Educator Resources
We at the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum strive to support educators as much as they support us. Browse this page for:
- Lesson Plans and Curricula related to all our field trips
- Online Webcast video of shipwrecked Sara Ellen
- Classroom Kits for use at your own pace
- Books to enhance your and your students' knowledge of Lake Champlain history
- Research Materials for further reading
Classroom Lesson Plans & Curricula
War of 1812 (website) This collection of War of 1812 lesson plans is designed to enhance teachers’ classroom instruction utilizing three major themes: use of primary source documents, maritime skills and traditions, and interpreting events from various points of view.
On-Water Ecology (website) When students collect samples, take measurements, and make detailed observations about what they experience, we are encouraging the next generation of lake stewards. A stand-alone resource, or also specifically supports your On-Water Ecology Field Trip.
Maritime Machines (website) Simple machines are used individually or in combinations to make a boat work: levers aim a cannon, pulleys lift up cargo, and a windlass can haul heavy loads. A stand-alone resource, or also specifically supports your Maritime Machines Field Trip or Classroom Outreach.
Quadricentennial Curriculum (website with pdfs) In 1609, Samuel de Champlain came to the lake that now bears his name. This multi-disciplinary curriculum explores a wide variety of interconnected topics: geology, watershed, ecology, Lake Champlain's First Navigators, First Nations, Europeans in the New World, Samuel de Champlain, and Mapmaking.
Lesson Plans to Support a Field Trip or Outreach
- Self-Guide Field Trip (pdf) Lesson Plans specifically designed to support your Self Guide Field Trip or Classroom Outreach.
- Shipwrecks! ROV Tour (pdf) Lesson Plans specifically designed to support your Shipwrecks! ROV Tour Field Trip.
- 1776 The American Revolution in the Champlain Valley (pdf) Lesson Plans specifically designed to support your 1776 Field Trip or Classroom Outreach.
- Digging, Diving, Documenting (pdf) Lesson Plans specifically designed to support your Digging, Diving, and Documenting Field Trip or Classroom Outreach.
- Boats, Boats, Boats (pdf) Lesson Plans specifically designed to support your Boats, Boats, Boats Field Trip or Classroom Outreach.
- Lois McClure (pdf) Lesson Plans specifically designed to support your Field Trip aboard Schooner Lois McClure.
Not sure what you're looking for? Try Searching our Resource Database.
Watch this FREE online broadcast
of the Shipwreck Sara Ellen.
Online Webcast
This shipwreck broadcast takes you deep under the cold dark waters of Lake Champlain to the wreck of the Sarah Ellen. Hear the tragic story of the schooner's sinking in the winter of 1860. Then meet our nautical archaeologists who tell of her underwater discovery in 1989. See footage captured by a remotely operated vehicle (ROV), over 300 feet below the surface. Watch the Sara Ellen webcast.
Songs and Stories of Lake Champlain,
as told and sung by LCMM's
Champlain Troubadour Matthew Witten,
museum educators, and renowned artists
Pete Sutherland and Atlantic Crossing.
PURCHASE ONLINE
CD : Life on Lake Champlain: Traditional & Contemporary Songs and Stories
Life on Lake Champlain: Traditional & Contemporary Songs and Stories is an exciting, fun, richly musical and interesting album that brings together guest musicians and tradition-bearers with the Museum’s own educators.
This CD looks back 450 million years to the fossils of tropical coral reefs found in Button Bay and Isle LaMotte, then forward through history. Listen to the Abenaki traditional Ojihozo tale about how the Lake Between the Mountains was formed, hear songs about Otter Creek, the War of 1812, horse ferries, canal boats, and ice shanties. Eighteen pages of liner notes with song lyrics and historical background of each song and tale fully illustrate the rich history of Lake Champlain. LCMM educators and interpreters are joined by renowned artists Pete Sutherland and Atlantic Crossing to complete this compilation for Lake-lovers of all ages.
1. Horses Walking on Water - Matthew Witten
2. A Tropical Sea - Matthew Witten
3. Philomene Gets Respect - told by Jane Vincent
4. Macdonough's Fleet - Viveka Fox, performed by Atlantic Crossing
5. Jefferson and Madison Tour the North - Matthew Witten
6. Black Snake and the Fly - Pete Sutherland
7. Whaleboats on Lake Champlain?! - told by Dale Henry
8. Song of the Canal - Traditional
9. Kid's Life on a Sailing Canal Boat - Matthew Witten
10. Wreck of the Champlain II - told by Erick Tichonuk
11. Attend All Ye Drivers - Traditional, adapted by Matthew Witten
12. How to Set an Anchor - told by Matthew Witten
13. Wakefield Heroes - Matthew Witten
14. The Story of Ojihozo - told by Joe and Jesse Bruchac
15. The Indian Road - Pete Sutherland
16. Plankton Puzzle - Matthew Witten
17. Little Ice Shanty - Sheldon Posen
It's easy to place an order. Call 802-475-2022
Have your MasterCard or Visa ready and we will ship your order immediately.
