Books I’d Recommend for the Study of Jamestown Colony

**FREE COLONY RELATED CARDS: I just noticed at http://www.currclick.com/ that their current free product is on the American colonies.  There are lots of picture cards related to colonial life — pictures such as chamber pot, cotton, embroidery, flax, hearth, hornbook, indigo, tallow,  and more that would be great discussion points for the elementary crowd. One set of pages has a detailed description of the word, another group of pages includes Montessori-style three part cards. If for some reason you miss the free download it is normally 50cents (US).

Here are some of the books we read this week. They really helped bring the rich history of Jamestown settlement alive for the kids.

Molly Bannaky by Alice McGill — This book was BEAUTIFUL! The illustrations were gorgeous and the story was compelling. This is the story of Molly Bannaky, who was brought to the New World as an indentured servant. She wound up buying a slave, falling in love with and marrying him. Her grandson, Benjamin Banneker became a well known scientist.

Sam Collier and the Founding of Jamestown by Candice Ransom — This story told about the founding of Jamestown from the perspective of one of the boys who came to Jamestown.

The True Story of Pocahontas by Lucille Recht Penner — This added some rich detail about Pocahontas since the other books only briefly mentioned her role in protecting John Smith when he was captured by her father, the Chief of the Powhatan Indians.

Historic Communities: Colonial Life by Bobbie Kalman — includes actual photographs which help bring the era to life.

A Children’s Color Book of Jamestown in Virginia by Priscilla Hunt — This book was 46 pages with a paragraph on one page and a drawing to color on the adjoining page.  The history was really rich in detail and I would HIGHLY recommend this for anyone wanting to learn about the history of Jamestown settlement (for early elementary ages).

I would highly recommend any and all of these books!