3rd Grade Colonial Studies

Third Grade Colonial Workshop 2002

As part of their continuing study of life in colonial times, Hastings third graders recently participated in a Colonial Crafts Workshop which lets experience some of the daily activities of colonial children. Over 2 days, 3rd graders immersed themselves in cooking classic colonial foods and learning how colonial people produced clothing by dying and weaving their own cloth.

Cooking

Colonial children did a lot of the gathering and preparation of foods. They churned butter, kneaded dough, hulled corn and cracked nuts and watched the stew or roast cooking over the fire. The 3rd graders cooked (and sampled) the food with great enthusiasm. In addition to churning butter, they chopped oranges, apples and cranberries for relish, made and rolled out crust for shoo-fly pie and apple pandowdy, and made batches of whipped syllabub and Johnny cakes. For the colonist, these "Journey" cakes were a staple that could be eaten cold on the road or toasted and slathered with butter or maple syrup while hot.

Preparing apple, orange and cranberry relish Cutting apples for Apple Pandowdy

Dying and Weaving yarn

The colonist for the most part produced their own fibers and cloth. They grew flax to harvest and weave into cloth and used different plants to create dyes. The fresh green hulls of black walnuts were an important source of a brown dye, while the strained liquid served as ink. Onion skins dyed wool a golden yellow. Madder root, safflowers, tea leaves, sumac berries and the dried bodies of cochineal bugs were also used to create dyes of deep color. To learn how yarns were dyed, the 3rd graders made dye pouches with various plant parts from which dyes were traditionally derived.

The students also tried their hand at weaving crosswise "woof" threads with the lengthwise "warp" threads. Many heads were bowed in concentration as the students used cardboard hand-looms to create their own colorful weavings.

Weaving Dying yarn

Last update: 01/06/2003

As part of their continuing study of life in colonial times, Hastings third graders recently participated in a Colonial Crafts Workshop which lets experience some of the daily activities of colonial children. Over 2 days, 3rd graders immersed themselves in cooking classic colonial foods and learning how colonial people produced clothing by dying and weaving their own cloth. Cooking Colonial children did a lot of the gathering and preparation of foods. They churned butter, kneaded dough, hulled corn and cracked nuts and watched the stew or roast cooking over the fire. The 3rd graders cooked (and sampled) the food with great enthusiasm. In addition to churning butter, they chopped oranges, apples and cranberries for relish, made and rolled out crust for shoo-fly pie and apple pandowdy, and made batches of whipped syllabub and Johnny cakes. For the colonist, these "Journey" cakes were a staple that could be eaten cold on the road or toasted and slathered with butter or maple syrup while hot.

Dying and Weaving yarn The colonist for the most part produced their own fibers and cloth. They grew flax to harvest and weave into cloth and used different plants to create dyes. The fresh green hulls of black walnuts were an important source of a brown dye, while the strained liquid served as ink. Onion skins dyed wool a golden yellow. Madder root, safflowers, tea leaves, sumac berries and the dried bodies of cochineal bugs were also used to create dyes of deep color. To learn how yarns were dyed, the 3rd graders made dye pouches with various plant parts from which dyes were traditionally derived.
The students also tried their hand at weaving crosswise "woof" threads with the lengthwise "warp" threads. Many heads were bowed in concentration as the students used cardboard hand-looms to create their own colorful weavings.