Social Studies: Boston To California Hide Trade Thematic Units

While reading the annotated version of Two Years Before the Mast to my fifth graders, students do various activities pertaining to life at sea.  Covered in this unit includes the history of the event, vocabulary, log writing, galley recipe calculations, block and tackle mechanics, knotting, music, and much more.  All activities relate to school curriculum thoroughly, while allowing the students to do self exploration to better understand the hide trade and life at sea.  To wrap up the unit, my class went on the Pilgrim overnight experience in Dana Point, California, which gave them the opportunity to use the skills they obtained and live the life of a sailor working on ship during the hide trade.