Roll and Read (Yellow)
1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5Soon Elizabeth and her family boarded the ship and began the long voyage to New England. / After many delays, we finally set sail in late January. It was a bumpy ocean crossing! / Finally, the day arrived when their ship reached land. / Elizabeth and her brothers and sisters began to shout and dance. / Papa says your family will sail to the New World this autumn.
Still, there were many things that could go wrong while the ship was sailing on the open sea. / All the grown-ups were very worried. Fortunately, we arrived safely in the Jamestown colony. / Her new home was huge! The forest and fields stretched far into the distance. / It took several months to build the house. / Elizabeth smiled, folded her letter carefully, and put it away.
The trip lasted for two months, and Elizabeth grew bored on the journey. / Everything is so different, even the weather! / Elizabeth and her brothers and sisters helped their mother with the washing. / During that long, cold, winter, many people became sick. / By the end of winter, Elizabeth’s family was ready to move off the ship and into their new home.
Sarah’s family had moved to Jamestown, Virginia, a colony far to the south of Massachusetts. / We have to be careful that there is enough food and that none of it will spoil in the heat. / “Come along, Elizabeth,” her mother said. “There’s word to be done.” / When she started to feel cold and hungry, Elizabeth took out her letters from Sarah. / Her brothers went with their father to help plant the farm.
Elizabeth would have many of the same challenges that Sarah had written about in her letters. / I must go do my chores now. I promise to write again. / “I have found a clearing where we can build a new home,” he said. / The land here is very different from England. Jamestown is filled with swamps. / Elizabeth picked up a pen and began to write to her cousin Sarah.
If you roll a 6, choose 1 block to read.
Roll and Read (Green)
1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5In the year 1607 the first English colonists came to Jamestown, Virginia. / Next they weave the yarn into wool cloth. Then they sew the cloth into clothing. / Most of the homes in colonial New England are like the cottages that the colonists lived in back in England. / The colonists grow corn and other vegetables. / Older children help clean the home, weed the gardens, and carry wood.
Let’s travel north from Virginia and farther ahead in time. / Men and boys in colonial New England wear shorts pants, called breeches. / They are made of wood boards. They have steep, thatched roofs. / Colonial families drink milk from their goats. They eat bacon and ham from their pigs. / Colonial boys and girls learn to read and write. Boys learn job skills by working with craftsmen.
Most of the settlers have come from England by ship. / They wear long stockings that go to their knees. / The cottage has only one room. It is called a keeping room. / There is no refrigerator in 1650. Meat must be salted or smoked so that it does not spoil. / Children in the New England colonies might have fewer toys than you do.
New England colonists have to make almost everything themselves. / Girls and women wear long wool skirts and aprons. / The family cooks, eats, works, and sleeps in the keeping room. / Apples are sliced and hung to dry. Vegetables are stored in a cool, dirt cellar under the ground. / If you had been a colonial child, you would have worked hard.
When they need clothes, they make yarn from sheep’s wool. / Outdoors and indoors, they wear caps called coifs. / In most families everyone sits on rough benches or small barrels. / There is always much to be done here in colonial New England. Farm animals need food. / It’s interesting to think about living at a different time in our country’s history.
If you roll a 6, choose 1 block to read.
Roll and Read (Blue)
1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5You don’t want to be stuck outside! Buildings and other shelters protect us from weather. / Thatch is straw or leaves that have been gathered and bundled together to be used as a roof or covering. / The fireplaces were used for heating the home and cooking. / A puncheon floor was made by laying down half-logs with the flat side up. / Instead, most people hire building contractors, who build homes for them.
Have you ever thought about how shelter has changed since the early years of the United States? / Wattle is the name given to twigs and sticks that are woven together. / Settlers fastened the logs together with wooden pegs that they made by hand. / The glass let light in, but people could not see through the glass to outside. / Candles are still common in many homes in the United States today.
When the colonist arrived, there were no houses, hotels, or motels? / Daub is a mixture of clay, straw, and water. / Later, blacksmiths shaped nails and hinges so that doors and cabinet could be hung. / The candles were usually made by women of the family, who used tallow, another name for animal fat. / Modern building methods allow people to live in homes that have many more comforts than houses of long ago.
They built their houses by using supplies they had brought and materials from the surrounding land. / The wattle and daub were a big improvement over the clay used earlier. / A pug mill was a hallow tub that contained a shaft with knives sticking out of it. / Thatch caught fire too easily. Instead, roofs were usually made of shake shingles or tiles. / Although many homes today have fireplaces, they’re usually smaller.
Smaller families shared houses until enough houses were built for each family to have its own. / Moss, leaves, and mud were stuffed between logs to keep out the cold and wind. / The bricks were dried for several weeks before being placed in hot ovens, called kilns, to bake and harden. / During the pioneer ear of the 1800s, settlers moved west to the prairie lands. / A common house was built first to store the buildings tools and other supplies.
If you roll a 6, choose 1 block to read.
* Use with "William’s House” 3.2.5