History Pockets: Life in Plymouth Colony, Grades 1-3

I just finished teaching a homeschool co-op class using this curriculum. I have very mixed feelings about this book- I'll just list them out.

Pros:
-Interesting material, tons of activities/projects, very clear instructions, and it makes a great book once you're done!

Cons:
-I don't think this works well for 1st grade. I taught it to 12 kids ages 6-9, and it was definitely hard for the younger ones. I think that at a minimum, the students should be able to read and write before using this. I think it would work best for grades 2-4, or even 5.
-I don't know how long they expect each unit to take, but we attempted to do these 8 pockets in 12 one-hour sessions. In order to accomplish that, I had to do a LOT of prep work at home. In addition to buying the supplies and making a lot of copies, I had to cut out a ton of things. The students could have done it, but there's no way we could've completed the tasks in the allotted time.
-There is a ton of coloring and gluing. One of my students told me that she doesn't like coloring; she thinks it's a waste of her time. She was bored quite a bit!

That said, I think it is a good resource, when used in the right situation. I also did it with my 3 homeschooled kids (grades K, 3, and 5) and we enjoyed it. I'm looking into doing another one of the units.

While the History Pocket books are great for making a book, they are a little boring by themselves. There is too much coloring and not enough learning. We have learned more by reading library books, the encyclopedia, watching an educational show, or talking about the subjects.

When we purchased these, I liked the idea. But, after wasting a lot of our homeschool day with the children coloring (by day 3, coloring had turned into scribbles) I decided to use these as supplemental activities. We read and do art projects. We talk about the subjects.

My kids liked their pilgrim puppets, the diorama of the room... and that is about it...

We have several of the HP products. Now, we let the kids chose which ones looked "fun", and skip the rest.

While it is nice to have a book to look at afterwards, I feel they do not serve a great purpose. (And they are a waste of printer paper and ink.) They are nice if you need a "work sample" for school, but I feel they are just "busy work". History can be learned in much more interesting ways.

I appreciated the graphics, but the history was not an accurate account of Life of Plymouth, Separatist, important people left out, tone of the material presented, etc. I was very disappointed! I tried to add facts and take out incorrect information, but it began to be a hinderance. So I stopped teaching and threw the books away. It's important that our kids are taught accurate information, not tone down history or erased history. I suggest an advantage of the purchase would be to research history from accurate sources for yourself and gather what you have found to present to children. This would be a good project! Also check history told of the pilgrims in 1970s to 1990s to now. You will discover what is happening. Protect history!

I teach 2nd and 3rd grade and the History Pockets are a great resource - especially for Core Knowledge schools. I find the content most appropriate for high functioning 3rd graders. I can't imagine a 6th grader doing some of the activities. Some seem too primary for that old of a kiddo.Crafty and hands on, much better than worksheets.

I do like the history pockets. However, I purchased two...one for each child because I didn’t want to have run to Office Max and make copies. I got the books today and guess what! I still have to go make copies because they print one lesson on the back of another lesson in which the first lesson has to be cut out. Why on earth would you do this?? If you have to cut out a page the back of it should be blank!!

My 2nd grader has learned so much by doing these pockets! We were reading and watching videos, but doing these is what has really given him a better understanding. We’re excited to do the rest of these books.

This History Pockets is centered around "Life in Plymouth Colony." It says it's for grades 1-3; I ordered it for my 6 yr old. This book includes 8 "pockets," each with a theme and containing craft projects, vocabulary building activities, coloring pages, reading sections and more!

The pockets are: Voyage to the New World; The New World; Building a Village; Home Sweet Home; The Family; Working in Plymouth Colony; Going to School; and What did the Pilgrims Give Us?

Each pocket can easily be stretched to last an entire week. Reading one day, craft the next day, recipe the third day, etc. And since they are broken up into themes, finding books at the library to go along with your current theme is pretty easily managed.

Craft projects you'll find in this book: Pilgrim puppets,a quilting book,a hornbook, a tithing man pole, a diorama and many more. Most don't require much more than crayons, scissors, stapler and glue, but don't let this fool you; these projects are very cool, and the finished product gives young children an idea of what life was like "back in the old days."

I purchased this for my daughter to work on during the spring and summer months, in between 2nd and 3rd grade history textbooks. Once we've finished this book, we'll buy the Colonial America History Pocket.

When I got this activity book I was thrilled!!!!! I have been using the activities as written in my self contained special ed classroom. My students don't read or write so I am having to do a bit of adaptation but the kids LOVE every bit of it! It takes a lot of printing but the activities aren't just writing and answering questions. My kids can really get into the activities and I am able to teach a lot of history while we create models. They have adopted "pilgrim" names and they are excited to come to class. I will be ordering more history pockets!

I used this with my children, ages 7 and 9, to supplement our study of the colonies. It is a fun, hands on way to learn about the different aspects of colonial life. There are eight chapters with simple projects to do in each, and a pocket to store the things in for each chapter. The eight chapters are Voyage to the New World, The New World, Building a Village, Home Sweet Home, The Family, Working in Plymouth Colony, Going to School, What Did the Pilgrims Give Us? The projects involve paper, cutting and pasting, some writing, coloring, diaramas, and a vocabulary page for each chapter/pocket. My only complaint is that some of the projects get pretty repetitive, lots of cutting and glueing. I have other History Pockets books and we will probably only use parts of them, rather than do all the projects in all the pockets.

I was hoping to not have to copy every page but I will! Why print the crafts on the opposite side of the reading pages! Might as well get each kid 2 books so they can have one for crafts and one for reading. Not happy at all.