Plymouth Colony Pocket Books

If I had been more on the ball I would have had this posted last week when we finished it and it would have been appropriate for Thanksgiving. But, I am thankful that we finished it in time for the holiday and we were able to appreciate some history from the beginning of our country and
how difficult times were back then.

This is similar to a lapbook just a little different style. This is a pocket book and they are loads of fun for the hands on kind of learning. This ones comes from Evan Moor (HERE) and it is the Plymouth Colony Pocket Book (HERE). The idea is to have different pockets for information that the kids work on. The book that you get from Evan Moor tells you how to step by step do all of this. All you really need is to copy the pages for each child and have the extra large kind of construction paper. You could put the info into file pockets instead (we might try something like that next time).Pocket 1 included the Voyage to the New World. The mini books included in this pocket were a Mayflower ship, a trunk of things to take to the new world, map with route and words to know flap book (vocab words from the info that you read to the students ~ each pocket has "words to know").
Pocket 2 was the New World and included the Mayflower Compact, word search and words to know. Each pocket also includes a few paragraphs that the kids can read and color (the information). For the teachers information, I read the page of info for the kids while they are coloring and cutting for the mini books.



Pocket 3 was Building a Village. On this one we made a "tithing man stick" (used to keep children and adults behaving properly in church), a town crier booklet and words to know. For the town crier, I had the girls write their own info and then ring a bell in the yard and act it out as if they were the town crier.

Pocket 4 was all about the Plymouth home. The girls made a portable diorama (on the left) along with the other basics for this pocket. They learned about the keeping room and we studied how simple the life was.


Pocket 5 was about the Plymouth Family. They made puppets (on the left) and we studied some typical pilgrim names. One of their favorites was making the "stew of good manors" as we learned about how strick the family was.


Pocket 6 was about Working in Plymouth Colony. We learned about the farming and the different trades and crafts that quickly became popular. The mini books included a quilt book, a sign for a shop, and a mini book that listed the crafts and trades.



Pocket 7 was about going to school in Plymouth Colony. The girls made a horn book and a reader that would have been used then. The horn book has a sheet of wax paper on top and they used a stick to copy the alphabet.

Pocket 8 included a conclusion of all that we learned about the Pilgrim life and what the Pilgrims gave us. The goose thing on the left is a copy of an old time toy (kind of wish we could make it out of wood, it is cute).


We were able to do 2 pockets a day for a few days to get our project done before Thanksgiving. Ideally, it would take longer. All in all, I do really like these, almost as much as lapbooks. And if you are looking for other pocket book ideas, Evan Moor has quiet a few. Most of them only have about 4 pockets each. Click HERE for some ideas.