CHAPTER 9: Creating a Nation "Picture This"

Introduction
Students have read about the failing economy and Shays's Rebellion. In this lesson, students will learn how the residents of the new country lived from day to day.

Lesson Description
Students will view pictures and read captions available in a PBS Web site to obtain facts about daily life in the colonies. They will answer four questions pertaining to rural America.

Instructional Objectives
1. Students will identify the everyday struggles and concerns the colonists faced, particularly those living in rural areas.
2. Students will define "traditional gender roles" and consider a practical application for the term.

Student Web Activity Answers
1. muddy roads
2. A comfortable farmer in the north owned ten cattle, sixteen sheep, six pigs, two horses, and a team of oxen.
3. No; most of the colonists were illiterate.
4. Men performed mostly outside tasks such as planting, building, and butchering, while women performed typically domestic tasks such as canning foods, spinning, and weaving. Men's work brought the income while women's work sustained the household.

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