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Teaching Resources for Your Classroom

Colonial Williamsburg offers a variety of quality instructional materials to help you teach students about life in early America, including the following:

"A Day in the Life" instructional videosA DAY IN THE LIFE
Instructional Videos

What was a day like in 1774? How did people live? Actually, it depended on who you were. A Day in the Life looks at the lives of eight people—men and women, young and old, free and enslaved—to give your students a look at daily life in colonial America. Each eighteen-minute video is a window to the daily life of people in early America. Includes a CD-ROM with 180 pages of lesson plans and primary source materials. (Grades 4–8), $99.00. Purchase online

Book: If You Lived in Williamsburg in Colonial DaysIF YOU LIVED IN WILLIAMSBURG IN COLONIAL DAYS by Barbara Brenner
A Book for Young Readers

Explore the daily tempos of life in 1770s in this question and answer book—Williamsburg from politics and the economy to colonial homes and foodways.(Grades 4-5), $5.95. To purchase, call 1-800-688-6473 or use the order form in the Teaching Resources Catalog.

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We also suggest the following as excellent resources in preparation for next month's Electronic Fieldtrip Flames of Freedom. Broadcast date: Thursday, February 12, 2004. For more information on how to register for this, or any other Colonial Williamsburg Electronic Fieldtrip, please visit http://www.history.org/trips/ or call 1-800-761-8331.

Hands-On History: Slaves's BagHANDS-ON HISTORY: SLAVE'S BAG
Eighteenth-Century Artifacts for the Classroom

Discover the hands-on excitement of historical investigation. Turn a Slave’s Bag inside out. Slaves often carried their personal belongings in a bag or basket. This simple drawstring fabric bag contains a bill of sale, an oyster shell, flint and steel, a wooden spoon, a pewter button, a piece of chain, a feather quill, and a pair of stockings.Teacher materials include a lesson strategy, discovery worksheet, annotated artifact inventory, glossary, graphic organizers, primary sources, and illustrations.
(Grades 3–8), $75.00. Purchase online

Slavery: A Colonial Odyssey lesson unit.SLAVERY: A COLONIAL ODYSSEY
Lesson Plans and Materials Designed by Teachers for Teachers

Explore slavery's pervasive influence on the new American nation. This unit includes lessons on the slave trade, slavery and the slave economy, life as a slave, slave culture and traditions, and slave codes, and includes the book Slavery in the Colonial Chesapeake by David Brion Davis.
(Grades 4–12), $34.95. Purchase online

Enslaved videoENSLAVED
A Colonial Williamsburg Becoming Americans Series Video

How did slavery come to America? Two 20-minute episodes explore the legal progress of slavery—the system of race-based chattel slavery that has influenced the course of American history to this very day. (Video-40 mins.with web access to comprehensive teacher materials.) This program is part of our Becoming Americans Video Series.
(Grades 4–8), $34.99. Purchase online

Caesar's Story: 1759CAESAR'S STORY: 1759
An Eighteenth Century Williamsburg Child Tells His Story

Why do things have to change? Caesar lives with his family, but he is a slave and when the master selects him to be a personal servant in the big house Caesar has to obey.
(Grades 4–6), $9.95. Purchase online



"Stories Under African Skies" Audio CassetteSTORIES UNDER AFRICAN SKIES
Stories in the African American Tradition

Stories and music were essential to African culture and to the African American culture forcibly transplanted to the New World. This recording, with a special narration by Roots author Alex haley, brings together some of the stories and music of these uprooted Africans. Audio cassette only, $10.95. To purchase call 1-800-688-6473 or use the order form in the Teaching Resources Catalog.