Colonial and Early American Learning
Our Colonial and Early American programs can vary in time period and may consist of a variety of learning stations and activities. Most of the following programs can be adapted for a variety of ages, including adults!
Shipbuilding and Commerce on the Connecticut River
This station highlights South Windsor’s maritime history on the Connecticut River with optional hands-on activities near the 1786 Bissell House overlooking the Connecticut River.
Local Crafts, Trades and Inventors
Explore hands-on learning about local craftsmanship, traditional trades, and ingenious inventors. Learn about the role of local taverns and general stores and the importance of the Connecticut River.
One Room Schoolhouse (c. 1860)
Students will learn about attending school and the everyday lives of children by reliving a typical school day. Topics covered include schoolbooks, discipline, penmanship, toys, games, chores, and gender differences.
Candle Dipping (Hands-On Activity)
Students can learn about a colonial child’s chore of candle dipping, how many candles were needed for a household and how they were made before taking turns dipping their own to take home.
Quill and Ink (Hands-On Activity)
Students will learn about colonial-era quills and ink and the importance of historic documents, including the Declaration of Independence. Students will then practice writing their names in cursive before using goose quills and ink.
Stitching Stories (Hands-On Activity)
Learners step back into colonial and early American life through the timeless practice of quilting. This hands-on activity explores how needlework was an essential domestic skill, a creative outlet and a way for communities to gather. Participants will learn how quilts reflected daily life, resourcefulness and cooperation in early America while creating their own simple quilt block. Through making, learners connect history, craft and community—one stitch at a time.
The Stories Water Carries
Students will learn to describe relationships between waterways and local history, specifically through an examination of local Indigenous People, early American settlers and enslaved people. In groups, students will create a story using objects related to waterways and these histories and share them. An educator will tell a history of waterways and enslavement in Connecticut, using the objects collectively. As a wrap-up, the whole group will discuss the question: What stories does water carry?
Naming
Mini-lesson: Students will examine the practice of naming as a means of control by enslavers. Using Dr. Primus Manumit as an example, students will be able to describe the relationship between a name and self-determination, recognizing that enslaved people resisted slavery in ways that ranged from violence to smaller, everyday means of asserting their humanity. Extension activities include examining the students’ own name. Best suited for 5th and 8th grade. This lesson can be expanded into a full learning station by examining local Indigenous place-names that are still used today or the controversial use of names on public buildings, roadways and natural features.
Research Workshop: Slavery in South Windsor
What steps are important to historical research? Using The Watershed History Collective’s “Slavery in South Windsor” Exhibit as a case study, students will use research provided and/or their own research to write a fictional narrative of a locally enslaved person, exploring how they asserted their agency, preserved their humanity and resisted slavery. Best suited for high school students.
Native American Learning
Stone Tool Evolution
Indigenous Peoples used particular tools and weapons for daily survival. But as the climate and environment changed over time, so did their tools and ways of life. As you travel through the Paleo, Archaic and Woodland periods, learn about the subtle and not-so-subtle evolution of tools. Engage in hands-on tool exploration through using both authentic and replicated artifacts. Understanding is enhanced by matching prehistoric tools to their modern-day counterparts.
A Day in the Life
Travel back in time to the Woodland Period of the central Connecticut River Valley when Indigenous Peoples began to rely more on an agricultural way of life. Gain first-hand insight into everyday village domestic life and enjoy hands-on exploration of pelts, tools, containers and other cultural objects. Each participant will grind native corn with a mortar and pestle and learn how to cook corn cakes using hot fire pit stones.
The Three Sisters Garden
Learn the science behind the “Three Sisters” gardening method and the important role nitrogen plays in a successful crop. Also known as symbiotic agriculture, the Three Sisters function as companion plantings. This program is best during the summer or early fall when Nowashe’s Three Sisters Garden of corn, beans and squash is in its prime growing period.
Atlatl Throwing and Native Games (Hands-On Activity)
Imagine Wooly Mammoths roaming free throughout New England! Put your skills to the test and learn what it took to hunt during the Paleo period. Participants will be able to throw spears and experience first-hand the mechanical advantage of the atlatl, one of humanity’s greatest inventions.
Native American Storytelling
Since ancient times and among all peoples of the earth, storytelling has educated and entertained the young and old. Historically, Indigenous People passed knowledge orally from generation to generation. At Nowashe, your group can gather in one of the village’s wigwams or around the community fire to listen to, and discuss, stories from various New England tribes.
Woodlands & Wetlands Nature Walk
Learn about the Flora and Fauna of Nowashe Village on a walk through its meandering pathways. Nowashe is a Certified Wildlife Habitat with the National Wildlife Foundation and features native plants wherever possible. This provides the perfect opportunity to study native species that are just as important today as they were in the Woodland Period.
Archaeology Lab
How do we know what we know about the past? In this station, visitors are introduced to the science of Archaeology, or the study of man-made objects from the past. By studying these objects – or artifacts as they are commonly known – we can learn about different people and cultures. Discover how local Indigenous Peoples lived by analyzing authentic local artifacts.