Settlers

The colony sort continues (for some, and is new for others)! Today, we found ways to sort the original 13 colonies by date they were established, population, climate, natural resources, industries, land size, and geographical features. We discussed what might make some colonies more desirable than others, then each team picked a colony for our Settlers of America game.

The next task was to create a name, laws, and flag for each colony. Their laws would impact the health and sustainability of their colonies during game play, so they had to be somewhat strategic. They created flags with intentional symbols and colors to embody the ideals of their colonies.

Heidi and Soleil made a large felt flag using purple and a sun to represent "royal" and "sun" (ideas their names represent), Sophia and Rachel made a marker and paper iteration before their final flag made of felt representing unity and equality, and Ben and Alex made a small flag and a digital copy using Scratch to portray their colony's values of freedom and power.

Each team calculated their own population and British relations scores after each "season." These scores changed dramatically as their decisions and surprise events took effect.

By the end, each group decided to split from the King despite the major hit to their population scores. In return, they received a high freedom score and a realistic, fun-filled understanding of some of the factors related to being an early American colonial leader.