Iowa TV Schooltime: See & Do Time-- Pilgrim's Feast

it's TV school time woi TV in association with Iowa State University presents another program in the Iowa TV school time series see and do time today's topic is the pilgrim feast your teacher is Betty Lou McVeigh of the woi TV staff hi boys and girls welcome again to see in due time and today we're going to be talking about the first Thanksgiving about the pilgrims and a special surprise for you more about that later every year about this time at least for the last hundred years 4th Thursday in the month of November we celebrate Thanksgiving and every year we make plans to make that celebration more meaningful special one of the things that almost always we do because it's fun to try to think of different kinds of little turkeys we could make for decorations either for your Thanksgiving table on Thanksgiving Day or for your classroom and I have two that I thought you might like to see before we actually talked about the pilgrims now this is a very easy kind of turkey and when you make it I hope it won't look just like this because I hope this will just be an idea for a turkey this is paper sculpture it's just made from two colored two colors construction paper cotton played with and changed with a clay base to help it stand erect and I don't want you to copy this one but maybe it will give you an idea for kind of Turkey that you'd like to make this little turkey I like very much and it's an easy easy one to make his lovely beautiful flowing tail made from small paper plates cut in half your own in your classroom having some paper plates that you can use can use pieces of cardboard or construction paper one part cut larger and the inner ring which serve for the turkeys tail the body of the turkey is an apple and this particular turkey makes a very nice decoration for your Thanksgiving table at home the head just another piece of cardboard the eyes sequins just because it's rather a happy book and it's a kind of little turkey that I hope you'll try making once again the base is clay you can make legs for the turkey but because the apple makes such a heavy body it's very tippy and I think that just having the turkey fooled his legs under him and sit on a bed of clay I think this is just a little bit easier way to do it and that way you don't have tippy turkeys we tried I'd be interested in knowing some of the different kinds of turkeys you make in your classroom oh and I heard a wonderful idea and this is something that I have never tried but maybe some of your teachers know about this and have tried it and if not they may want to anyway do you know about turkey feathers well a teacher who had grown up on a farm where they grew turkeys said that turkey feathers make the most wonderful decorations of all kinds not just for making little Thanksgiving turkeys but for any kind of decorations and with the holidays coming this is something that you may want to try especially if maybe some of the boys and girls in your classroom raise turkeys on their farm and could get you some turkey feathers because as I understand it you just put the turkey feathers in a bag you put them in the washer then you put them in the dryer and they get very fluffy and very beautiful and don't even run second place - ostrich feathers in making beautiful decorations now as I said I haven't tried it but I'm going to and I hope maybe you will - because they're lovely and light and feathery and most decorative and it's an idea that I hope that you'll try alright alright no I'm going to put the turkey aside and we're going to talk about one of the great adventures of all time now some of you because you are still very young may be fortunate enough to go exploring there aren't many places left on the earth to explore man has travelled through most parts of the world some of you may be going to other planets I hope so I think it will be exciting for you and I think that in a way you'll be pilgrims but go be pilgrims of the future your adventure will be very wonderful and you'll have to be very brave but you won't have to be one bit braver then the pilgrims were the pilgrims who came to this country in the year 1620 the pilgrims who celebrated the first Thanksgiving Day and gave us a reason for celebrating it now I wonder if you realize what a real adventure that was let's talk a little bit about it and why it was such a great adventure why it had many many dangers and why so many people died let's start by considering the ship that brought the pilgrims to this country it was called the Mayflower and it was a sailing ship and it was a sailing ship that had many problems it was not the best ship that had ever been made and it leaked to water it was quite small and the many pilgrims and all of their belongings had to be put on this one ship now that hadn't been the plan that the pilgrims had at first no they had planned for two ships one was called The Mayflower of course and then the second was the Speedwell well they started out with some of the pilgrims in the speed will and some of their supplies the rest of the pilgrims on the Mayflower with more of the supplies and they were a few days out when the captain of speed well said we've got to put in we must put in at Dartmouth Harbor because this ship is going to sink and all of the people are going to go down with it if we don't have something done so they put in at Dartmouth and the men who were skilled at taking care of ships and keeping them watertight and all this sort of thing went to work on the Speedwell well they started out again and they were just passed lands and and they were leaving from England and the captain said I'm sorry we're going to have to forget about the speed well we're