Colonial Kids: An Activity Guide to Life in the New World
gold jewels spices even the fountain of youth They were able to travel because ship building and navigation had become refined and well developed Ship building map making and charting the night sky made it possible for explorers to head across the ocean looking for great riches The first colonists were soldiers who in their search for riches found rich land instead Soldiers from one country fought soldiers from other coun tries to claim the most land Kings and queens were eager to snap up the biggest piece of the New World for their country and sent explorers and soldiers to do this for them The colonists that came after the explorers came to stay They built towns and raised families They wanted to live in a country where they could have freedom and opportunity the very things they couldn't find in Europe Norsemen from ancient Scandinavia led by Leif Eric son a sailor from Greenland were the first Euro peans to land in North America Ericson sailed in the summer of 1001 A D landing in eastern Canada and later exploring it There they discovered a new plant one they had never seen before grapes The men filled their boat with timber grapes and vines to take back to Greenland to show evidence of their discov ery In honor of this new discovery they called this new land
Sagas are stories or very long poems that were spoken aloud Sagas told about the history of a fami ly Norsemen wrote down the saga of Erik the Red That's one way people today learned about the Greenland colonies Why not use a notebook to write your own fami ly’s history a family saga You can start as far back as anyone remembers and tell the story up to today Try to write down all the obstacles and difficulties your family faced and how they overcame them Keep the notebook to pass on to your own children and grandchildren NOT ALL NORSEMEN were Vikings Vikings were pirates who raided ships and villages killing and stealing from others to gain their for tune In 1492 Christopher Columbus set out from Spain with three ships trying to find a sea route to Asia by going west across the Atlantic Ocean Ten weeks later he came to an island Hispaniola and thought he had landed in India so he called the natives he met Indi ans He soon realized that he hadn't landed in Asia so he made four more trips from Spain still search ing for a route On some voyages his crew of 150 included about fifty twelve and thirteen year old boys that was one third of his crew As soon as the news about Columbus’s
spread through Europe other kings and queens sent ships and people to claim and settle the land for their own country Spanish colonists settled in southern Florida and the Caribbean Islands Dutch colonists settled in what is now New York Swedish colonists settled in what is now Pennsylvania French ships carried set tlers to the southeastern coast and into Canada Eng lish ships brought most of the colonists who settled in New England and Virginia At first most colonists were men and boys In October 1608 the first two women arrived at James Fort They quickly married two male settlers Other women came and ten years later there were almost a hundred single women coming each year They were auctioned off to men for marriage James Fort was later called Jamestown as it grew from a fort into a settlement WHEN CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS was young he read a book written by a man named Marco Polo who wrote about travel adventures in Asia He dreamed of going to Asia someday too but Columbus wanted to go by ship Read about Marco Polo's trip for yourself After reading it can you figure out why Columbus wanted to go by sea Maybe you'll decide to be an explorer
New World Explorations A Russian D Norse D Esenchi Aish Er sh spani If A WHAT DID COLUMBUS's crew eat during their voyages Kidney beans salted fish hardtack dried fruit vinegar oil and honey Also they ate garlic cloves to stay healthy In the Virginia colonies an English child could pay for ship's passage by working as an indentured ser vant until he or she was twenty one years old An indentured servant was owned by his master and could be sold traded or gambled away Orphaned children worked their way to the New World in order to have a free life outside of an
