I used the following trades for this lesson: blacksmith, brickmaker, cobbler, cooper, silversmith, apothecary, candlemaker, milliner, miller, gunsmith, wigmaker, founder, basketmaker, cabinetmaker, carpenter, saddler, printer & binder

This page from the Colonial Williamsburg website is a good resource for information on these trades:


www.history.org/Almanack/life/trades/tradehdr.cfm

Introduction…

Ask students where items such as candles, sweaters, shoes, knives and forks, and medicines are made today. Their answer will probably be factories, or something along those lines. Explain that colonial towns did not initially have factories, and that any goods that people used had to be made within the village.

Next…

Divide the class into groups of six; give each group a jobs card. Tell the group to take turns reading the job descriptions to one another, and to try to learn the names for as many colonial trades as they can during the next ten minutes. Explain that the class will then be playing a game using these trades.

After ten minutes…

Explain the rules for Pictionary. Each team will in turn send a member up to the blackboard. That member will pick a card from the hat, read the name of the trade, and then draw a picture representing that trade on the blackboard. The members of this student’s team have ONE minute to guess which trade their team member is drawing. If they guess correctly, their team receives TWO points. If they guess incorrectly, the other teams may guess what the trade was. If another team guesses correctly, that teams receives ONE point.

Make sure that students understand the importance of respect for their teammates. Remind the class that if a team fails to guess what its teammate was drawing on the blackboard, they should not blame that child, but rather accept their bad luck with good humor.

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Laura Wolfram

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