gonna have to go back because this ship simply cannot stand the trip across the ocean now the pilgrims were very discouraged they put back to Plymouth and they talked about what they would do because there just simply was not enough room on the Mayflower to take all of them and all of the supplies so some of the people who had originally planned to come to America were not able to come well when all more of the supplies and some of the people had been transferred to the Mayflower and the others had waved a tearful goodbye the Mayflower started again on its journey and it was a long journey and it was a rough journey there were many storms at sea the people were crowded below the decks there were animals on board it was a long and tiring tiring trip and the pilgrims tried to be very brave through it all they also as you may know took children with them oh there were boys and girls just about your own age who travelled along there were even some fairly small babies that went and they had a very unhappy time on the boat there was very little for them to do the air in the cabins very very warm and unpleasant the food was bad and the trip to America was not a pleasant one especially when there were storms at sea when they arrived off the coast of New England and that isn't by the way where they'd planned to go at all they'd been blown off course a group of the pilgrims took a smaller boat that had been carried on the Mayflower and started out to see where they were and the kind of land that was to be found there and to see if this would be a place where they could spend the winter because it was late in the year and it was dangerous to be at sea they started to explore and they went under the command of Myles Standish he was to be their military leader they took the guns and they started looking looking for any signs of Indians looking at the land and the condition of the land looking at the possibility of staying there and spending the winter when they were exploring and they made several trips to land they found some of the homes of the Indians but they were deserted and remember we talked with chief George Young Bear about the homes of Indians this was the wickiup style round remember and more permanent than the teepee kind of Indian dwelling well they explored they looked for Indians and for a long time they didn't find any and then they did and the minute the Indians saw them they started to run away and the pilgrims were interested in trading with them and meeting them but these were not particularly friendly Indians and they were frightened of the pilgrims who came the pilgrims finally decided that they had found a place where they could spend the winter and they started to build their homes and it was a difficult winter over half of the pilgrims died the first winter that they were in the New World but one of the nicest things that happened that year was the arrival of an Indian and this one a special Indian his name was Samoset and one day in the course of the winter Samoset came into the group of buildings that the pilgrims had built and he spoke English to them not very much English but a little enough to be understood by them and he explained to them that he had learned English from some of the traders who had been in the area and he tried to help them as best he could and they helped him because although weather it was very cold Samoset didn't really have much clothing and so they gave him some breeches and and a jacket and he liked them very much and he promised that he would introduce them to two other Indians very important Indians one was named Squanto and this is a picture of Squanto who in turn introduced the pilgrims to the great sachem or chief of the area named Massasoit and Massasoit was a very powerful Indian chief and he and the pilgrims had a pact or an agreement that Massasoit and his Braves would not attack the pilgrims and the members of the Plymouth Colony and that the members of the Plymouth Colony would help Massasoit if he were attacked by any Indians and that they would not steal from one another and that they would be friends and Squanto who was one of the most fortunate things that happened to the pilgrims that year spoke English and spoke it quite well and he stayed with them as long as he lived and acted as their interpreter he had been captured by traitors he had been taken to Spain he'd escaped from his captors in Spain had made his way to England and then have come back and so he spoke really quite good English and of course he's both the Indian language too and he was most helpful in not only speaking the language with Massasoit and other Indians but also in helping the pilgrims to learn to do some of the things that the Indians did planting corn how to plant the corn where to look for the best fishing where do you find the wild turkeys and it was Squanto who helped very much to get the pilgrims through the first very hard winter in the new world so those are names to remember Samoset the first Indian who came to the pilgrims Squanto who came and stayed and helped as long as he lived Massasoit the great chief of the Indians in the area where the pilgrims settled now I want you to take a look at this little boy he is a naughty little boy he is a little boy named John Billington and he is being carried back by Indians this particular little boy had caused all kinds of trouble on the Mayflower he didn't like having to sit around and not do anything so he found many ways of causing trouble and then after they came to the new world and he had been out exploring one day he became lost and for five days he wandered around and he couldn't find his way back to the settlement and the pilgrims were worried about poor John Billington and