Go back to Colonial Times

SLPs in public schools or those working privately with school-aged clients do well to make activities contextual and relevant to the classroom curriculum. One of my interests with this blog is to make that easy to do!

A few years back, PBS had a series of reality shows in which ordinary people were transported to a historical context, such as a New England colony. While Colonial House is no longer on the air, its website is still up and filled with activities for students studying early American history. The site features video diaries from the participants and interactives such as the "Would you have survived in the colony?" quiz and the activities below:


Language Lens:

• Providing visuals and interaction with curriculum material is always a good use of therapy time.
• The video diaries would be a good opportunity to work on auditory comprehension.
• The interactive activities provide a context to work on information mapping with graphic organizers, and the 360-degree tours would be nice visual stimuli to use one of the Thinking Routines previously highlighted here.
• Curriculum texts can be used to make connections and comparisons to the experiences of the modern-day "colonists."