FOR TEACHERS
The history of New Netherland is as much the history of America’s colonization and settlement as that of the Virginia and Massachusetts Bay colonies. Under Dutch rule, a distinctive culture of diversity, entrepreneurship, religious tolerance, and global engagement emerged in the region that is now New York, New Jersey, Delaware, and parts of Connecticut and Pennsylvania. These classroom tools and professional development opportunities are designed to help educators teach a topic too often overlooked.
From the New Netherland Institute and the New Netherland Research Center.
This is an education resource created by the New York State Archives with funding from the Dutch Consulate with support from the New Netherland Institute to provide teachers with document sets and lesson plans highlighting New York's Dutch Colonial History.
Travel back in time to the early 1600s and see what life in New Netherland was like—where European settlers lived, what food they ate, what games their children played—in this introduction to the people and places of Dutch North America designed for elementary and middle school students. Also see these classroom-tested questions designed to improve reading comprehension and to prompt analysis of What Was New Netherland.
More Classroom Materials Online
Downloadable Lesson Plans from the New Amsterdam History Center
The NAHC offers free lesson plans for the 4th, 7th and 11th grades; each lesson explores a different aspect of New Amsterdam history.