where was he and they looked and they looked and they couldn't find him but John Billington had found some Indians now these were not the members of Sam assets tribe these were not the members of Massasoit tribe these were strange Indians and he said whatever little boys would say when they found a tribe of strange Indians anyway the Indians took him with them to their village well Squanto found out that John Billington was with this tribe of Indians and he and Massasoit sent word that these Indians were to send that little boy back that his parents were worried about him and that they'd better send the little boy back if they didn't want to have a war well the Indians who probably by this time were a little tired of John Billington anyway because he was a naughty little boy came ringing the little boy back a hundred Braves brought John Billington back and he was warmly received by all of the members of the Plymouth Colony and this is an interesting example of the fact that sometimes you know little boys can be naughty no matter where they are and this little boy not only he must in all honesty have had a wonderful adventure he had all kinds of stories to tell his parents and everyone else about his visit with the Indians know the first year that the pilgrims were here was a long year and a hard year over half the members of the original colony died it was a time of great suffering but Squanto and the other Indians helped the pilgrims do in the spring plant corn squash pumpkins they helped them to learn to fish they helped them learn to hunt game and when fall came and the time of harvest the pilgrims wishing to express their great thanks to God and to show their friendship and thanks for to the Indians for helping them decided that they would have a great feast of Thanksgiving and so they sent word to Massasoit that he and some of the members of his tribe were most welcome to come to a feast now the first Thanksgiving was held outdoors in the forest in a little cleared area but the pilgrims had cleared during the first year and they had prepared food of all kinds they had used all of some of the food that they had grown they had gone hunting they had come back with wild turkeys and they'd planned on a feast but they had not planned on having Massasoit bring 90 of his Braves to the feast but he did and it was a great tribute to the pilgrims that Massasoit brought back not his whole tribe but a large share of it and so they came and the pilgrims welcomed them warmly and the feasting went on for three days not just one big dinner as you'll have but for three days pilgrims and the Indians had feasting and games the Indians did some of their dances they showed their skill with a bow and arrow and it was a very wonderful time and a time when we pilgrims gave thanks and showed their appreciation and had a most interesting time and a special day that we will celebrate again this year these pictures have been taken from a book that is an excellent one and one I would certainly recommend for your classroom the book is called pilgrim courage and it's published by Little Brown and company and it's an excellent book about the pilgrims based on the diaries of Bradford and others who were among the first members of the New World know if today you would like to see a little bit of what it was like living in the Plymouth Colony if you would like to see a little bit of what it was like for the pilgrims it's possible for you to visit a restored area where you will see things like The Devil's paintbrush that is a plant that isn't particularly popped popular now but was important to the pilgrims because it was used for medicine you will see the sort of buildings that the pilgrims made during their first few years here you will see the kind of clothing that the pilgrims wore and you will see the kind of crops and weeds and plants that the pilgrims used during their first years here and continued to use for many years after for that matter corn was a very important part of their diet and one of course that Squanto helped me to learn they also had many herbs that they grew in their gardens for medicines for example the cabbage rose which they believed helped colic chamomile which was used and still is used these were grown to provide medicines also there was valerian which was supposed to help in breathing and wormwood to help gout and foxglove which made into medicine was supposed to help the heart and sage which was supposed to help you not aged quite so quickly and the wild daisies which were used to make different kinds of medicines for various doses and hearts ease which was supposed to be good for babies and children now this gentleman would be a pill roller and he would take all of these herbs and weeds and he'd roll them into little fine meal and make medicines to keep the other members of the colony working hard and it was hard work building cutting the lumber these tools were the kind that were brought by they pilgrims on the Mayflower they had known that they would have hard work that would have to build all of their homes and you see what a job it was there were no nails so pegs were pounded to keep the walls together they were called tree nails the windows were closed with shutters or with oiled paper looks were made a fashion and kept out doe some of the moisture and some of the snow and some of the cold but always had to be repaired and were very dangerous because of the threat of fire this would be the Plymouth Colony as it looked several years after the pilgrims came all of the members of the colony worked very very hard you remember the use of the pole which looks almost like Indian War Club and was used much as the Indians use their war club for digging and