Jamestown and Yorktown

  This spring break I went to North Carolina to visit my sister and brother-in-law.  They live very close to the Virginia boarder so my boyfriend and I decided to visit Jamestown and Yorktown.  It was amazing!  There was so much to learn.  Inside both Jamestown and Yorktown had a museum set up so you were able to learn the background information before you ventured out to the replica areas of Jamestown and Yorktown.

   The Jamestown replica was set up just as they know it to have been.  They had houses, canyons, blacksmiths, etc, all with the tools and accessories which would have really been there.  There was armor you could put on and people who worked there were dressed in the time era and were full of information. They would tell you about the lifestyle of the people and answer any questions you had.  Outside of Jamestown were two sailboats you could go on and hear about where they were headed and who was traveling on them. Then a little ways down from that was a Native American tribe settlement.  They had several huts which were all set up differently inside, some where more elegant than others signifying their status within the tribe.  They also had a community cooking area and a worker dressed as a part of the tribe making a canoe.  It was incredible how much I learned here! I think it would be a wonderful place to take students to on a field trip if your school was from around the area.  What a wonderful learning tool!
  Then there was Yorktown which also had the museum inside where you could lift the three different swords to see which was was heavier and which was the lightest.  I found the French had the lightest sword! Then outside there was a camp set up with the workers dressed in uniforms, they were able to tell us all around the living conditions for the soldiers and their wives and children whom choose to stay with the men.  They had tents set up, a laundry area, a cooking area, a medic tent, and a canyon which they still shoot off every so often.  A little ways down from this was farm, the farm had a house, a cooking house, real crops they were growing, a hay storage unit, a slave house, and a tobacco house.  There were women in the cooking house actually making food they allowed you to eat.  This was a wonderful place to actually visualize how people used to live.  I am so happy I was able to experience this and will implement all that I have learned at these two places into my lesson plans!