They can also choose who they write to, whether this is an aunt, cousin, brother, parent, etc. Try to encourage a letter with one to two paragraphs explaining what life is likethis can vary, depending on what the student wants to include. Ideas could include meeting Pocahontas, relationships with the Powhatans, farming and trading, living in a new world away from friends and family, the four and a half month journey on a ship across the ocean, etc. Students should close the letter with their own namethey do not need to make up a name. Before the end of the zone, have the students save their work as LASTNAMECOLONIALLETTER.doc The students should save their work in the after-school common drive, or a folder designated by the instructor. Typically, the after-school common drive is the H:/ drive. The instructor should go around to the students as they are saving and make sure each saves in this drive, or saves in the appropriate folder.

Reflection Ask the students to share who they wrote their letters towhat is one thing that they told their family members about life in the colonies? As they are lining up for dismissal, have an open and informal discussion with the students asking if they think they would enjoy life as a colonist in Jamestown. Resources www.historyisfun.org This site was used in creating the PowerPoint for Jamestown. It has a lot of useful information about the history of Jamestown, the colonists, Powhatans, etc.