Life in New Amsterdam Making the Trip and

Life in New Amsterdam

Making the Trip and Protecting a Town - Galen • This summary is about how to make and plan a trip. When the Dutch came to the New World they used small boats to unload their supplies off their big ships. First the males came over. They traded with Native Americans. When the settlers came over they drank and washed in fresh water from the Hudson River. • For houses they brought wood to build homes. For protection they had a big fort and a big prison. The Dutch brought tools to build homes for their colonists to live in. The fort was made out of bricks and had cannons on the sides for protection.

New Neighbors by Shio The Native Americans, a long time, lived on the land. Then the Dutch colonists arrived. The Native Americans hunted foxes beavers and rabbits. They traded the furs to the Dutch. The Native Americans got cloth, blankets and tools made of metal such as knives. The Dutch tried to make the Native Americans pay a tax but they fought back, and the fighting lasted for almost seven years. A people peace agreement was made after the fighting. cloth Native Americans meet the Dutch Brown Beaver Tools

Homes - Sarah • Homes in New Amsterdam were more than just the structure. They had lots of stories behind the scenes. • Houses were not warm because there were no heaters in the house except for the fireplace, which kept people warm when they were close to it. • Winter temperatures were so cold that if you happened to be writing a letter, the ink would freeze right on your pen! • To produce more heat, people burned giant logs in the fireplace. In a colonial house, there were no bathrooms or running water. People

Homes-II • Many houses had only one room. Daily life circulated in the keeping room. Also grown-ups and young children slept here (elder children slept in the attic). When more and more children were born, the house needed more rooms (many families had lots of children in those days). • Most furniture was handmade in the house. Houses had one chair for the father, which no-one was allowed to sit in. The rest of the family sat in benches, long and hard. • Mothers and fathers slept in a jack-bed, which was short and did not have any room to stretch in. There was another mattress that you would pull out from under the jack-bed. They still have that type of bed today, called a trundle bed. • Houses changed over the centuries, but they still have the same purpose: shelter.

Farms - Tia • Colonists the trees. Then they plowed the land. This made the soil soft. Last they planted seeds. All people shared the land. grew all their own vegetables, grains, and crops. First the colonists cut down the trees. Then they plowed the land. This made the soil soft. Last they planted seeds. All people shared the land. • Windmills were not powered by electricity. They were wind powered. The idea came from the Netherlands. It grinds up the wheat to make bread.

Schools by Theo • Schools in New Amsterdam weren’t the same as they are today. The first school kids went to was called Dame school. At Dame school, a female teacher taught kids to read and write. After Dame school boys went on to another school to learn more. Girls stayed home. • Some towns didn’t have enough money to make a school. The law didn’t say schools had to be comfortable. Most of them weren’t. They had only one room. The only heat came from the fire place. Every boy had to bring firewood for the fire if someone forgot, that unlucky person had to sit in the coldest part of the room. Often kids paid in food. Kids wrote with a pile of lead. The New England Primer was the only school book. Once the kids were done with the New England Primer, they went to the next school. Certain boys started college at the age of 11. Boys that didn’t behave got whipped by the school master.

School house

The New England Primer

Clothing - Andreas 2009 -------Nowadays people wear jeans, basketball jerseys, and winter hoods, but did anyone think about what people in New Amsterdam wore? Journey with me 400 years ago!!! 1632 -------Welcome to New Amsterdam. You want to know about the clothes we wear? Well, follow me to the fields. See those sheep and goat? That’s where we get our wool. Then let me show you where my family works (I have four sisters and five brothers)! So let’s go to the loom were one of my brothers works. That’s a loom, men also worked very hard on clothes for themselves, and usually their babies. Babies had a small pillow on the back of their waist called a pudding! You actually think we buy our clothes? We never buy our clothes because we figured, if we can just make our clothes, why would we pay for something that would end up wasting our money! Also, we admit, we don’t have clothes stores. Men wear bright colored stockings and caps. Girls wore bright red cloaks and hoods. You want to know what our clothes colors were made from? Well, we used many different things found in forests around us. When we got back we decided who would stir a heaping pot of lumpy gush for 2 -4 hours to make the dye to make our clothes colors? !? ! As you can see it isn’t easy being a New Amsterdam citizen.

Food - Ian People in New Amsterdam (384 years ago) ate many things. They ate corn, pumpkin, squash, and beans. The males (men & boys) fished for: lobsters, clams and other seafood. Males also hunted: rabbits, squirrels, bear, and dear. They mostly drank cider and beer, even the kids! You couldn’t talk during a meal in colonial times. You could not sit during the meal; you had to stand. You could not say if the meal was good or bad. It was good manners to eat with your fingers. Forks came later.

Fun & Games in Colonial Times - Spencer • Even though people worked a lot they still had time to play. Colonial children didn’t have much time to play, but they still had time to play. In Colonial times they played some of our games, but not all. They played tag and blind man’s buff and some other games. Most of all, boys liked to play ball, but they didn’t play with the balls we play with today. They played with a leather ball filled with feathers. Boys had drums to bang and popguns to pop. They had hoops to roll, marbles to shoot, kites to fly, and they had trees to climb. Colonial girls played mostly with dolls. Their dolls were made with rags and cornhusks. Some girls had wooden dolls. These dolls were not meant to be played with. They were really fashion dolls. In big towns like Boston, the dolls were put in shop windows. •

Fun & Games (part 2) • Sometimes when crops were good and everybody had plenty to eat, the people had a holiday. On that day, there was feasting and there was fun. In many towns a training day was held once a month. Men and boys ran races, held fighting matches, and took part in shooting contests. Prizes were given out to winners. In wintertime, coasting down snowy hills on sleds was against the law. In the summer, in some towns, swimming was against the law. Ministers gave long sermons against dancing. But their sermons did no good. In the large towns, dancing teachers gave lessons to children.