Social Studies 5: Pilgrims and Puritans
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You know 'em, you love 'em, they're the good ol' buckle-hats that settled in the new world. Today we'll learn all about that and the first ever official signed agreement in North America, The Mayflower Compact.
|5th Grade||Social Studies|
|Elementary and Middle School||5th Grade|
But trust us, it's not. Just take a look at it! Does this look boring to you? [Teacher holds large piece of paper]
…Okay…so it looks a little bit boring.
But, uh…hey, at least our hats look pretty sweet. So let's jump right in. [People jump into a river]
It all started back in the early 1600s, when the Government of England wanted everyone
to worship in a certain way.
And we don't mean that they wanted everyone to pray while holding a funky yoga pose... [Girls praying and girl falls into river]
Because then the only thing they'd be praying for is yoga to be over and done with.
No, we mean that they wanted everyone to worship the Church of England. But just because someone [Priest in a church]
wants us to do something, that doesn't mean it's going to happen…
Our mom might want us to fold the laundry, but we'd rather curl up in it and take a nap… [Boy taking a nap and mom appears]
So worshipping the Church of England? Not everyone wanted to do that.
Because there's lots of different ways to worship, and forcing someone to worship in
a way they don't want to is kind of like forcing someone to eat a kind of cookie they don't like. [Boy sat with a plate of cookies]
And just because you might like Oatmeal Raisin cookies doesn't mean everyone will.
So let them eat chocolate chip cookies if they want. Because let's be honest – raisins [Mom brings cookies to boy]
are just the worst. So all those people who were fed up with being
made to worship a certain way decided to separate from England, which is why we called them
Separatists. Clever name, huh? [People walking away from church]
These Separatists moved from England to the Netherlands, where they were free to worship
however they wanted!
Too bad a lot of them didn't end up liking living in the Netherlands all too much, which
may or may not have had something to do with the fact that the most popular sandwich in
the Netherlands is a raw fish and raw onion sandwich... [Waiter brings people raw fish and onion sandwich]
The Separatists made a deal with a company called the Virginia Company, a group of people
with a lot of money who would help pay for the separatists to move to what is now New
York City in exchange for work.
And replacing a fish onion sandwich with a good ol' American hotdog was a no-brainer, [Waiter carries hotdog to man]
so off they went! Two ships set sail from Europe to the New World.
Two full ships of adventurers! How exciting, right?
Unfortunately, one started to leak pretty badly and turned around almost immediately. [Ship begins to leak water]
One full ship of adventurers! Slightly less exciting, right?
And y'know what that ship was named? The Picklebutt.
….Wait. Whoops. Got our notes mixed up… it was called the Mayflower. [Picture of the Mayflower ship]
That sounds more familiar.
The Mayflower almost made it to its destination,
but a storm caused it to land a little short of its goal. [People running screaming and man with hat on fire]
But everyone was so happy to be on dry land, they decided to stay there. And after a leaky
ship, a wild storm and a few too many fish and onion sandwiches, can you really blame them?
It stunk like a picklebutt in that ship. Once there, the men signed a document – because
only men were allowed to vote back then – and they called it...drumroll please…
The Picklebutt Compact!
…Shoot. Wrong again. Keep that drumroll going! [Hand swiping pieces of paper away]
It was called…the Mayflower Compact! It was an agreement that they would remain loyal to the
king of England and would obey laws that were made to help their new colony be successful.
And why was this document so important? Because it was the first agreement to ever be signed [Mayflower compact document]
in the New World – which was just a fancy way of saying the Americas back then.
Isn't that pretty cool? We told you the Mayflower Compact wasn't boring.
Especially when you fold it into a paper airplane and toss it through a bunch of rings of fire. [Teacher with paper airplane and throws it through rings of fire]
Though we wouldn't recommend doing that with the actual original document.