planting the wood to keep the fire burning in the house had to be chopped and carried in baskets were woven the program women knew how to weave baskets but they had some ideas that they got from the Indians as far as color and decoration were concerned food and warmth these were the two most important things to the pilgrims because they were necessary to survive see the wing of the bird being used as a little brush or a broom and meals being cooked in the fireplace the gun being kept in good repair by the father all of these things a slight glimpse of what it might have been like to have been a pilgrim in the early days of the Plymouth Colony now you're going to have Oh such an easy easy time on Thanksgiving Day and your mother will go to the store and get all the things you need how different from the first Thanksgiving later Thanksgivings in the new colonies and this when there were no longer does colonies but were states the Thanksgivings that would be held after old early in the eighteen hundreds perhaps can be seen and what life would have been like them can be seen by visiting Sturbridge Massachusetts where life looks very much as it did in the early eighteen hundreds with ox carts and carriages you can see how life had changed from the early days of the pilgrims they first came to the new world tourist delight in visiting Sturbridge Village and perhaps you will be able to go someday and see the buildings that have been restored so that they're very much as they were many many years ago you can see all of the things that were necessary for life in those days you may go in some of the homes you may see that at this time there would be glass in the windows that the furniture would be interesting but much more refined than it had been earlier there were craftsmen in Sturbridge Village and in Massachusetts then who made beautiful furniture you'll see that the kitchen was still very much the most important part of the house because here it was always warm because of the large fireplace the living room was used only for special occasions Thanksgiving would be a special occasion and people would be allowed to go into the living room and to be there and to eat there but you had to have a reason because the living room wasn't for living it was really for just very special times ordinary meals were served in the kitchen where all of the food was prepared and where most of the talking in the family was done candles were dip this much much before the invention or the use of electricity weaving was a task that women of the family had to do weaving cloth or loading cabinetmakers sometimes had their own shops and woodworking was a great art things were not made many at a time system of mass production things were made one at a time and here is a craftsman making a pewter spoon pewter was a metal that was very popular just after the Revolutionary War or table service and the men who made the pewter worked to make it very beautiful the tinsmith well made many things but when he had a few idle minutes he'd make biscuit cutters just as this tin Smith is doing and the broom maker all a most busy gentleman to the broom straw was gathered in and the blacksmith oh he too was a busy man making shoes for the horses and in his spare time making nails one at a time nails that could do the job that the pegs the wooden plug was used by the early pilgrims just couldn't do these are scenes in Sturbridge Village showing a way of life known in the United States early eighteen hundreds this is a village I hope you'll visit just as you may have a chance someday to visit the original site of the pilgrims first village in the United States no Thanksgiving can be celebrated in many ways and if you were to count all the things that would make you thankful on Thanksgiving Day I hope that it would be such a long list that we wouldn't even have time for it but I have a Thanksgiving gift for you this has nothing to do with the pilgrims nothing to do with anything but my wishes for you that you have a Happy Thanksgiving and the thought that you might like to see something that is just fun and I think you will enjoy watching six very lovely very small puppies I couldn't bring you each one to keep at home but I could let you watch them six little white poodle puppies just little babies for young ladies two gentlemen with beautiful ribbons and their names French names of course French poodles and if we were to take them into your classroom you might find that they might be a real basketball have you ever seen little tiny puppies to see how they act and how they behaved together I think this is just a complete joy I think it's fun to watch and it's one of the ways that I could say a Happy Thanksgiving to all of my friends over at the C and D time classroom and who are very very loyal and not out of the basket not just yet because we want to look at you look closely at you and see just what kind of little puppies you are and what very furry little ones I do hope that you will have a pleasant day that you have enjoyed learning more about the pilgrims and that you have enjoyed my Thanksgiving gift to you it is a wish and a thought that is filled with a happy bubbly fun six little tiny poodle puppies they were a surprise and I hope you like them Happy Thanksgiving and may all of the very nice things of the season come running right at you today your teacher has been Betty Lou McVeigh of the woi TV staff see a new time is produced for Iowa TV school time by woi TV in association with Iowa State University TV school time is presented daily Monday through Friday at 10 o clock by the Iowa Joint Committee on educational television the film used on this program was provided through the courtesy of American Airlines