Field Trips: Program Stations

For an Educational Adventure program that includes the gristmill and/or the fossil station, please contact Laura Lawfer at (804) 493-8038, ext. 1920. If you have decided not to include the gristmill or fossil station, you may select 5 stations. In addition to your selected stations, each Educational Adventure program includes a short tour of the Great House.

All About Corn: (20 minutes)

Students will experience how Colonial Americans turned crops into food. Using 18th-century methods and tools, students will turn dried corn into grits by grinding and sifting the corn by hand. Students will follow the conversion of the corn into meal and will be shown how it was used by colonists to make cakes, bread, and other food staples.

History and Social Science SOLs: VS.1, VS.4a, USI.1, USI.5b, USI.5c

Blacksmithing: (20 minutes)

By interacting with an 18th-century blacksmith as he plies his trade, students will learn about a time before mass production, when craftsmen hand-wrought the goods used by colonists. Students will watch how blacksmiths produced tools and other household objects, as well as discover how colonists utilized their products.

History and Social Science SOLs: VS.1, VS.4b, VS.4d, USI.1, USI.5b, USI.5c

Indentured Servitude: (20 minutes)

The plight of indentured servants, members of one of the colony’s earliest workforces, is brought to life in this station. After discussing how a person became an indentured servant and what his or her life in servitude was like, students will learn what types of jobs were typical for indentured servants and what might be required in those jobs. This station culminates in a final activity where the students sign a make-believe document entering themselves into the binding commitment. They will select a typical job and, using a quill and ink, sign a typical contract.

History and Social Science SOLs: VS.1, VS.4a, VS.4b, VS.4d, USI.1, USI.5a, USI.5b, USI.5c

Gristmill and Wharf Area: (1.5 hours)

Students will learn about the process of converting corn, wheat, and barley into grain at Stratford’s restored, operational 18th-century gristmill. Situated next to the Potomac River in what was formerly a busy wharf area, the mill also provides an important backdrop for students to examine how trade and business were conducted 250 years ago. At this time, Stratford Hall does not have a trained miller on staff. If possible, students will be taken to the mill to learn how it works. If this is not possible, however, students will watch a video about mills in 18th-century Virginia. This information will be determined between the head teacher and Stratford’s Assistant Director of Education.

History and Social Science SOLs: VS1, VS.4a, VS.4b, VS.4d, USI.1, USI.5b, USI.5c, USI.5d

Spinning and Weaving: (20 minutes)

At this station, students will learn about the many steps required to produce homespun textiles on a plantation like Stratford. They will learn about the four natural fibers used and how they were processed. They will talk about dyeing fabric and what natural materials created the various colored cloths. Students will then practice carding wool as it was done in colonial times.

History and Social Science SOLs: VS.1, VS.4a, VS.4b, USI.1, USI.5b, USI.5c

Slavery: (20 minutes)

Hundreds of slaves lived and worked at Stratford over the years and were vital to its infrastructure. Students will visit reconstructed slave quarters to see what life was like away from the Great House. They will learn about clothing, food and diet, lifestyle, and labor. Students will also use 18th-century tools to learn about working the land. They will tend the type of garden that slaves would have been permitted to keep for their personal use.

History and Social Science SOLs: VS.1, VS.4a, VS.4b, VS.4d, USI.1, USI.5a, USI.5b, USI. 5c

18th-Century Schooling: (20 minutes)

Students will use hornbooks, practice writing on slates, and review Latin, Greek, and arithmetic as they experience a colonial, private education in the Great House. The schoolmaster will also instruct the class about the former residents of Stratford Hall who, without a solid education, could not have played a major role in the formation of our nation. This station focuses especially on Francis Lightfoot Lee and Richard Henry Lee, both signers of the Declaration of Independence.

History and Social Science SOLs: VS.1, VS.4b, VS.5a, USI.1, USI.5c, USI.6a, USI.6b

Open Hearth Cooking: (20 minutes)

At this station, students will witness firsthand the time and effort needed to prepare meals in Colonial America. Students will marvel at the myriad of cleverly-designed cookware used by colonists. Our skilled cook will engage the children as she demonstrates food preparation and preservation.

History and Social Science SOLs: VS1, VS.4a, VS.4b, USI.1, USI.5b, USI.5c

Adding Up Architecture: (20 minutes)

Students will learn how builders constructed the Great House at Stratford in 1738, focusing on the importance of mathematics in brick-making and in the logistics of house construction. Culminating in an architectural scavenger hunt, this station challenges students’ math skills as well as their powers of observation.

Math SOLs: 4.6, 4.7, 4.11, 4.13, 4.17, 5.3, 5.8, 5.10, 5.11

The Fossil Record: (1.5 hours)

Stratford’s stunning cliffs are known worldwide for the Miocene Era fossils which are found routinely in the strata and occasionally on the shore of Stratford’s beach. Students will learn about the geological changes that occurred in the land long before the Lees ever settled in Stratford Hall. After seeing firsthand the site where fossils have been discovered, students will become apprentice paleontologists and will practice digging for, measuring, and examining fossils in our hands-on activities. This program will usually take place on Stratford’s beach depending on weather conditions. Caution: participants must be able to climb a steep hill.

Science SOLs: 4.1, 4.8, 5.1, 5.6, 5.7

The Childhood of Robert E. Lee: (20 minutes)

Before he became the famous Confederate General in the Civil War, Robert E. Lee was just an ordinary boy who loved returning in the summers to Stratford Hall, where he was born in 1807. At this station, students will first talk about who Robert E. Lee was and why he was important in history, but they will focus on what Lee’s childhood would have been like at Stratford. Students will then have the opportunity to play some of Lee’s favorite childhood games and activities typical of the colonial period.

History SOLs: VS.1, VS.7, USI.1, USI.9

**Stratford Hall reserves the right to modify program locations based on weather conditions and staffing.