Colonial Farm Life: Claude Moore Colonial Farm

Claude Moore Colonial Farm at Turkey Run
6310 Georgetown Pike
McLean, VA 22101
(703) 442-7557 (Group Visit)

Instructional Unit:
This is an in-depth study of colonial farm life in the 1700s: crops, housing, clothing, crafts, livestock, and transportation. Claude Moore Colonial Farm is an example of a small farm in 18th-century rural Virginia.

Curriculum Unit:
Grade 4
Social Studies

Objectives:
1. Students will be able to identify several crops on a small farm.
2. Students will be able to describe in detail what living on a small farm in the 1700s would be like.
3. Students will compare life on a small farm to life on a large plantation.

Pre-Visit Activities:
Students will be studying about the poor farmer of Virginia from the Lands and People of Virginia text. A study of Claude Moore Colonial Farm will be done prior to the visit: map of the farm done on the overhead, discussion of what they will be seeing and doing, vocabulary words introduced.

On-Site Activities:
1. Samples of colonial artifacts are introduced and studied (consists of baskets of items).
2. Students are given a walking tour of the 100-acre farm.
3. Students participate in a craft lesson: candle making, mapmaking, spinning, sewing, or toy making.

Follow-Up Activities:
A creative writing lesson about the experience.

Appendices:
None

Bibliography:
None

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