Lesson Plan Info:

Title: The Journey of the Pilgrims

Created By: Cobi Solana Maya
Date Created: 11/21/09
Grade: 1st grade combined with ELL 1st grade students
Subject: History and Theater
Topic of Lesson: Performance of the Journey of the Pilgrims
Type of Lesson Plan: Indirect Instruction
Class Submitted For: ED 520
Instructor:

CO Content Standards
Theater
Standard 1:
Students develop interpersonal skills and problem-solving capabilities
through group interaction and artistic collaboration.
Standard 2:
Students understand and apply the creative process to skills of storytelling,
playwriting, acting, and directing.
Standard 3:
Students understand and apply the creative process to skills of design and
technical production.
Standard 5:
Students analyze and assess the characteristics, merits, and meanings of
traditional and modem forms of dramatic expression.
Standard 6:
Students know and apply connections between theatre and other disciplines.
History
2.1 Students know how to formulate questions and hypotheses
regarding what happened in the past and to obtain and
analyze historical data to answer questions and test hypotheses.
gathering historical data from multiple sources (for example, oral histories, interviews,
diaries, letters, newspapers, literature, speeches, texts, maps, photographs, art works,
and available technology).

NETS-T (Standards)

Overview
Objective:
1.Students will reenact the journey of the pilgrims and create a digital story.
2.Students will research the journey from England to the New World (America).
3.Students will make a KWL chart on the Pilgrims journey.

Assessment Plan:

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Students will be assessed on their participation through the Journey of the Pilgrims play. They
will also be assessed on their comprehension of how the pilgrims came to America.

Learning Context: Students have just finished a lesson on Seasons. We will talk about how
weather and the coming season of winter really affected the journey of the pilgrims.

Time Allotment: 1 week (30 minutes of practice and/or costume design daily.)

Instructional Materials:
Teacher Materials:
Props
Camcorder
Movie Editing Software

Student Materials:
Student created costumes

Differentiation of Instruction: This lesson has hands on experiences (the play). The students
also create costume hats. They will view a slideshow with narration on the journey the pilgrims
took and hardships they endured. These different methods of instruction address the kinesthetic,
verbal-linguistic, creative, and auditory learners. Some ELL students may need to have
additional assistance on this lesson. Start with these students prior to giving the lesson and work
on vocabulary words and learning through pictures. The teacher could create a picture flashcard
ring with pictures and words you will cover in the lesson (do this 1 week prior to the lesson and
practice with students to check for understanding).

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Sequence of Procedures
Opening
1. Gaining Attention: Tell the students they will be creating a play!
2. Prior Knowledge: Ask students if they remember what the 4 season are. Give them a
brief history of the Pilgrims wanting to leave England so they could practice their own
religion in the New World (America). Show them a map and tell them they needed a
boat to get to America. Ask student how the weather and seasons would affect their
journey on ship.
3. Purpose (Objective) of Lesson: Let students know that they will reenact the journey of
the pilgrims from England to the New World (America). Tell students they will need to
practice for a play and learn about their characters. Let students know we will create a
KWL chart and explain for those who are not familiar.
Body
4. Once students understand the objective, next have them view examples of plays, and the
teacher will also demonstrate a familiar character children may know about (i.e. the
three little pigs, or Goldilocks and the three bears).
5. Tell students this is called acting and sometimes we have to change our voice or facial
expressions to show others who we are trying to be.
6. View the Voyage of the Mayflower by Scholastic website.
7. Play a game of charades. Ask students to figure out who you are on the Mayflower (i.e.
are you a pilgrim, the captain, the crew).
8. Assign roles the first day and have students begin making costumes for their role
(pilgrims, captain, crew, native indians)
9. Break up into 2 groups; 1st group will go over their roles and their lines w/a teacher.
Group 2 do research on the computer w/another teacher leading.
Assessment
10. Students will do this for a week and at the end of the week they will create their
performance for another 1st grade class.
Closure
11. Students will watch the video of their performance and discuss their acting and what
they learned about the Pilgrims and what they learned about acting in a play. Students
will finish filling out their KWL charts.

Reteaching Activities
http://printables.scholastic.com/printables/detail/?id=28485
Thanksgiving Characters: Patterns

Have students color and create popsicle stick puppets of the journey of the pilgrims. This may
be more of a private way for students to reenact the voyage without the stage fright that some
students experience.

Extension Activities
Have students create a timeline and mark off on a calendar how many days it took to get from
England to the New World (America).

Sample Student Products:

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Lesson to take place on 11/19/09 at which time student samples will be attached with permission
slips.

Teaching Materials:
http://printables.scholastic.com/printables/detail/?
id=37815&esp=PRT/ib/20091013/acq/t_giving_teamsite////txtl////
Happy Harvest Feast: A Thanksgiving Tale
Scholastic

References:
http://www.scholastic.com/scholastic_thanksgiving/voyage/journey.htm
Voyage of the Mayflower
Scholastic