The Philadelphia Kit - Resource
Explore the building of the northern fleet
in your own classroom.
Learn the story of the gunboat Philadelphia and the defense of Lake Champlain in 1776 through this collection of materials and activities. The kit includes books, video, building plans, rigging plans, and hands-on opportunities for traditional skills such as knot tying, caulking, rigging and rope work.
Cost: $20 for 2-week loan (delivery not included).
Key to Liberty and A Tale of Three Gunboats Video - Resource
The story of Key to Liberty (15 minutes) is told from the perspective of Bayze Wells, First Officer of the American gunboat Providence. View the re-enactment of the Battle of Valcour Island in 1776, featuring the gunboat Philadelphia. In Part II, A Tale of Three Gunboats (10 minutes), learn the story of the raising of the original gunboat Philadelphia in 1935, the building and launching of the replica Philadelphia II, and underwater footage of Spitfire, the last gunboat from the 1776 fleet, discovered in 1997.
Cost: $10 for 2-week loan or Purchase the VHS for $10 or DVD for $20 (shipping included).
Canalers Afloat: The Champlain Waterway’s Unique Maritime Community, 1819–1940 - Resource
Click on the image
to see the Table of Contents.
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Travel back in time to the dynamic era when canals transformed communities, commerce and culture in the northeastern United States. The revised edition of LCMM's canal era curriculum, written by historian and archaeologist Scott McLaughlin, is an exciting multi-disciplinary resource for elementary and middle schools (Pre-K–8) that can be used to teach history, archaeology, writing, art, music, geography, and math skills. Each of the 15 standards-based units features separate activities for Grades Pre-K-4 and Grades 5-8, using historic documents, oral histories, archaeological discoveries, and photographs. A dozen appendices put additional resources at your fingertips: chapter links to Vermont and NY learning standards, grading rubric, glossary of historical and nautical terms, timeline of events and inventions from 1800-1940, and more. Click on image to view table of contents.
Cost: 640-page education curriculum $40, plus shipping.
The Phoenix Kit - Resource
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In 1819, the steamboat Phoenix mysteriously caught fire during a routine trip down Lake Champlain. Six of the forty-six passengers lost their lives. Primary documents are used to study this dramatic event in Lake Champlain’s history. The kit also includes video, books, artifacts, maps, and more.
Capture the mystery of the sinking
of Lake Champlain steamboat Phoenix.
Cost: $20 for 2-week loan (delivery not included).
Life on a Canal Boat: The Journals of Theodore Bartley 1860–1889, edited by Russell Bellico
Transcribed by Barbara Bartley, from original journals of her great-grandfather-in-law Theodore Bartley, this volume is a fascinating window into life on the waterways of the Northeast, from Ottawa to New York City and beyond, through the eyes of this canal boat captain. Edited by Russell Bellico, and published by Purple Mountain Press. See the complete unedited version below. Purchase Online.
Cost: $22.50 softcover. Purchase Online.
Lake Champlain Sailing Canal Boats: An Illustrated Journey from Burlington Bay to the Hudson River, by Arthur B. Cohn
Filled with great historical and contemporary images, this 250 page volume presents both a comprehensive history of Lake Champlain and the inside story of the construction of replica canal schooner Lois McClure. Purchase Online.
Cost: Soft cover, $24.95; Hard cover, $39.95 Purchase Online.
The Journals of Theodore Bartley
Mary and Theodore Bartley.
Captain Theodore D. Bartley, owner of three Lake Champlain canal boats, kept a fascinating day-to-day journal of his life from 1861 to 1889 on the canals and waterways of the Northeast. His travels included voyages north to Ottawa, west to Buffalo, and south to Philadelphia. His journal entries range from dramatic tales of near sinkings during gales on Lake Champlain to descriptions of the lives of ordinary people during the late nineteenth century. Bartley witnessed history in the making: the Civil War, ironclads, famous sailing ships in New York harbor, Central Park, the theaters of New York City, the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge, the first electric lights and telephones, the Statue of Liberty, the Centennial Exhibition of 1876 in Philadelphia, the Blizzard of ‘88, and the grand Centennial Celebration of Washington’s Inauguration in New York City in 1889. The journals of Captain Bartley provide an intimate portrait of the life of a canal boat family crisscrossing America during a period of extraordinary change. These journals have now been edited and published by Purple Mountain Press, and available for sale, see above.
Download Bartley's journals in five parts. All files are PDFs.
Pages 1–300 (2.52MB)
Pages 301–600 (2.49MB)
Pages 601–900 (2.37MB)
Pages 901–1200 (2.38MB)
Pages 1201–1413 (1.67MB)