The Best Mayflower Day Lesson Plans for Homeschoolers

Is there anything more fun than celebrating historic holidays through unique homeschool units? Not for us homeschooling nerds there isn’t! September 16^th is Mayflower Day, the historic day that the Mayflower Pilgrims set sail from England to settle on the distant and dangerous shores that would one day become Virginia. This important day in our nation’s history deserves to be celebrated with a few awesome lessons that will be a perfect fit for any homeschool style and portfolio. Here are our best Mayflower Day lessons for homeschoolers.

Online Mayflower Day Learning

• • Start your Mayflower Day celebration by learning about the history of the Mayflower, of course! My top three sites for learning the most about this topic would be History.com, mayflowerhistory.com, and plimoth.org.
  • Take a virtual tour of the ship and learn all about sailing, rigging and life on the Mayflower.
  • Study this interactive map to learn about the route the Mayflower took to get to its final destination in the new world.
  • Learn all about the pilgrim’s experiences on the Mayflower and in the new world through this video series by history.com.
  • Watch “Mouse on the Mayflower” as a family!

Hands-On Mayflower Day Projects

• • Make a cut-out diagram of the Mayflower and memorize ship vocabulary.
  • Create an “If You Sailed on the Mayflower” fact book in the shape of, you guessed it, the Mayflower!
  • Start your unit on Thanksgiving with this Mayflower wall graph and Thanksgiving Unit from fallingintofirst.blogspot.com.
  • Choose what best suits your child’s learning style from these 100+ Mayflower Projects!

Rich History Lessons for Mayflower Day

• • Read If You Sailed on the Mayflower by Ann McGovern, then take your pick of these great lessons from edhelper.com.
  • Study the Mayflower Compact, its foundations in Christianity and the impact it had upon the future government of the colonies.
  • Roll play and analyze the Mayflower Compact. Then, create your own Compact as a family.
  • Learn about the myths of the Mayflower, many of which you may believe yourself! Have your students write an essay or play about these myths and how history is documented or “made” through misconceptions.
  • Create a comic strip or satirical play regarding the irony surrounding the Pilgrims and their experiences with Native Americans.

How are you going to celebrate this important historic event? Tell, or show us, us in a comment below!