Life on the Mayflower

Today we read an article about the Mayflower's Voyage. We learned that the Mayflower was only 106 feet long and 25 feet wide. That didn't seem so bad to us. So...we went into the hall and measured out the length of the Mayflower. We still thought it seemed BIG. Then, we remembered there was 102 passengers on the ship. Mrs. Wanke had us stand next to each other with about the same amount of space between each other that the Pilgrims may of had. Now we understand why the author referred to the size as ONLY 106 feet long! Yikes it was crowded. Then, you throw in the fact that they were on the boat for 66 days, there was no running water, no bathrooms, and when the food went bad with bugs, they still had to eat it! WOW what a miserable voyage.

We made pilgrim suitcases today. We had to draw and label three things we would bring with us if we were going on the Mayflower. We also had to explain why we brought these items. Some of us were very practical and others, not so much. ;)