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Pocahontas Mini
Unit Study
In November 2005, New Line Cinema (the studio behind the Lord
of the Rings trilogy) will release The New World, a film
inspired by the legend of John Smith and Pocahontas and set in
the Jamestown colony. It’s too early to tell if the film
will be good, but the
website for it looks promising. Given my excitement over a
new historical movie as well as the recent publication of the
Colonial America issue of the magazine, I thought the story of
Pocahontas would be a fitting topic for this month’s newsletter.
Pocahontas was a member of the Algonquian tribe and the daughter
of Powhatan, a powerful tribal chief who controlled the tribes
and land surrounding Jamestown. Legend has it that a young Pocahontas
saved the life of Captain John Smith, a Jamestown colonist, in
1607 and from there on out was on good terms with the colony,
periodically visiting her new friends there. A few years later,
after many dramatic events, she was baptized into the Christian
faith (a portrait of this is hung in the Rotunda in Washington,
D.C.) , changed her name to Rebecca and married one of the colonists,
John Rolfe. After their marriage, they traveled to London with
their son Thomas to help convince new investors to put money into
the Jamestown colony. Unfortunately, on the return trip, Rebecca
(Pocahontas) fell ill and never recovered.
In this mini unit study, you can: read more about the life of
Pocahontas, uncover what is fact vs. fiction in the popular Disney
Pocahontas movie, learn some words in the Powhatan language, read
a letter John Rolfe wrote about his marriage to Pocahontas, see
the picture of her baptism in the Rotunda and a statue at Jamestown,
play an online game featuring Pocahontas, test your knowledge
about her with a quiz, work on coloring some pictures and create
a lesson plan that uses the Disney film to teach about the Powhatan.
Reading
Read a biography of Pocahontas (younger kids):
Pocahontas
Biography #1
Read a more detailed
biography of Pocahontas (older kids):
Pocahontas
Biography #2
Learn a few words of
Powhatan:
Powhatan
Dictionary
Fact vs. fiction in
the Disney movie
The
Real Pocahontas
Primary
Source Documents
Letter from John Rolfe regarding his marriage to Pocahontas:
John
Rolfe's letter
Multimedia
See the painting of Pocahontas's baptism that hangs in the Rotunda
in Washington D.C.:
Painting
of Pocahontas
See a statue of Pocahontas
at Jamestown:
Statue
Play an online game
with Pocahontas to find out what things don't belong in early
1600's America (younger kids):
Online
Game
Projects
Coloring pages on Pocahontas:
Coloring
pages
Worksheets on Pocahontas
Worksheet
#1
Worksheet
#2
Test your knowledge
of Pocahontas with this quiz:
Quiz
on Pocahontas
Create a lesson plan
(teachers) on the Powhatan using Disney's Pocahontas film:
Film
Lesson Plan
Recommended
Resource
Love and Hate
in Jamestown
This month's reading recommendation is summer reading for the
adults, particularly those of you that will be kicking off the
school year with early American history. Love and Hate in Jamestown
will literally take you back in time to Jamestown and provide
an intimate and at times, riveting, look at early colonial times.
In late December of 1606, approximately 105 British colonists
sailed to America, seeking gold and a trade route to the Pacific.
Instead, they found disease, hunger, and natives who wanted them
gone. Only the presence of a low-born former slave, Captain John
Smith, averted extinction for the first permanent English settlement
in the New World.
The Jamestown colony is one of the great survival stories of American
history, and this book brings it fully to life for the first time.
Drawing on extensive original documents, David A. Price paints
intimate portraits of the major figures: from the formidable monarch
Chief Powhatan, to the resourceful but unpopular leader John Smith,
to the spirited Pocahontas. He also gives a rare balanced view
of relations between the English and the natives and debunks popular
myths about the colony. (Publisher's Description)
Book (Paperback)
Authors: David Price
Amazon Price: $10.17 (new)
Read
more about the book on Amazon
