The Historic Triangle includes three historic colonial communities located on the Virginia Peninsula and bounded by the York and James Rivers. The points that form the triangle are Jamestown, Colonial Williamsburg, and Yorktown.
One of the best features of these three sites is the amount of hands-on opportunities that are presented for children. We're firm believers in tactile learning, and the kids remember so much more from these trips! For each trip, we read a related book aloud together.
Yorktown
Near the battlefield where allied American and French forces won the decisive battle of the American Revolution in 1781, the Yorktown Victory Center chronicles the Revolutionary period, from colonial unrest to the formation of the new nation.
Nearly two hundred years after Jamestown was settled, the Battle of Yorktown signaled the end of the Revolutionary War. At Yorktown Victory Center, we:
- Helped fire a cannon
- Learned about medicinal herbs
- Performed the daily chores (bringing in water, cleaning house, stacking firewood)
- Chased chickens around the fort (and could not catch one!)
Jamestown
If you remember your history, mosquitoes were a huge problem for Jamestown residents!
Jamestown Settlement, a museum of 17th-century Virginia, explores the world of America’s first permanent English colony. The colonists spent several months on a boat, sailing to a world they knew nothing of....how wayward and weary they must have been upon arrival!
Wherever we turned, there was a new experience to be had! Within the colonial village, we:
- boarded a colonial sea ship
- learned to navigate with sea charts
- developed a plan of attack in the event of pirates
- discovered how the garden was used medicinally
- watched ironwork and gunsmithing
- "shopped" in the storehouse
- learned why they used mud and thatch for homes
In the Native American area, we:
- helped carve a canoe
- watched food being cooked at the communal fire
- practiced sewing with bones & sinew
- learned the architectural principles behind their homes
Separate from the tourist center, there is a site called Historic Jamestowne, which is the center for preservation, education, and the archaeological investigation of Historic Jamestowne.
Unit Resources
Jamestown resources :
Yorktown resources :
- Life at Jamestown (pdf book)
- Mystery at Jamestown
- My America : Our Strange New Land
- Soldiers, Jamestown, and Heroes of Virginia DVD
- D'Aulaire's Pocahontas and unit study (free)
Yorktown resources :
- Surprise at Yorktown
- We Were There When Washington Won at Yorktown
- Road to Revolution handout
- Liberty's Kids : Yorktown
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