A Field Trip permits participants to experience firsthand the crafts and activities of a Colonial-American family during the 1770s. The all-day event can be conducted at your campus or one of our sites.

Registering for a Daytime Field Trip is as easy as 1, 2, 3.

Call toll-free 866.354.6856 or email us to find a mutually agreeable date. You can bring your group to one of our campsites, or we can bring our tent encampment to your campus.

The standard fee per participant for an all-day Field Trip is only $12 per student. That includes all programs, activities, materials, setup, and cleanup. Ther is no cost for participating teachers, parent volunteers, or adult coordinators. Groups are usually in excess of 50 participants. Our minimum fee is $500.00 for a Field Trip. The cancellation fee for a Field Trip is $500.00.

Certain activities require an additional materials fee per participant, such as:

• Leather journal covers instead of cardstock, $2
• Candle-Making using 100% beeswax, $1
• Homemade Campfire Fudge, $1
• Photograph of student wearing Colonial clothing, $1
• You may purchase Trading Post Credit for each student in addition to an personal money that they bring. This ensures that every student can purchase something from the Trading Post.

Consider scheduling an Overnight Encampment instead of a Daytime Field Trip -- an Overnight Encampment includes all the features of a Field Trip, but in addition you get to experience more of the life of a Pioneer-American family in the 1770s by living it firsthand. During an Overnight Encampment, you wear Colonial clothing, sleep in Continental Army tents, cook over an open fire, and much, much more.

Download the Field Trip Registration Form and complete the form, indicating which stations you want to include in the program.

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A typical Field Trip lasts the entire day. For groups less than 125 participants, the Field Trip includes a total of five stations. (Call us for larger groups.) Participants rotate between stations until they have completed each activity. There are two automatic stations (Indian Necklace and Trading Post); you select three more from a list of additional stations (for example, you could select Candle-Making, Sword-Fighting, and Quill & Ink). All stations are hands-on; participants make some period craft or learn some historic skill. Each station lasts about 30 minutes.

The day begins and ends with an introduction and conclusion with all participants.

An example of a rotation and schedule is below:

Fax the form to our toll-free fax number 877.354.6856.

You will receive an Information Packet once you have sent the Registration Form. The Information Packet may include: a checklist, a schedule, a Parent Letter, directions, a Press Release, and other useful information.

A Field Trip Tent

We are able to produce high-quality Field Trips at a reasonable cost by utilizing parent volunteers you provide.

Each station also has two parent volunteers who help conduct the activity. They stay at a single station durieng the course of the Field Trip, helping the students complete their activities. The parents usually have as much fun as the students, and they are welcome to participate in any of the activities as well.

We will then setup the Field Trip, either at your campus or ours, prior to the event date. We provide schedules, instructions for volunteers, and all the materials necessary to conduct the event. After the event is complete, we remove the tents and all other materials.

Curriculum Standards

The Colonial-American Field Trip is aligned with the standard course of study for social studies in North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, and national social studies curriculum standards. The mission of our Colonial-American Program includes helping students become productive citizens through understanding the history and geography of early American life. It is our hope this will assist students to gain the skills needed for personal decision-making, participation in civic affairs, and economic productivity.

Included below are the choices of activities and stations. The state goals and objectives related to each station are referenced.

Introduction & Conclusion

Each Field Trip begins and ends with all students together. The Staff will introduce the students to some activities with general interest to students of Colonial history, which may include:

• Flintlock Firearms: Students may examine a flintlock musket. They will be introduced to the firing technology of modern and ancient guns, and its military and hunting purposes. They will learn the difference between a musket and a rifle. If desired, a blank (no projectile, only powder) can be fired as a demonstration. (NC 3rd Grade Goal 6.01; 4th Grade Goal 3.01, 3.05, 4.03, 7.01, 7.02, 7.03) (SC 4th Grade Standard 4-3.4)

Rudimentary Fifing

• Yankee Doodle: Students will be introduced to the original words of Yankee Doodle and its history. Everyone will get the opportunity to sing these words together. (NC 3rd Grade Goal 7.01; NC 4th Grade Goal 3.02, 3.05)

• Pop Quiz: What Field Trip could be complete without our famous Pop Quiz at the end? (Answer: None.) Students will get a chance to demonstrate how carefully they have absorbed what they learned.
• Cooking Demonstration: Students will examine an actual meal cooked over a fire during the course of the Field Trip. (NC 4th Grade Goal 3.01)
• Photographs: You may purchase a picture of each student taken with a high-quality digital camera and professionally developed. This picture is taken after each student puts on Colonial clothing. The cost is only $1 per student.

• Campfire Fudge: The Staff can cook a delicious, mouth-watering pot of chocolate fudge over a campfire during the Field Trip. During the Field Trip, each person will get to eat a piece of the Campfire Fudge. (Makes me hungry thinking about it.) The cost is only $1 per student. (Yes, teachers get some too.)

