Educator Resources

We are excited to share Children's Lives at Colonial London Town: The Stories of Three Families with you. The following tips and resources will provide you and your students with a rich learning experience.

Getting Started

Preview the storybook and instructional activities. The activity procedures include pre-reading, during reading, and post-reading strategies, as well as writing activities to assess student understanding. Also see Strategies for Before Reading, During Reading, and Before Writing.

Review the Storybook Guide for a description of the four major content themes in the book and suggestions for making these themes explicit with different readers.

Practice navigating through the storybook's interactive features, including the arrow buttons to turn the pages, links to the Table of Contents and main storybook, Glossary, Timeline, Photo Gallery, and Map. Underlined text in the storybook links directly to the corresponding glossary term. Additional hyperlinked text provides adults with the contextual background on particular people, events, places and historical concepts in the story to enrich your students' understanding.

To engage students, we suggest that you first read the storybook straight through with your class. Ideally, project the digital book on a screen in your classroom and have the students read aloud with you. You can also have students work with the storybook in a computer lab or in small groups. Students can then return to specific chapters to complete the instructional activities.

Utilize the Map, Photo Gallery, and Timeline to give students a sense of place (where London Town was situated in colonial Maryland and where the families lived) and time (chronology of significant events for the three families and those occurring in Maryland, the American colonies, and beyond during the period covered in the book). The photo gallery includes images from London Town, as well as photo illustrations that were created for this book, using our students and their families as models!

A companion resource, Foodways at Colonial London Town, is a guide to the eating habits and cooking practices of the people living in colonial London Town. The website includes articles about customs of food preparation and consumption, as well as a cookbook of colonial recipes - and their modern equivalents - that correspond with the social classes in London Town at the time of the storybook. The How-to-Use guide has suggestions for using Foodways at Colonial London Town with elementary school-aged children and includes three printer-friendly lesson plans.

More information:

Storybook Guide
Additional Websites and Places of Interest
Strategies for Before Reading, During Reading, and Before Writing
Sources Used to Create the Book
London Town History and Archaeology
London Town Education Programs
Visit London Town
Foodways at Colonial London Town guide to eating habits and cooking practices, cookbook of authentic recipes, and classroom-ready lesson plans (new resource)

Activities for the Classroom

These instructional activities were developed for 4th and 5th grade students, but may be used with older and younger children as well. The activities, which are designed to enhance students' comprehension, align with content topics on early America and the Common Core Standards in English Language Arts and Literacy in History/Social Studies (K-5). The activities are appropriate for use in Social Studies or Reading Language Arts.

The activities are in a “printer-friendly” PDF format.

Native Americans in the Chesapeake
To be completed before and after reading the storybook section, “Native Americans Before Colonization.”

Common Core Standards

Reading Informational Text - Analyze multiple accounts of the same event or topic, noting important similarities and differences in the point of view they represent
Writing - Develop the topic with facts, definitions, concrete details, quotations, or other information and examples related to the topic

Maryland State Curriculum Standards for Social Studies

Grade 4 -

Peoples of the Nation and World: Examine and describe the unique and diverse cultures of early Native American societies
Geography: Explain how geographic characteristics influenced settlement patterns in Maryland

Grade 5 -

History: Analyze how key historical events impacted Native American societies
Geography: Explain how geographic characteristics affect how people live and work, and the population distribution of a place or region

London Town and the Economy of Colonial Maryland
To be completed after reading the section, “Colonial Life Begins in London Town.”

Common Core Standards

Reading Informational Text - Explain events, procedures, ideas, or concepts in a historical scientific, or technical text, including what happened and why, based on specific information in the text
Writing - Develop the topic with facts, definitions, concrete details, quotations, or other information and examples related to the topic

Maryland State Curriculum Standards for Social Studies

Grade 4 -

Economics: Describe how availability of resources determine what is produced and the effects on consumers

Grade 5 -

History: Compare the development of places and regions, such as London Town and Annapolis

Mercantilism and the Act for the Advancement of Trade
To be completed after reading the section, “Colonial Life Begins in London Town.”

