Fifth Grade Schooner Sultana

In fifth grade, students explore the challenges, adventure, hardship, and glory of American history. We start at the beginning of it all by discussing exploration and colonization. In September, students were assigned an explorer to begin researching. They spent time in the library as well as time outside of class researching their chosen explorer through resources including books and articles.

Students then constructed a speech using grammar and writing tools that helped them take on their explorers in an autobiographical style. They memorized and presented their speeches in October to an audience of parents, faculty, and friends where they donned costumes and props that helped bring their explorer to life. Through this project students gained a hands-on understanding of an explorer’s life and shared with expert knowledge the contributions their explorer made to the European discovery and creation of the countries we see today.

On October 25, Miss Fleming and her fifth graders along with parent chaperones traveled to Maryland and set sail on the Schooner Sultana, a replica of a British naval vessel that patrolled along the colonial North American coastline from 1768-1772 to enforce Britain's despised tea taxes. Tying in to their study of seafaring explorers, the use of astronomy for navigation, and their literary study of "Carry On, Mr. Bowditch" in which the main character is an historical navigator who purchases a schooner, the students got to unfurl the sails, drag a net to try to catch some fish, check out the bunks below deck, and hold a blue crab! They also conducted buoyancy experiments by floating ships they fashioned out of tinfoil, popsicle sticks and a strip of duct tape. Ask a fifth grader to tell you which ship held up best to the test of being weighted down with fishing weights! Complete with a bald eagle sighting, it was an incredible day of experiential learning.