Automatic Activities

Two stations come standard with every Field Trip:

• Trading Post & Dressup: This is really two stations in one; neither activity takes a lot of time. Students shop in the Trading Post for period reproductions, and students put on a set of authentic Colonial clothing. If you want to purchase pictures, this would be the point where they would be taken. (You are also welcome to take any pictures that you want yourself.) (NC 4th Grade Goal 3.01)

Wearing Women's Colonial Clothing

Wearing Men's Colonial Clothing

• Indian Necklace: Students make an authentic necklace made out of buffalo bone and buffalo horn hairpipe, glass beads, and waxed linen cord. (NC 4th Grade Goal 2.01)

Indian Necklace-Making

Additional Stations

You also will select two more activities from a set. (Larger groups may need to select more activities. Contact us for the precise number.) These activities include:

• Candle-Making: Make your own hand-dipped candle out of beeswax. (There is a $1 materials fee for this activity.) (NC 2nd Grade Goals 6.01, 6.02, 6.03, 7.01, 7.02, 7.03; NC 3rd Grade Goals 2.01; NC 4th Grade Goal 3.01, 7.01, 7.02, 7.03) (SC Fourth Grade Standard 4-2.4, 4-3.6)
• Medicine Bag: Stitch together an authentic leather Indian Medicine Bag with a leather cinch. (There is a $3 materials fee for this activity.) (NC 4th Grade Goal 3.01)
• Monkey Bridge: (Available only at our location in Historic Saint Mary's City, MD.) Test your dexterity and skill on the Monkey Bridge. Can you make it across? We don't think so!
• Pioneer Journal: Construct a Pioneer Journal. The Pioneer Journal is constructed of paper with a cardstock cover, and bound with deer sinew. (Students may cover their journals with leather for an additional $2 materials fee.) (NC 3rd Grade Goals 2.01; NC 4th Grade Goal 3.01, 7.01, 7.02, 7.03)
• Quill & Ink: Copy a section of an 18th Century boyhood exercise with a real feather quill pen, water-based ink, and an ink well. George Washington copied the Rules of Civility & Decent Behavior in Company and Conversation when he was in grade school in Fredericksburg, Virginia. (NC 1st Grade Goal 2.01, 2.02, 2.04, 2.05, 2.06; NC 2nd Grade Goal 1.02, 1.02, 1.03, 1.04, 1.05, 1.06; NC 4th Grade Goal 3.01, 3.02, 3.05, 4.03, 4.05) (SC Fifth Grade Standard 4-3.2)

Writing with Quill & Ink

• Block-Printing: Make prints using decorative print blocks and ink. Decorate your prints to personalize them.
• Cord-Making: Learn a technique for making braided cord using an octagonal braiding jig. Each participant will make a cord that they will keep. (NC 4th Grade Goal 3.01)
• Knot-Tying: Learn the art of knot-tying (and untying) through learning some of the basic knots (the half-knot), stopper knots (overhand stopper, figure-eight knot), bends (square knot, sheet hitch), hitches (half-hitch, full-hitch, bowline, flying bowline), and some specialty knots (blood knot, sinnets, monkey chain, monkey's fist, cat-o-nine), and others. (NC 4th Grade Goal 3.01) (SC 4th Grade Standard 4-3.6)
• Sillhouetting: Make a shadow picture by cutting it out of a piece of paper and mounting it. Decorative cut paper work was a high accomplishment in the 18th Century. (NC 4th Grade Goal 5.02) (SC 4th Grade Standard 4-3.6)
• Bracelet-Making: Make a bracelet out of cord. This activity helps students learn useful knots, work with their hands, and make a craft that they can wear with pride. (NC 4th Grade Goal 3.01) (SC 4th Grade Standard 4-3.6)
• Doll-Making: Students make a either a male or female rag doll out of cloth and yarn. (SC 4th Grade Standard 4-3.6)

A Creative Rag-Doll Design

• Sword-Fighting: Learn fencing techniques using foam-padded dueling sabers, bucklers, spears, and long swords. Safely learn how to attack in groups and individual maneuvers. (NC 4th Grade Goals 3.05)

Sword-Fighting

• Tomahawk Throw: Learn the mechanics and technique of properly throwing a tomahawk at a wooden target. (NC 4th Grade Goal 2.01, 3.01, 3.05)

Throwing the Tomahawk

• Colonial Games: Students play several games that were common among children during the 18th Century, such as Graces, Nine Pins, Quoits, Tug-O-War, Cup & Ball, Jump Rope, Jacob's Ladder, Nine Man Morris, and others. (NC 4th Grade Goal 3.02) (SC 4th Grade Standard 4-3.6)
• Rounders Base Ball: Students love to play Rounders, an early version of the modern game of baseball. (NC 4th Grade Goal 3.02) (SC 4th Grade Standard 4-3.6)
• Indian War Paint: Examine pictures of typical Indian face-painting styles. Listen to firsthand accounts of colonists who were captured by Indians, such as James Smith, who was captured and held from 1755-1759 by the Caughnawaga Indians during the French and Indian War. (NC 2nd Grade Goals 3.02, 3.03, 3.04, 3.05, 3.06; 4th Grade Goal 2.01, 3.02, 3.05, 4.03, 4.05) (SC Fourth Grade Standard 4-2.7, 4-3.1, 4-3.7)
• Reading of the Declaration of Independence: The Staff will provide a dramatic public reading of the Declaration. Following will be a discussion of its meaning and impact on Colonial and modern life. (NC 5th Grade Goals 2.01, 2.03, 4.04) (SC 4th Grade Standard 4-3.1, 4-3.3)