Common Core Standards

Reading Informational Text - Draw on information from multiple print or digital sources, demonstrating the ability to locate an answer to a question quickly or to solve a problem efficiently
Writing - Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development and organization are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience

Maryland State Curriculum Standards for Social Studies

Grade 5 -

Economics: Describe the types of economic systems in colonial America

The Lives of the Holland Pierpoint Children
To be completed before and after reading Chapter One, “Mehitable, James, Thomas, and Larkin in 1709.”

Common Core Standards

Reading Informational Text - Explain the relationships or interactions between two or more individuals, events, ideas, or concepts in a historical, scientific, or technical text based on specific information in the text
Writing - Write opinion pieces on topics or texts, supporting a point of view with reasons and information

Maryland State Curriculum Standards for Social Studies

Grade 4 -

Economics: Provide examples of traditions in the Maryland economy, businesses and skills handed down through families

Grade 5 -

History: Analyze the different roles and viewpoints of individuals and groups

The Lives of Hannah Hill Moore and Her Family
To be completed before and after reading Chapter Two, “Hannah and Her Family in 1739.”

Common Core Standards

Reading Informational Text - Explain the relationships or interactions between two or more individuals, events, ideas, or concepts in a historical, scientific, or technical text based on specific information in the text
Writing - Write opinion pieces on topics or texts, supporting a point of view with reasons and information

Maryland State Curriculum Standards for Social Studies

Grade 4 -

Peoples of the Nation and the World: Describe the contribution of individuals and groups
History: Examine the consequences of interactions among groups and cultures in Maryland

Grade 5 -

Peoples of the Nation and the World: Describe the various cultures of colonial societies and how the environment influenced them
History: Compare the differences between the colonies; Analyze the different roles and viewpoints of individuals and groups

Jacob and the Brown Family: Comparing the Lives of Enslaved and Free-Born Children
To be completed before and after reading Chapter Three, “Jacob and the Brown Family in 1762.”

Common Core Standards

Reading Informational Text - Explain the relationships or interactions between two or more individuals, events, ideas, or concepts in a historical, scientific, or technical text based on specific information in the text
Writing - Write opinion pieces on topics or texts, supporting a point of view with reasons and information

Maryland State Curriculum Standards for Social Studies

Grade 4 -

Peoples of the Nation and the World: Cite examples of how various cultures borrow and share traditions
History: Describe the establishment of slavery and how it shaped life in Maryland

Grade 5 -

Peoples of the Nation and the World: Analyze how conflict affected relationships among individuals and groups, such as early settlers and Native Americans, free and enslaved people
History: Analyze the different roles and viewpoints of individuals and groups, such as women, men, free and enslaved Africans (and Native Americans during the Revolutionary period)

Additional Activities for Home and School

Graphing Goods Imported to London Town
“Colonial Life Begins in London Town”
This math and literacy activity involves probability (spinner and outcomes) and graphing.

Forego the Fetid Odors: Discover the Function and Fragrance of a Sweet Bag
“Mehitable, James, Thomas, and Larkin in 1709”
Use the “5-E Science Model” to discover which natural ingredients make the most effective sweet bag.

Connecting to Families through Genealogy and an Introduction to Primary Sources
“Mehitable, James, Thomas, and Larkin in 1709”
Discuss the ancestry of the Holland Pierpoint family and create a family tree.

Colonial Remedies
“Mehitable, James, Thomas, and Larkin in 1709”
Focus on social medicine to learn about the herbal remedies that were used by colonists.

My Mini Book about London Town
This quick activity has students assemble a “London Town Mini Book” after they have finished reading Children's Lives at Colonial London Town: The Stories of Three Families. In completing the activity, students will sequence the major events in the text.

The Life and Times of Colonial London Town: A Game for 2-3 Players
This simple board game is a culminating activity to help students recall events and people from the storybook.

The Legacy of London Town: Centuries of Providing for Others
After the Brown House was sold to Anne Arundel County in 1823, it became an almshouse and County Home for the indigent until the passage of the Social Security Act Amendments in 1965, commonly known as the Medicare Bill, a component of President Lyndon Johnson's Great Society. In this activity, students read primary source materials and consider the changes that occurred over time in London Town and the impact on public policy in Anne Arundel County.