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• Acrimony in Bruton Parish Church

  This role-play activity demonstrates to students the importance of religion in the eighteenth century and the conflict between the established Church of England and Enlightenment ideas.

• Attitudes and Behaviors Regarding Slavery in the Colonial Period

  In this lesson, students use Virginia Gazette advertisements for the return of runaway slaves to determine the nature of slavery during the colonial period.

• A Colonial Christmas in Williamsburg

  Students compare modern Christmas celebrations with those of the eighteenth century and participate in eighteenth-century Christmas and Twelfth Night customs.

• Don't Fence Me In

  Students explore different kinds of fences and their uses, and examine colonial attitudes toward land ownership and community.

• Eighteenth-Century Music and Dance

  Students discover the customs and role of eighteenth-century dancing through primary sources, then learn the eighteenth-century dance “La Royale”.

• Getting Into History: Visiting Museums - a Shared Experience

  This guide contains everything teachers need to help students make the most of history-related field trips.

• History Comes Alive in the Graveyard

  This cemetery field trip and the related classroom activities allow students to appreciate and use gravestones as historical resources and thus gain a better understanding of their community.

• Mathematics with a Mob Cap

  Students make mob caps—gathered linen or cotton caps worn almost constantly by eighteenth-century females—using geometry and other basic math skills.

• Predicting Weather in the Eighteenth Century

  Students learn about eighteenth-century methods of predicting weather, such as weathervanes and almanacs, and why they would be important in an agricultural society. They then create their own weathervane.

• Signs of the Times

  Students use trade shop signs to learn about eighteenth-century occupations. They then design their own trade sign to practice expressing ideas in simple graphic form.

• Travel in the 18th Century

  In the eighteenth century, people of different social levels used various modes of transportation for different purposes and destinations. By looking at how people traveled, students learn more about life in the eighteenth century.

• The Trial of Abigail Briggs

  Students role-play an eighteenth-century court case—a murder trial—to learn about colonial Virginia’s justice system.

• The Two Williamsburgs

  Students learn about the lives of enslaved African Americans through the book “A Williamsburg Household.”

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