Name Date The Pilgrim Experience

One hundred two men, women, and children were on board the when it left England in 1620. These colonists, who founded the second permanent English settlement in America, became known as Pilgrims. Word Box Directions: Read the letter below to find out defend military seas what it was like to be a part of the search born survive governor burials sailed festival for Plymouth. Fill in each blank with one discipline harvest joy of the words from the word box. Each details weak elected word is used only once. residents voyage anchor

November 19, 1621 Dear Constance, What a year it has been! Let me share with you the ______of all we’ve experi- 1 enced. The Mayflower ______from England on September 16, 1620. We were on the 2 ______for 65 days. We were blessed that only two passengers died during the 3 ______. It could have been much worse. It was a really sad time. However, the sad 4 time was replaced with ______when a child was ______on the Mayflower! 5 6 The parents named the child Oceanus Hopkins. It was in November before we finally dropped ______in Provincetown harbor, and 7 in December we finally landed on shore at Plymouth. We knew we would need ______8 among ourselves, so 41 men, including myself, met and signed the . We also elected John Carver as our first ______. Miles Standish, our ______9 10 captain, was given the job of training us to ______ourselves. 11 The first year proved to be very difficult. Only about one-half of our ______were 12 still alive after the winter. Sadly, John Carver was among those who died, so we ______13 William Bradford as our next governor. Because of the high number of deaths, we held ______at night so the Native Americans would not know how ______our 14 15 colony was becoming. Two English-speaking natives, and , helped us learn how to ______. 16 Squanto helped us with the planting of corn, pumpkins, and beans. Because of the great ______, Governor Bradford declared a celebration. Just recently we invited our native 17 friends to join us for the three-day ______. We feasted on corn bread, duck, eel, goose, 18 wine, and much more! Although we’ve had some hard times, it looks as though we are going to survive! Hopefully, you’ll be able to join us soon. My thoughts are with you.

Your brother, Francis

©The Education Center, Inc. • Teacher’s Helper® • TEC8485 • Oct/Nov 2001 Thanksgiving: cloze activity 59 HowHow toto UseUse PagePage 5959 “The Pilgrim Experience” 1. If desired, share the background information on this page. 2. Give each student a copy of page 59. 3. Discuss the directions as a class. Then have each student complete the page independently. 4. After students have completed the activity, discuss the answers.

BackgroundBackground forfor thethe TeacherTeacher Thanksgiving Day is a day of feasting and prayer set aside each year for giving thanks to God for blessings re- ceived during the year. Most Americans think of the first official Thanksgiving as being the one that took place at in the autumn of 1621. Today Thanksgiv- ing is celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November. For Americans this holiday commemorates a small group of colonists who journeyed across the Atlantic so they could worship as they pleased. It is a time to give thanks, not only for nature’s bounty, but also for freedom.

Answer Key 1. details 2. sailed 3. seas 4. voyage 5. joy 6. born 7. anchor 8. discipline 9. governor 10. military 11. defend 12. residents 13. elected 14. burials 15. weak 16. survive 17. harvest 18. festival

60 Thanksgiving: cloze activity